Election Day 2016 Inside the Polling Place EVN March 16, 2017

Primaries, Presidential Preferences, & General Elections It is a different discussion, depending on where our focus is.

Preface: This was a great conversation to have, but the timing was awful.

With so many (additional) distractions in 2016, it was even more important for election administrators to keep their eyes on the ball.

Security protocols were reviewed with vigor, which is always a good thing. There was much concern about compromised systems, but also about polling place security & rogue “observers/challengers”. Contingency plans were revisited and updated.

Text: Precinct Number “Open” or “Issue” Richland Co, SC Richland Co, SC: texts w precinct # and “open” or “issues”

Mecklenburg, NC

Kansas City, MO

Orange Co, CA

Orange Co, CA Rapid Deployment Teams (RDTs) Neal: and the Rapid Deployment Teams

Cook County, IL Supplies

NCSL: Pre-election Day Voting #1 topic Turnout is shifting

How We vote Now to hear from Charles (even in his absence) from the first pass at the Survey of the Performance of American Elections (SPAE) data

Election Day 54% Source: Current Population Survey

Election Day 54% 24% Mail/absentee Source: Current Population Survey

Election Day 54% 24% Mail/absentee 22% Early in-person Source: Current Population Survey

1996 Source: Current Population Survey

2000 Source: Current Population Survey

2004 Source: Current Population Survey

2008 Source: Current Population Survey

2012 Source: Current Population Survey

2016 Source: SPAE

2016 AL CT DE KY MS MO NH NY PA RI VA Source: SPAE

Resource Allocation Tools were used, we didn’t hear as much about these types of issues web.mit.edu/vtp/

Indeed, we continue to see an increased effort in data gathering and utilization.

Timing of Processes at the Polls Impact of BOD & Image capture

Data from EPBs and tablets

Timing of random voters through the voting process

Counting voters in line

𝐿= 𝜆𝑊 Little’s Law (Long term average) Length of queue (Long term) Average wait time 𝐿= 𝜆𝑊 (Long term) Arrival rate

Little’s Law, rearranged (Long term average) Length of queue (Long term) Average wait time 𝑊= 𝐿 𝜆 You know this already (Long term) Arrival rate

Franconia 22 2 10 2 12 If 1,450 people arrived during the (13 hour) voting day… Avg. line length = 11.9 10 8 2 4 6 𝑊=6.41 𝑚𝑖𝑛. 18 45 30 7:10 N/A

A total of 114 jurisdictions spanning 18 states have provided, or will eventually provide, line length data. The jurisdictions vary in size from very small (~600 registered voters) to the largest in the country (~5.25 million).

The jurisdictions represent a total of 37,290,184 registered voters The jurisdictions represent a total of 37,290,184 registered voters. Voters in these jurisdictions collectively cast 25,303,687 votes, or roughly 18% of all votes cast in the election (per Michael McDonald’s estimate that 138,846,571 votes were cast nationwide).

We have processed data from a total of 82 jurisdictions 8 states 2,215 precincts.

Teaser: There was a lot going on with absentee/vote by mail in 2016 too…