BPC/MIT Polling Place Line Study

BPC and MIT joined together to create the BPC/MIT Polling Place Line Study. It is a program with a simple goal: to provide local election jurisdictions with actionable data about the lines that formed at their polling places, mostly on Election Day, but in some cases, during early voting. Academic projects conducted in the 2014 and 2016 elections informed the BPC/MIT program, but the study featured one important constraint: The method of collecting data had to be simple and easily implemented by poll workers. To that end, researchers developed a simple coding sheet and a set of instructions that helped poll workers record the number of people standing in line during every hour of the voting day.

All told, 211 local jurisdictions provided usable data for the program in 2018, ranging from Metz Township, MI, with 230 registered voters, to San Diego County, CA, with nearly 3 million registered voters.

The BPC/MIT Polling Place Line Study is extremely simple to implement; the designers were mindful of not adding too much extra time and effort to a poll worker’s already busy job description. Researchers estimate the amount of time that a poll worker spent collecting line information was less than one minute at the top of each hour. Every hour, starting when the polling place opened, the poll worker simply had to count how many people were standing in the checkin line and record that single number on a handwritten sheet along with the number of poll books available at the time.

Access the 2018 report here.

Access the 2016 report here.