Resources

Use our resource library to explore the latest research in the field of election science.

107 Resources

In-Person Voting Tools

This toolkit provides signage guidelines and ready-to-use templates designed for election offices of any size. They include directional signs, accessibility notices, and voter instruction materials for both inside and outside the polling location.

Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions, Engineering for Democracy Institute2025
In-Person Voting Trainings

This is a publicly available training module that helps election jurisdictions build data skills through hands-on R exercises. The program shows election offices how to transform operational data into actionable decisions, such as improving staffing, resource allocation, and the overall voting experience.

Charles Stewart IIIMIT Election Data + Science Lab2025
In-Person Voting Reports

This report details how American voters experienced the 2024 general election. It is based on a survey of 10,200 registered voters, including 200 from each state plus D.C. Key findings from in-person voting include: over 70% of voters voted in person; mail-in voting decreased to 29% from 43% in 2020; wait times for voting were mostly short, but some disparities remained; and public schools saw a decline as polling locations, with community centers becoming the most common alternative.

Anita Manion, Lisa A. Bryant, David Kimball, Gretchen Macht, Mindy Romero, Robert M. Stein2025
In-Person Voting Academic Papers

This paper synthesizes best practices for in-person voting across polling place access, check-in and wait times, polling place layout and design, ballot design, and the voter experience.

In-Person Voting Reports

This report provides a comprehensive update to the EAC's landmark poll worker reports from 2007 and 2016, based on current data across four key areas: recruitment, training, retention, and evaluation. It captures the significantly transformed landscape of poll worker management since 2020, addressing new challenges like workforce shortages, threats against election workers, and the adoption of emerging technologies. The report also highlights state-by-state practices and emerging best practices from jurisdictions nationwide.

Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions, Engineering for Democracy Institute2025
In-Person Voting Tools

This publicly available tool allows election offices to enter the quantities of equipment, materials, and archives they have and receive an estimate of the warehouse space required to store in-person voting materials.

Gianna M. WadowskiUniversity of Rhode Island2025
In-Person Voting Academic Papers

In this MS thesis, the author investigates how voting equipment type (paper ballots, optical scan, and ballot marking devices) affects voting process performance across three elections at three locations. They use observational time studies and discrete-event simulation to model how different voting systems affect voter wait times, throughput, and overall process efficiency. The author find that performance improvements from adopting newer voting technologies are inconsistent across election contexts.

Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions, Center for Tech and Civic Life, Elections Group, Protect Democracy2025
In-Person Voting Tools

This Publicly available, interactive tool helps election officials and their IT teams identify, understand, and prioritize cybersecurity solutions for their election operations.

Malinda P. FryUniversity of Rhode Island2025
In-Person Voting Academic Papers

In this MS thesis, Fry examines the accessibility of in-person voting equipment, specifically Ballot Marking Devices (BMDs) and Direct Recording Electronics (DREs), across U.S. elections from 2000 to 2024. She uses data from Verified Voting, the U.S. Census Bureau, and BMD/DRE manufacturers to analyze trends in the deployment of accessible equipment and to evaluate current systems against VVSG 2.0 Principle 7 (the right to vote privately and independently). The author finds that although accessible equipment coverage has improved substantially since HAVA, significant gaps remain in meeting current usability and accessibility standards.

In-Person Voting Tools

This tool provides three resources to help election officials write and design poll worker manuals that make it easy for poll workers to quickly find information, even in stressful situations on Election Day. It includes best practices, templates, and a toolkit.

Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions, Engineering for Democracy Institute2024
In-Person Voting Tools

This publicly available tool helps election offices plan for in-person voting by estimating voter wait times. Voters can also use it to estimate how long they will wait in line, based on factors such as ballot questions and polling place resources.

Nicholas D. Bernardo, Bridgett A. King, Gretchen A. Macht2024
In-Person Voting Academic Papers

In this paper, authors use simulation to study how COVID-19-era polling location consolidation strategies affected voter wait times and resource allocation in Rhode Island, with lessons for future election planning.