Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Can Polling Location Influence How Voters Vote?

Can Polling Location Influence How Voters Vote?

Two Stanford researchers say so:

“Environmental cues, such as objects or places, can activate related constructs within individuals and influence the way they behave,” says Berger. “Voting in a school, for example, could activate the part of a person’s identity that cares about kids, or norms about taking care of the community. Similarly, voting in a church could activate norms of following church doctrine. Such effects may even occur outside an individual’s awareness.”


Interesting, but relatively difficult to work around in the traditional, neighborhood polling place model of lections. Some neighborhoods simply don't have a public building suitable for a polling place and the Help America Vote Act (sic) of 2002 has raised the bar on accessibility. Johnson County had to move five polling places this year and it was all the same shortcoming: a lack of paved, van accessible handicapped parking.

So it's hard enough to find a spot, and factoring in subtle biases would make it even harder.

One alternative to the neighorhood polling place is the voting center model of organizing Election Day. Instead of a polling place in each precinct, there are several super-polls. For example, Larimer County, Colorado had 22 voting centers rather than 145 polling places. And here's the good part: on Election Day you can vote at any one of those 22 sites (they're all networked to avoid the old Boston saying, "vote often and early for James Michael Curley.") The workers are trained to give you the correct ballot for your address.

In my experience, not knowing which polling place is the right one is a big barrier to participation. With the voting center, that problem is solved - there is no "wrong place."

The voting center saves money - poll workers are the biggest cost and while there are more workers at each super-center, there are fewer in total. That's worth noting, but not nearly as important as the increase in voter convenience.

Folks can get pretty attached to their neighborhood place, and I don't have a good answer to that. Walking distance and bus lines are important components of accessibility and those things keep me from wholeheartedly endorsing the center concept.

On my way to work I pass three polling places, yet if I want to vote on Election Day (which I haven't done in 10 years) I would have to go about a mile in the opposite direction as I just so happen to live at the far corner of a precinct and legislative district. In this day and age there should be a way to let folks choose where to vote on Election Day.

Iowa law doesn't yet allow for a voting center system on Election Day, but Johnson County's been successfully using satellite early voting sites, with ballots for all precincts available, since 1992 with great success.

I have nothing against paper trails, but the issue seems to be sucking up all the oxygen at the moment. It's like my ongoing rant about how the Doors are overrated - I've nothing against the Doors but I can't stand the Morrison Death Worship Cult. It's important to remember there are a lot of other aspects to electoral reform. I'm sure that last statement will launch some sort of flame war, so I'm going to make a hasty escape to the county fair.

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