Verifying Voter Registration Records: Part of Special Symposium on Election Sciences
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-1-2020
Abstract
This study investigates the reliability of Florida’s voter registration files through a phone survey, asking respondents to verify their records. We find 17.7% of registrants fail to verify at least one identifying piece of information. Applying the total survey error (TSE) framework, we classify these errors as due to coverage error, measurement error, or processing error. These inconsistencies create election administration and campaign inefficiencies, which lead to poorer voter experiences, and challenge the validity of some research based on these data. Furthermore, if registration records do not accurately capture the members of protected groups, the data are less helpful in both government monitoring and enforcement. We suggest voter registration forms should be treated like survey questionnaires so as to improve data quality with better form design, and that some vote overreport bias is attributable to limitations of voter file data, not to respondents’ vote misreporting.
Publication Title
American Politics Research
Volume
48
Issue
6
First Page
677
Last Page
681
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1177/1532673X20920261
ISSN
1532673X
E-ISSN
15523373
Citation Information
Shino, E., Martinez, M.D., McDonald, M.P., Smith, D.A. (2020) Verifying Voter Registration Records: Part of Special Symposium on Election Sciences. American Politics Research, 48(6), 677-681.