Election-Campaign Law

Report from Pew conference: ?Election Day Went Smoothly but Trouble Spots Remail, Survey Shows?

By Michael Alvarez

This story from MarketWatch summarizes the presentation that Charles Stewart made at the Pew event, talking about some of the early results from the election performance survey that Charles ran during this fall’s presidential election.

Note that the survey found, quoted from the MarketWatch story:

— On Election Day, African American voters waited more than twice as long to vote (29 minutes) than all other voters, who reported an average wait time of 13 minutes to vote. Early voters said they had to wait an average of 20 minutes to vote, but African Americans again reported an average wait time more than twice as long — 43 minutes;
— Only 61 percent of absentee voters said they were very confident their vote was counted as cast, compared to 75 percent of Election Day voters;
— Among those who did not vote, eight percent said they had requested an absentee ballot but it never arrived, 16 percent had registration problems and 10 percent could not find their polling place;
— Almost everyone surveyed said they had at least one form of government ID. Hispanics said they were asked to show ID more often than whites or African Americans in states that require ID;
— More than half of the states require no ID to vote, yet 12 percent of voters in these states not requiring ID said they were asked to present an ID. Meanwhile, in states that require a photo ID, 20 percent of voters said they were never asked for one.

Full post as published by Election Updates on December 11, 2008 (boomark / email).