Questions and Ideas for Future Research
While many important questions have been asked about poll workers and their involvement in the Election Day experience and administration, many more questions have not yet been asked. Links to many of the reports that have already been done can be found by visiting the Surveys webpage. Below you will find several more potential research questions that have not yet been fully explored in past research. You should feel free to include these questions in any future research as they fit with your research objectives.
- The idea of satisfaction is often measured, but it could be broken down further into it's components of having fun and doing a good job, so that we can better understand what drives poll worker job satisfaction.
- How often do people ask poll workers questions about the election because of their involvement with the election, and how do the poll workers react to those questions?
- Do poll workers feel prepared for their interactions with voters? Can they help people with disabilities, with limited English proficiency, or who do not understand technology? How could we improve training to cover these issues better?
- What kind of appetite for more training is there? Do poll workers feel like they are trained well enough? Would they train in off-election years? Would they like additional materials/courses?
- Is there "test anxiety" among poll workers? Do they feel like it is a positive or negative thing to require some testing/certification in order to work on election day?
- Do the poll workers speak English as a first language? Are they multi-lingual?
- Role clarity is a part of front-line worker literature, and greater role clarity (understanding of job duties) seems to improve the working experience in many ways. How much role clarity do poll workers feel that they have and how does that affect their job performance and satisfaction.