Study aims to shorten Election Day lines

Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - 00:30 in Psychology & Sociology

No one likes waiting in line — and on Election Day in 2012, an estimated 750,000 potential voters across the U.S. left their polling places without voting because the lines seemed too long. Now a unique MIT-led project aims to solve this problem by using Election Day field research to see exactly which parts of the voting process are causing the greatest bottlenecks. “Lines really do cause problems,” observes Charles Stewart, an MIT political scientist and voting expert who is leading the project. “Lines cause people to walk away and not vote, and there’s very strong evidence they cause people to lose confidence in the electoral process. And standing in line costs people money.” But there is good news, as Stewart sees it: Long lines are a problem that has been addressed in other spheres of life using academic tools. If those concepts can be brought to bear on polling places, the U.S....

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