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

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 Elections 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)

Residual Vote in the 2004 Election

In 2000 Americans learned that their elections are not always run according to the highest standards. This revelation led to two major developments. The first was a flurry of election reform activity at the state and national levels. The second was a degree of scrutiny over the conduct of the 2004 election that is probably unprecedented in American history

The Reliability of Electronic Voting Machines in Georgia

Following the 2000 presidential election, the state of Georgia instituted the most comprehensive overhaul of voting technology in the country. Georgia’s actions, led by Secretary of State Cathy Cox, were precipitated by the past poor performance of Georgia’s voting machines. Although the Nation’s eyes were on Florida, a case could be made that it was Georgia that deserved the scrutiny. Georgia’s “residual vote rate,” a measure of “lost votes” that has come to be used widely to measure voting technology reliability, was 3.5% — the second worst in the country, behind only Illinois. Florida’s rate was “only” 2.9%. The best news for Georgia in 2000 was that George Bush won there handily, thus sending the national spotlight elsewhere

Written Testimony of Charles Stewart III Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration

THERE IS A NEED FOR A MORE DATA-CENTERED APPROACH TO ELECTION ADMINISTRATION. Election policymaking would greatly benefit from metrics-based policymaking, and the development of measures similar to those in policy areas like education and health care. Elections are awash in data, managing elections is increasingly metrics-driven, and a growing network of experts is dedicated to a metrics-based approach to improving elections. A major barrier to the development of metrics-based election administration is uncertainty about the future of the EAC

Waiting to Vote in 2012

Waiting in line to vote is one of the clichés of Election Day, whether the venue is Kenya or the United States. The length of time waiting to vote has regularly been an issue in the voting wars of the past decade. Long lines have given both the left and the right heartburn. For the left, long lines can be evidence that service-starved neighborhoods of predominantly poor and minority voters are seeing their votes suppressed through the inadequate provisioning of voting machines and poll workers on Election Day. For the right, the sight of long lines are just an excuse used by Democratic lawyers to get polling hours extended in urban areas, solely for the benefit of Democratic candidates

A Data-Centered Look at the Election of 2008

My expertise is in trying to use data to identify where election problems lie in America, especially at a broad level --- such as comparing states with each other or comparing counties with each other. I know that the purpose of today’s conference is to think about LA County, but there are lessons to be learned from looking across the country. So, what I thought I would do today is look at the election of 2008 to ask what do the data tell us about the experience of voters nationwide on Election Day? At the end, I’ll also say some words about where California fits into national trends --- not to put anyone on the spot, but rather, to get us thinking about where the special challenges are in improving elections here

Losing Votes by Mail

Introduction: The 2000 election was a wake-up call for America, demonstrating the vulnerability of the democratic process to breakdowns of voting technology, election law, and election administration. It shamed states and the federal government into action, yielding, in its most expansive (and expensive) manifestation, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002.1 HAVA contained many provisions; the one that most concretely addressed the Florida recount controversy required states to phase out mechanical lever machines and punch card voting. Hundreds of millions of federal dollars were authorized to underwrite this requirement

Waiting to Vote

We review evidence that long lines waiting to vote in the 2012 presidential election were costly and disproportionately appeared in certain regions of the country, in cities, and among minority voters. We argue that the field of queuing theory helps to frame thinking about polling place lines. Because addressing the problem of long lines requires precise data about polling place dynamics, we conclude by suggesting new approaches to research that are necessary to identify the most effective cure for long lines