[EL] time at the polling booth

[David Becker]

That’s actually true in all places where voters mark their ballots by hand as well. They mark their ballots in a booth, and then walk their ballot over to a scanner, where they may or may not be reminded to review their ballot before casting it. The amount of time for this process likely does not very much by state.

David J. Becker
Executive Director and Founder
Center for Election Innovation & Research
1120 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 1040
Washington, DC, 20036
(202) 550-3470 (mobile) | dbecker at electioninnovation.org
www.electioninnovation.org | @beckerdavidj
________________________________
From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> on behalf of Stephanie Singer <sfsinger at campaignscientific.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 8, 2020 9:23:00 AM
To: Pildes, Rick <rick.pildes at nyu.edu>
Cc: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: Re: [EL] time at the polling booth

I’m sure this depends also on whether voters mark their ballots by hand.

For voters who don’t mark by hand, the definition of “in the actual polling booth” may be ambiguous. For example, in many Georgia polling places voters go to a touchscreen machine to mark their choices and then carry the piece of paper produced by the machine to an optical scanner. In between, they may have to pass a poll worker who reminds them to verify that the choices on the paper are correct. What’s the “polling booth” in this situation?

On Jul 8, 2020, at 5:00 AM, Pildes, Rick <rick.pildes at nyu.edu<mailto:rick.pildes at nyu.edu>> wrote:

Does anyone know of data about how much time voters typically spend casting their ballots in the actual polling booth?  I’m sure this varies depending on how many races/issues are on the ballot, particularly in states that have a number of ballot initiatives to vote on in certain years.  I’m aware of the good piece by Dan Smith and Michael Herron in Electoral Studies, but that’s based on one polling place in a low turnout election in NH.

I assume most voters spend less than five minutes, but I’d appreciate any information that might be out there, whether empirical studies or even good anecdotal reporting.

Thanks.

Best,
Rick

Richard H. Pildes
Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law
NYU School of Law
40 Washington Square So.
NYC, NY 10014
212 998-6377

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