Latest Research from the VTP

Bush v. Gore: A critical Juncture for early voting?

Submitted by gbain on Wed, 04/27/2011 - 10:39
Working Paper No.: 
15
Date Published: 
04/16/2011
Author(s): 
Paul Gronke
Reed College and Early Voting Information Center
James Hicks
The title of this conference, "10 Years after Bush v. Gore," implies that the papers and discussions will focus on the impact of the 2000 election, the Court decision, and subsequent controversy on elections, election law, and election administration. But this call raised for us a basic question: what precisely is BvG? At the simplest level, BvG means George W. Bush, et al. v. Albert Gore, Jr., et al. (531 U.S. 98, 121 S. Ct. 525), a United States Supreme Court decision issued on December 8, 2000.

Absentee Ballot Regimes: Easing Costs or Adding a Step?

Submitted by gbain on Wed, 04/27/2011 - 10:14
Working Paper No.: 
14
Date Published: 
04/17/2011
Author(s): 
Jan E. Leighley
American University
Jonathan Nagler
There has been a revolution in voting in the United States in the last 40 years. In 1972 voters in only 2 states had the option to request an absentee ballot without showing cause. In 2008, 27 states allowed voters this opportunity. In 1972 voters in 45 out of 50 states who were voting at a polling place did so on election day. In 2008, voters in 31 states could cast in-person votes on multiple days (not withstanding the suggestion of the constitution that election day is the tuesday after the first monday of November).

Poll Workers and Polling Places

Submitted by gbain on Wed, 04/20/2011 - 07:50
Working Paper No.: 
104
Date Published: 
04/16/2011
Author(s): 
Kathleen Moore
University of Utah
Thad E. Hall
In the year after the 2000 presidential election debacle in Florida, there was a sharp focus by many organizations, commissions, and interest groups to determine how to address the problems associated with ensuring that the events of November 2000 did not occur again (e.g., Carter and Ford 2001; VTP 2001). Not surprisingly, the discussion of these entities focused strongly around two important issues. First, there was a sharp focus on the issues related to voting technologies.

Making Outsiders' Votes Count: Detecting Electoral Fraud through a Natural Experiment

Submitted by gbain on Thu, 08/19/2010 - 11:02
Working Paper No.: 
12
Date Published: 
02/26/2011
Author(s): 
Kentaro Fukumoto
Gakushuin University
Yusaku Horicuchi
Weak electoral registration requirements are commonly thought to encourage electoral participation, but may also promote electoral fraud. For one, candidates and their supporters can more easily mobilize voters outside the district to register and vote for the candidates, even though these voters do not reside within the district. We statistically detect this classic type of electoral fraud for the first time, by taking advantage of a natural experimental setting in Japanese municipal elections.

Assessing Electoral Performance in the New Mexico 2010 General Election

Submitted by gbain on Mon, 03/21/2011 - 11:46
Author(s): 
Alex N. Adams
University of New Mexico
Lisa Bryant
The 2010 New Mexico Election Administration Report represents a systematic examination of New Mexico's November 2010 General election. It is the third election report in a series that we began unintentionally in 2006 with our academic partners R. Michael Alvarez, professor at the California Institute of Technology, and Thad E. Hall, associate professor at the University of Utah. To our knowledge, no other state has had the kind of sustained and independent analysis over multiple elections.

The Effect of Voting Systems on Voter Participation

Submitted by gbain on Mon, 02/07/2011 - 13:19
Working Paper No.: 
13
Date Published: 
01/01/1982
Author(s): 
Peg Rosenfield
Office of the Secretary of State of Ohio
Russell Schussler
Herb Asher’s 1982 conference paper, “The Effect of Voting Systems on Voter Participation,” has a distinguished place in the literature of political science about voting technologies. Three

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

Submitted by gbain on Thu, 06/26/2008 - 13:19
Date Published: 
11/03/2008
Author(s): 
Morgan Llewellyn
Thad E. Hall
R. Michael Alvarez
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:

Research Note on Footnote 24 of the 6th Circuit Hunter Decision

Submitted by gbain on Thu, 02/03/2011 - 10:13
in: 
Featured Content
Working Paper No.: 
101
Date Published: 
02/03/2011
Author(s): 
Charles Stewart III
MIT
The decision issued by the three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in the matter of Hunter v. Hamilton County Board of Elections2 contains a very interesting analysis of problems with Ohio’s law about counting provisional ballots when they are cast in “the right church, wrong pew” (RCWP). On the whole, the appeals court opinion contains a strong argument against the Draconian effects of the Ohio law, which allows — indeed, mandates — disenfranchisement of voters who have followed the instructions of a poll worker.

The Quality of Voter Registration Records: A State-by-State Analysis

Submitted by gbain on Tue, 07/20/2010 - 08:09
Date Published: 
07/14/2010
Author(s): 
Eitan Hersh
Harvard University
Steve Ansolabehere
Voter registration systems in the United States have long been viewed as the area of election administration most in need of improvement. Problems in this system create barriers to voting for many Americans, but they also make it di

Reflections on the VTP's contributions to science, policymaking and education

Submitted by gbain on Tue, 10/05/2010 - 09:16
in: 
Featured Content
Working Paper No.: 
100
Date Published: 
09/01/2010
Author(s): 
Charles Stewart III
MIT
R. Michael Alvarez
In the immediate wake of the 2000 presidential election, the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project was initiated. The initial and primary concern of the VTP at that moment was to understand the problems that arose in the 2000 American presidential election, in particular with regards to voting technologies, and to develop scientifically-based proposals for reforms and perhaps even to propose new voting technologies.

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