Election Management

Who Should Run Elections in the United States?

gbain — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:09:43 -0800

Much has been said since the 2000 presidential election regarding the administration of elections in the United States, particularly about how election administrators are selected and to whom they are responsive. Unfortunately, there has been little research on the different administrative structures that are possible and the preferences of Americans regarding these different administrative options. In this article we present the results from a national survey of American adults in which we asked them their preference for whether elections should be run by partisan or nonpartisan officials, whether the officials should be elected or appointed, and whether the administration of elections should be by a single unitary executive or by an election board. In addition to eliciting the basic preferences of Americans about these administrative choices, we also undertake a deeper analysis of these data to determine the underlying patterns in support for the different administrative options.

Mobilizing Pasadena Democrats: Measuring The Effects of Partisan Campaign Contacts

gbain — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:54:25 -0700

This paper examines the effect of an entire campaign using a randomized field experiment here the treatment consists of campaign decisions made by a campaign manager. In contrast
to the majority of the field experiments found in the contemporary get-out-the-vote literature, this paper studies the actual behavior of a campaign within a particular election as opposed to studying particular mobilization tactics. Thus, the campaign itself chooses which method to contact each individual within the randomly assigned treatment group. Contacts are made via face-to-face canvassing, phone calls, emails, and doorhangers and consist of experienced volunteers making partisan appeals. We observe a large treatment effect of campaign contact despite a small number of face-to-face contacts, suggesting that the targeting strategy of the campaign manager is particularly effective.

Internet Voting in the March 2007 Parliamentary Elections in Estonia

admin — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:29:36 -0700

This study presents and analyzes the results of a survey among the electorate of the Estonian parliamentary elections held on 4 March 2007. The primary focus of the analysis lies on the newly introduced possibility of voting via the Internet in these elections. The application of this pioneering voting channel gave the elections an exclusive character and provoked enormous attention in the political as well as in the scientific community. The use of e-voting in the Estonian parliamentary elections is a remarkable world-première: for the first time an electorate could vote over the Internet in elections of a national parliament. Overall, 30.275 voters have used the possibility of e-voting, which corresponds to 5.4 percent of the participating voters.

Election Day Voter Registration in Iowa

admin — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:26:16 -0700

We have analyzed the likely impact of adoption of election day registration (EDR) by the state of Iowa. Consistent with existing research on the impact of EDR in other circumstances, we find that EDR would likely lead to substantial increases in voter turnout. We are able to offer the following estimates of increases in turnout for Iowa, and for specific groups of Iowans under EDR:

Overall turnout could go up by 4.9 percent.
Turnout among those aged 18 to 25 could increase by 10.7 percent under EDR.
Turnout for those who have moved in the last six months could increase by 8.8 percent under EDR.
Turnout for Latinos could increase by 9.5 percent, and for African-Americans turnout could increase by 6.6 percent under EDR.
Turnout among recently naturalized citizens could increase by as much as 20.2 percent.

Final Report: Oct '06 VTP Conference on Voter Registration & Authentication

admin — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:22:59 -0700

No abstract available.

American Confidence in Electronic Voting and Ballot Counting: A Pre-Election Update

admin — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:19:51 -0700

This study examines the confidence that voters have that their ballot was counted accurately in 2004 and the attitudes of the American public toward electronic voting. As many states and localities move to new—and often electronic—voting systems, understanding public confidence and public attitudes is critical for policy makers. This study includes several key findings:

There has been a decline in confidence among voters from 2005 to 2006 that their vote in 2004 was counted accurately. Part of this decline is likely the result of a prospective concern that their vote in 2006 may not be counted accurately.
African Americans are currently less confident than whites that their votes were counted accurately.
Roughly one-third of respondents did not have an opinion about the potential benefits or liabilities of electronic voting systems. This may represent uncertainty about electronic voting machines, a lack of familiarity with them, or ambivalence about their use.
The public views electronic voting as making voting easier for people with disabilities and making it more accurate to vote.
The public also thinks that electronic voting machines are prone to unintentional failures and agreed that they increase the potential for fraud.

Improving the Election Day Survey

admin — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:01:11 -0700

The collection of detailed election administration data from local and state jurisdictions across the United States has proven difficult. The problem is partly due to the decentralized nature of election administration in the United States but is exacerbated by the lack of a centralized reporting of election information. Following calls made for better reporting of election administration data in recent years from many groups, including the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission mounted an ambitious effort in 2004-2005 to collect detailed and consistent election administration data in the Election Day Survey. This effort was comprehensive and ambitious, but the less than perfect result illustrates many problems associated with collecting meaningful data regarding election administration.

In this report, we briefly discuss some of the general problems seen when we have attempted to use the Election Day Survey data in our research. We then provide twelve recommendations for improvement as a conclusion to this report:

Define the terms and concepts to promote uniformity across jurisdictions.
Refine and clarify the survey instrument.
Seek additional important information.
Reduce the cost and complexity of the survey instrument.
Improve the technology of reporting.
Insure interoperability across datasets.
Automate data collection where possible.
Improve compliance.
Improve data distribution.
Provide data at precinct level.
Methodological development of tools for fixing and analyzing future datasets.
Build collaborations.

Below we discuss some of the problems in the 2004 Election Day Survey and these recommendations in more detail.

Steps to Make Sure Your Vote is Counted: A Guide for California Voters

admin — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:48:01 -0700

No abstract available.

The Introduction of Voter Registration and Its Effect on Turnout

admin — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:44:14 -0700

Studies of voter turnout across states ﬁnd that those with more facilitative registration laws have higher turnout rates. Eliminating registration barriers altogether is estimated to raise voter participation rates by up to 10%. This article presents panel estimates of the effects of introducing registration that exploits changes in registration laws and turnout within states. New York and Ohio imposed registration requirements on all of their counties in 1965 and 1977, respectively. We ﬁnd that the introduction of registration to counties that did not previously require registration decreased participation over the long term by three to ﬁve percentage points. Though signiﬁcant, this is lower than estimates of the effects of registration from cross-sectional studies and suggests that expectations about the effects of registration reforms on turnout may be overstated.

The Next Big Election Challenge: Developing Electronic Data Transaction Standards for Election Administration

admin — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:42:36 -0700

No abstract available.