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REVISITING THE U.S. VOTING SYSTEM: A RESEARCH INVENTORY

November 27-28, 2006

Convened by the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Steven Carbo

RESEARCH NEEDS

Election Administration

Poll Workers

Americans’ ability to cast votes and have their ballots counted is perhaps most directly correlated with the capacity of those who administer elections, particularly those who work the polls. Yet surprising little information is available on state and county investments in poll workers.

How much do state and local governments spend on poll worker recruitment and training? What if any standards or guidelines govern these outlays? Are they set by statute or established administratively?
What are model poll worker training curricula and practices?
What compensation levels are optimal for attracting high-skilled individuals?
What minimal skill levels are called for with the introduction of new voting technology?
What is the optimal ratio of poll workers to voters at any given polling place, taking into consideration the kinds of technology employed there on Election Day and any unique or special needs of the local electorate (e.g., language assistance, disability access, historically low participation rates, etc.)?

Comparative data on these various questions would be very helpful to election reform advocates who argue for greater public investment in election administration.

The Costs of Elections

What does it cost states and localities to administer elections? What spending is sufficient for voters to experience a trouble-free election?

It is instructive to look at recent expenditures in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Election administrators there spent $8.4 million for the November 7 general election to avoid a repeat of the severe problems of the 2006 primary election -- more than four times the $1.9 million that had originally been budgeted. Voter still experienced problems, required a judge to order that sixteen polling places to remain open past closing hours.

What are the incremental costs associated with various policies and practices, such as provisional balloting and Election Day Registration?

How do these costs compare across states?

Distribution of Elections Resources

Other How many states have established mandatory guidelines for distribution of voting equipment and voter/machine ratio, and what are they?

Comparative Impacts of Various Policy Reforms

Policy makers and public policy advocates pursue various reforms to increase voter participation. Reform proposals may include Election Day Registration, state implementation of voter registration requirements in public benefit agencies, early voting, mail-in voting, etc. Accurate data upon which to project the potential and comparative impacts of these innovations is often unavailable. Easy access to existing data and/or new research is needed, especially as regards which election administration improvements would produce the greatest results for different sectors of the electorate (e.g., low-income communities, communities of color, youth, new Americans).

It is also important to have a better understanding of the spill-over effects of various policy innovations. For example, policy makers interested in Election Day Registration ask whether the move to EDR, where the voter-eligible electorate remains undefined before Election Day, will require greater campaign spending. Candidates may need to ramp up spending on expensive television advertising to reach every potential voter, where more targeted appeals to those on the voter rolls when the registration period closes may have sufficed in the past.

Voter Fraud/Voter ID

Policy makers across the country are asking would-be voters to produce one of a narrow list of government-issued photo identifications in order to registration and/or vote. Proponents justify these measures as necessary to prevent voter fraud. Opponents project the disfranchisement of millions of Americans who do not possess the requisite ID. More research is needed on the contemporary incidence of voter fraud at the municipal, county and state levels. More precise data on the size and composition of the electorate that would be ineligible to vote is also needed.

Redistricting Reform

Government reform groups link recent declines in electoral competition with partisan and incumbent control over redistricting, and call for creation of independent redistricting commissions (IRC). Roughly twelve states now use IRC. Little research actually exists on the operation of IRCs and their track record in meeting the various public interest goals associated with redistricting. For example, have states with independent redistricting commissions enhanced opportunities for minority representation in state legislatures and helped produce legislative bodies more representative of the electorate? Do IRCs actually provide greater opportunities for authentic public participation and input in the line-drawing process? What are the relative impacts of traditional redistricting criteria (e.g., nesting, contiguity)? To extent does the application of these traditional criteria advance or hinder minority representation and lead to fairly representative legislatures?