Resources

Election Technology Library

Index
Glossary
Sample ballots
Data Sets
Vendor info
Key Legislation
State info
Other sources

Glossary

See our comprehensive glossary of election technology and administration terms.

Sample ballots

Here are a couple of key resources for sample ballots:

Org	Notes	When	Type	Where	Link
NIST	A great resource of ballots	2002-2005	optical scan	USA	Link
Caltech\MIT VTP	A great source historical source	19th Century	Paper	CA	Link
Caltech\MIT VTP	International and state ballots	mostly 2005	Varies	India, Los Angeles, New York City, FL, OH	Link
Douglas W. Jones	A Brief Illustrated History of Voting	far back	Varies	NA	Link
Smithsonian	Early American ballots	19th Century	Paper	USA	Link
BlackBoxVoting.org	Larger assortment of ballots	2006	Varies	USA	Link

Data Sets & Election Results

• U.S. Election Assistance Commission's historical voter registration and turnout statistics [Link]
• From the Caltech\MIT VTP: Including 2006 EAC Election Day Survey data, 2004 Presidential Election Data, and Links to US Secretary of State Election Data [Link]
• An assortment of election data from the National Election Data Archive [Link]
• County data from the 2000 Presidential Election in Florida. For each of the 67 Florida counties, the data include the type of voting machine used, the number of columns in the presidential ballot, the undervote, the overvote, and the official certified votes for each of the twelve presidential candidates. Of particular interest are the Buchanan vote in Palm Beach county, and the overvote as a function of voting machine type and number of columns (see Agresti and Presnell, "Misvotes, Undervotes, and Overvotes: The 2000 Presidential Election in Florida," Statistical Science, Vol. 17, No. 4, 1-5, 2002.[Link]
• 2000 Election Data By State, from American University's Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies [Link]
• From the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), national and state data from the 2000 election [Link]
• Historical election results from the National Archives [Link]
• Federal election data from the Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives [Link]
• The Lijphart Elections Archive is a static research collection of district level election results for approximately 350 national legislative elections in 26 countries that was maintained through 2003. [Link]
• The Mayoral Election Center, produced by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, provides a database of 1999 to present mayoral election results. The database may be searched or browsed by city or date of election. [Link]
• Voting and registration data from the U.S. Census Bureau [Link]
• U.S. Election Assistance Commission's 2004 Election Day Survey Results [Link]

Vendor info

Currently the major voting system vedors in the United States are:

• Election Systems and Software
• Diebold Election Systems
• Hart Intercivic
• Sequoia Voting Systems*

Key Legislation

• Help America Vote Act (HAVA) 2002
• National Voter Registration Act 1993 (Motor Voter)
• Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) 1986
• State Election Laws via National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS)

State info

• Voter Registration Database status*
• State voting systems*
• Election Reform Legislation database**

*(from electionline.org)
**(from National Conference of State Legislatures)

Other sources

• Check out the NIST page on Public Comments & Position Statements. It's updated often and a good source of information
• Always a great resource: Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project
• Useful Reading (Blogs):
  
  • Always The Election Technology Blog!
  • Election Updates, from the Caltech crowd
  • bytes and ballots, from Michael Alvarez
  • ACM Tech Policy Weblog, regularly covering Election Tech and other policy related tech topics
  • Equal Vote, is a great election\law resource from OSU's Dan Tokaji
  • Election Law, another great election\law resource from Rick Hansen
  • Votelaw, one more from Ed Still
  • The Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network brings us a little less tech a little more policy, still good
  • Professor Ed Felten brings us a little more tech with Freedom to Tinker
  • UC Berkeley PhD candidate (human-computer interaction) Ka-Ping Yee, authors the always interesting Usable Security
• Books:
  • The hands-down must read of election technology: The History and Politics of Voting Technology, by Roy Saltamn. Simply the best, most comprehensive review of the topic and required reading for anyone interested in Election Technology.
  • Another great book by Michael Alvarez and Thad Hall Point, Click and Vote: The Future of Internet Voting
• Other Info:
• The ACE Electoral Knowledge Network, probably the best\most comprehensive election related resource.
• A great resource from Doug Jones of the University of Iowa. Be sure to check out his voting history page.
• From the Smithsonian see The Machinery of Democracy.