Poll workers and the vitality of democracy: an early assessment

The aftermath of the 2000 election has been a time of constant learning in regards to election administration in the United States. Both scholars and policy makers initially focused primarily on voting technology and on which voting technologies were best at capturing votes. In early 2001, the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project developed the "residual vote" metric; numerous studies have since examined residual vote rates across different voting platforms.1 Congressional reform of elections-exemplified in the "Help America Vote Act ~HAVA! of 2002" (P.L. 107-252)- also focused largely on voting technology, with HAVA imposing new standards for voting equipment and providing states with one-shot funding to aid in its purchase.