People with disabilities, senior citizens, Native Americans, rural citizens, and young citizens face a variety of barriers to voting. There has been varying levels of research and established best practices related to these barriers, and substantial gaps remain in several areas.

Paul Gronke is the founder and Director of the Elections & Voting Information Center (EVIC), a non-partisan academic research center co-located at Reed College and Portland State University. Led by Paul, EVIC searches for common sense, non-partisan solutions to identified problems in election administration backed by solid empirical evidence. EVIC's marquee project is the Survey of Local Election Officials (LEO), which the organization has undertaken since 2018.

Americans have traditionally voted in neighborhood polling places, but since the 1980s, many states have eased rules on issuing absentee ballots, allowed voters to cast ballots in person before Election Day, or even begun mailing ballots to all voters.

All states have voter identification requirements, ranging from simply announcing one's name to showing an official photo ID card. Rules vary widely from state to state, and voter ID has been a source of political controversy in the United States for nearly two decades.

Voter registration lists are critical to managing elections, but keeping them updated can be challenging. Because voter registration is often self-initiated and decentralized, many eligible voters are unregistered or have outdated registration records. Compounding the issues, registrations are tied to residential addresses, but it is difficult for election officials to know when or where registrants move. Much of the foundational research on voter registration is outdated and insufficient, further highlighting the need for advancing a research agenda that fosters coordinated partnerships between academics, officials, and civic organizations.

A look at what it costs to run elections in the United States, and where that funding comes from.