Human dimension of elections: how poll workers shape public confidence in elections

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Publication Type Working Paper
School or College College of Social & Behavioral Science
Department Political Science
Program Institute of Public and International Affairs (IPIA)
Creator Hall, Thad
Other Author Monson, J. Quin; Patterson, Kelly D.
Title Human dimension of elections: how poll workers shape public confidence in elections
Date 2006-07-20
Description The role of voting technologies has received considerable attention since the 2000 election. However, the voter experience at the polling place and especially the voter-poll worker interaction is also of critical importance. Rarely are poll workers considered an arm of the government, even though they clearly operate as extensions of governmental actors as street-level bureaucrats. Poll workers exercise discretion in ways that directly affect the voting experience. We examine the relationship between voters ¢ perceptions of the poll worker job performance and confidence that the election process produces fair outcomes and that ballots were counted accurately. In an ordered logit model, perceptions of poll workers is a significant predictor of both variables related to voter confidence in the presence of numerous controls suggesting that overlooking the recruitment and training of competent poll worker can have a detrimental effect on voter confidence.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Poll workers; Voter confidence; Election outcomes; Voter perceptions
Subject LCSH Election workers; Electronic voting; Polling places
Language eng
Bibliographic Citation Hall, T., Monson, J. Q. & Patterson, K. D. (2008). The human dimension of elections: how poll workers shape public confidence in elections. IPIA Working Paper, University of Utah. 43 p.
Series Institute of Public and International Affairs Working Papers
Rights Management (c) University of Utah
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 1,639,319 Bytes
Identifier ir-main,3933
ARK ark:/87278/s6p84wcp
Setname ir_uspace
ID 705969
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6p84wcp