Journal article
Measuring County Election Administration in the United States
Election law journal, Vol.23(3), pp.258-276
04/25/2024
DOI: 10.1089/elj.2023.0027
Abstract
Existing data are not granular enough to measure the full range of barriers people face in voting because many measures of election administration (e.g., the Election Performance Index) are available only at the state level. Overreliance on state data can conceal important substate variation in election practices, as U.S. counties administer elections. The idea is that all Americans, especially more disadvantaged people, should be more likely to vote when they live in places with better voter access in terms of election laws (e.g., early voting, absentee/mail voting) and places that more efficiently administer elections. We develop the index ranking every county nationwide as very high, high, average, low, or very low in terms of their capacity to conduct elections using an interval-level scale. The CEA index is validated by comparing it with the available state-level data over time (from the years 2016, 2018, and 2020). Demographic population data and regression analysis are used to understand the features of counties with more or less efficient election administration. Results show that more urban areas generally have lower performance levels in conducting elections, but not in all cases, and less affluent and high Latino and Black communities generally have lower levels as well. The empirical results expose significant inequalities in election administration performance based on demographics and wealth, as well as general improvement in the conduct of elections over time, counter to claims of electoral irregularities in 2020.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Measuring County Election Administration in the United States
- Creators
- Michael J. Ritter - Washington State UniversityCaroline J. Tolbert - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Election law journal, Vol.23(3), pp.258-276
- Publisher
- Mary Ann Liebert, Inc
- DOI
- 10.1089/elj.2023.0027
- ISSN
- 1533-1296
- eISSN
- 1557-8062
- Number of pages
- 19
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 04/25/2024
- Academic Unit
- Political Science; Public Policy Center (Archive); Center for Social Science Innovation
- Record Identifier
- 9984623046602771
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