Search

In-Person Voting

Back to White Papers

Despite the rising popularity of mail voting, in-person voting remains the most common mode of voting in the U.S.  

In-person voting remains an overwhelmingly positive experience, but gaps in performance remain in geographically identifiable places and among voters of particular demographics.  The expansion of Election Day vote centers creates a new in-person voting context in which research findings have not been consolidated.  The growth in the use of ballot marking devices and the controversy that attends this expansion leads to the need for rigorous research into how this method of voting can be accurate and secure.

  • Summary

    Major features of in-person voting that have been subject to research have included:

    • polling place operations, 
    • polling place siting,
    • factors related to lines and wait times, 
    • adherence to ID laws, 
    • ballot design and voting machine performance, and
    • the role of the in-person experience on instilling trust and confidence in elections.

    This research has established important practices that increase the quality of the voter experience and/or confidence in elections:

    • Locate polling places close to voters; increasing the distance to a polling place reduces turnout and the usage of in-person voting.
    • Employ electronic poll books with card readers to speed up check-in at polling places.
    • Use tools from industrial engineering and logistics to optimize polling place design and diminish wait times to vote.

    The following are gaps that would benefit from short- and long-term academic-election official research collaborations:

    • Improving poll worker training so that voter ID laws are implemented as written and in a non-discriminatory fashion.
    • Disseminating existing tools related to optimal siting of polling places and allocating resources to in-person polling locations.
    • Developing and implementing practices that encourage voters who use BMDs and DREs to verify their ballots and report errors.
    • Developing and disseminating sustainable protocols for gathering data in the field related to long lines and other factors that related to voter satisfaction.
    • Understanding how Election Day vote centers (EDVCs) fit into the operational paradigms that have been developed for Election Day and early in-person voting.
    • Reviewing state laws to determine where they form a hurdle to the application of optimal allocation of resources to polling places.
    • Developing a better understanding of the factors that lead to longer travel times, longer wait times, and low-quality polling locations for minority and low-income voters.

Read the full white paper here: 

In-person voting

Contributors

This paper was written as part of the Mapping Election Administration and Election Science initiative. It was authored by: 

  • Lisa A. Bryant

  • David Kimball

  • Gretchen Macht

  • Anita Manion

  • Mindy Romero

  • Robert M. Stein (lead author)