Bauer and Ginsberg Stress Importance of Data on Voting Lines

On September 20, Bob Bauer and Ben Ginsberg, co-chairs of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration (PCEA), testified before the New York City Board of Elections. Their testimony focused on BPC’s ongoing work to implement the PCEA’s recommendations to improve all Americans’ voting experience. The commission’s report was published in 2014. Bauer and Ginsberg emphasized the utility of a joint BPC-Massachusetts Institute of Technology project to analyze line length by collecting data at every polling place in a jurisdiction on Election Day.

In written testimony submitted to the board of elections, Bauer and Ginsberg made the case for collecting this crucial data, noting:

“Our effort is the first of its kind, which seeks to calculate wait times at every polling place in a jurisdiction throughout Election Day. Seventy-five jurisdictions in more than 20 states are already committed to participating in the simple, bipartisan program this November. Together, they represent more than 44 million registered voters. With New York City, one of the largest election jurisdictions in the country with a higher percentage of in-person, Election Day voters than average, our dataset will be very robust.”

Read the full testimony l Watch the video