In this paper, authors explore the role of polling place inaccessibility in contributing to the voting gap among people with disabilities. Authors found that, in the 2012 elections, the turnout gap was reduced but not eliminated and that 30% of voters with disabilities experienced difficulties voting. These findings support the claim that difficulties voting depress voter turnout.
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Use our resource library to explore the latest research in the field of election science.
In this paper, authors find that relocating or eliminating election day polling places affects some voters more than others. Specifically, younger voters and Hispanic voters have lower turnout when reassigned polling places compared to those that were not. These findings bear important implications for voting accessibility among these groups.
In this paper, authors compare American Indian (AI) and Alaska Native (AN) registration, voting, and overall civic engagement to other racial and ethnic groups. They find several key socio-economic status indicators predicting civic and political engagement uniquely for AI/ANs, but they are not consistently significant across all years or all types of political participation.
This report proposes principles and guidelines for the design and development of remote ballot marking systems based on a review of current literature and existing standards for voting systems and accessibility and input from experts in the field. The principles support the development of systems that are usable, accessible, and secure, addressing the perceived conflict accessibility and strong election integrity.
This report proposes principles and guidelines for the design and development of remote ballot marking systems, considering them in their entirety. This includes the technical systems that make up a remote ballot marking system, the accessibility features and communications needed to support all voters, and the election administration procedures to deploy a remote ballot marking system.
Using administrative and demographic data over six two-year election cycles, the research finds strong evidence that voter lists are largely absent of deceased registrants and that election officials have gotten better at removing deceased registrants over time. The data also suggest that election officials have a much more difficult time removing registration records of those who have moved out of the jurisdiction.
This research finds that get-out-the-vote efforts to target voters using absentee ballot request forms are effective at shifting more voters to vote absentee. However, while pushing absentee vote-by-mail balloting may bank votes for a campaign before Election Day, the overall effect of partisan campaigns’ use of absentee ballot efforts to increase turnout appears limited.
Using the largest California VBM dataset to date, this research finds that turnout among registered voters in VBM precincts is discernibly lower than traditional precincts in general elections, though the research is unable to detect an effect in primary elections.
This paper finds that voters with disabilities face significant barriers to in-person voting, including inaccessible polling places and equipment, which contribute to lower turnout rates among this group.
This PhD dissertation examines U.S. election administration through three empirical studies. Three core contributions: (1) documentation of racial disparities in voter wait times across polling places, showing that Black and Latino voters wait significantly longer than white voters due to differential resource allocation; (2) analysis of how the partisan and demographic composition of jurisdictions predicts administrative resource levels; and (3) estimation of the downstream turnout consequences of long waits, showing that each additional hour of waiting reduces the probability of future voting. Chapters were subsequently published in Political Science Quarterly and Electoral Studies. Advisor: Gary King.
This paper finds that Black and Latino voters generally wait longer in line to vote than white voters. These instances occur with longer wait times, usually observed in neighborhoods with higher minority populations compared to predominantly white neighborhoods.
In this paper, authors identify strong negative associations between strict voter ID laws and turnout rates among racial and ethnic minority voters.