Political science researchers partner to improve Wisconsin elections

University of Wisconsin–Madison political science researchers are taking a key role in a federally funded project to improve the state’s ability to collect accurate election returns.

Wisconsin is one of five states that each won $2 million competitive grants from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to remove hurdles to the reporting of federal election results in this November’s presidential elections.

The grant is being administered by the state Government Accountability Board, which has partnered with UW–Madison and UW-Extension on the project.

“The ultimate goal is to build public confidence in the administration of elections, bringing efficiency, transparency and uniformity across a state that has a lot of diversity,” says Barry Burden, a political science professor leading the UW–Madison effort.

Wisconsin has a highly decentralized system for reporting Election Day results. Burden says that Wisconsin has 72 county clerks and 1,851 municipal clerks who are responsible for collecting those results. This year, their jobs will change as they adapt to a new system of reporting vote totals.

The state is implementing a Web-based system for collecting election data from clerks statewide in the Nov. 4 election. New procedures are being designed to speed the collection, while guaranteeing accuracy and completeness.

Prior to the change, however, those clerks will be provided with Web-based training developed by UW-Extension. Then, the new system will get a trial run during the Sept. 9 primary.

Burden and a team of five doctoral students will step in after the Nov. 4 elections to conduct a survey and perform dozens of face-to-face interviews of election clerks to gauge the effectiveness of the new system and the training used to implement it.

“This is a great collaboration, in the true spirit of The Wisconsin Idea,” Burden says. “Along with improving the efficiency of election administration, the project helps our students build interviewing skills, develop questionnaires and provides some hands-on program evaluation experience.”

The accurate delivery of election results is vital in all states, Burden says, but Wisconsin’s results will be closely watched because of its status as a swing state that is likely to be hotly contested. In 2004, Wisconsin had the closest percentage margin between John Kerry and George W. Bush of all the states.

“This project really puts Wisconsin at the forefront of where political science is focused at the moment,” Burden says. “But most researchers are looking at the voters’ participation. Our project is focused on the clerks and election administration as being the glue of the system.”

State election officials say the project will help ensure that local officials are using the best available methods for collecting and reporting election returns. They hope the Wisconsin experience will become a model for other states, as well.

“Because Wisconsin has one of the most local and decentralized systems of election administration in the nation, our Election Division will now be able to develop and recommend best practices to other states that also emphasize local control,” says Kevin Kennedy, director of the Government Accountability Board.