Resources

This paper finds that Hispanic voters were more likely to abstain from voting after being reassigned to a different Election Day polling place than voters in other racial groups.

This paper examines how precinct-level resources such as staffing, equipment, and voter arrival patterns influence voter wait times, revealing that resource allocation decisions are a key factor in long lines.

This resource is an open-access election management toolkit with calculators and tools to help election officials plan polling place resources, minimize wait times, and optimize poll worker and equipment allocation.

This paper analyzes the quantity and quality of poll workers, highlighting that performance, rather than numbers alone, is a key factor in voter satisfaction and the efficient conduct of elections.

This report provides guidance for local election officials on how to collect and use data to manage polling place resources more effectively, including diagnosing congestion and allocating voting machines and poll workers.

This guide walks election officials through how to make election technologies such as online voter registration, polling place apps, and electronic poll books accessible to people with disabilities. It introduces the POUR principles as a framework for evaluating accessibility, recommends a layered testing approach for election systems, and points to free accessibility tools.

This simulation tool estimates potential voter wait times based on projected turnout, average time to vote for a specific ballot and equipment, and average check-in time per voter. It helps officials understand how different combinations of resources and voter loads translate into line lengths.

This tool uses queueing theory to calculate the minimum number of service stations (poll books, voting booths, etc.) at each step of the polling place process to meet a target maximum wait time. It offers both a web interface for simple models and a downloadable Excel spreadsheet for jurisdiction-wide planning across hundreds of polling places simultaneously.

This paper reviews evidence on the causes and consequences of long wait times at polling places, and discusses policy interventions that have been shown to reduce lines and improve the voter experience.

An early assessment of the growing trend of states expanding the use of absentee and early in-person voting in elections.

Use this tool to estimate how long it takes voters to mark a ballot.