Voter Opinions about Election Reform: Do They Support Making Voting More Convenient?
We study public opinions about convenience voting reforms, using a unique state-by-state survey conducted in the 2008 presidential election. Our analysis of the American voting public’s support for potential convenience voting reforms provides a variety of important insights into the potential direc...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/96628 |
| _version_ | 1811091432510849024 |
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| author | Alvarez, R. Michael Hall, Thad E. Levin, Ines Stewart III, Charles H. |
| author_facet | Alvarez, R. Michael Hall, Thad E. Levin, Ines Stewart III, Charles H. |
| author_sort | Alvarez, R. Michael |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We study public opinions about convenience voting reforms, using a unique state-by-state survey conducted in the 2008 presidential election. Our analysis of the American voting public’s support for potential convenience voting reforms provides a variety of important insights into the potential direction of innovations in the electoral process in the near future. First, we find that the most prominent convenience voting reforms have mixed support. These include attitudes toward automatic voter registration, Election Day voter registration, and moving Election Day to a weekend. These reforms do not have majority support among all voters in the United States but there are some states where these reforms do have majority support and could be implemented. Second, we find that Internet voting and voting-by-mail do not receive a great deal of support from American voters. There was no state where Internet voting was supported by a majority of voters and there were no states that do not already have expanded vote by mail (Washington and Oregon) where expanded vote by mail had majority support. Finally, we find that a majority of Americans support requiring showing photo identification (overwhelming support) and making Election Day a holiday (bare majority support). |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:02:20Z |
| format | Working Paper |
| id | mit-1721.1/96628 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:02:20Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/966282019-04-11T14:06:48Z Voter Opinions about Election Reform: Do They Support Making Voting More Convenient? Alvarez, R. Michael Hall, Thad E. Levin, Ines Stewart III, Charles H. We study public opinions about convenience voting reforms, using a unique state-by-state survey conducted in the 2008 presidential election. Our analysis of the American voting public’s support for potential convenience voting reforms provides a variety of important insights into the potential direction of innovations in the electoral process in the near future. First, we find that the most prominent convenience voting reforms have mixed support. These include attitudes toward automatic voter registration, Election Day voter registration, and moving Election Day to a weekend. These reforms do not have majority support among all voters in the United States but there are some states where these reforms do have majority support and could be implemented. Second, we find that Internet voting and voting-by-mail do not receive a great deal of support from American voters. There was no state where Internet voting was supported by a majority of voters and there were no states that do not already have expanded vote by mail (Washington and Oregon) where expanded vote by mail had majority support. Finally, we find that a majority of Americans support requiring showing photo identification (overwhelming support) and making Election Day a holiday (bare majority support). Pew Charitable Trusts; JEHT Foundation; AARP (Organization) 2015-04-16T12:40:16Z 2015-04-16T12:40:16Z 2010-07-14 Working Paper http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/96628 en_US VTP Working Paper Series;98 application/pdf Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project |
| spellingShingle | Alvarez, R. Michael Hall, Thad E. Levin, Ines Stewart III, Charles H. Voter Opinions about Election Reform: Do They Support Making Voting More Convenient? |
| title | Voter Opinions about Election Reform: Do They Support Making Voting More Convenient? |
| title_full | Voter Opinions about Election Reform: Do They Support Making Voting More Convenient? |
| title_fullStr | Voter Opinions about Election Reform: Do They Support Making Voting More Convenient? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Voter Opinions about Election Reform: Do They Support Making Voting More Convenient? |
| title_short | Voter Opinions about Election Reform: Do They Support Making Voting More Convenient? |
| title_sort | voter opinions about election reform do they support making voting more convenient |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/96628 |
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