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Serving Democracy: Evidence of Voting Resource Disparity in Florida

Author

Listed:
  • Gérard P. Cachon

    (The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104)

  • Dawson Kaaua

    (McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057)

Abstract

Florida, an important state in presidential elections in the United States, has received considerable media coverage in recent years for long lines to vote. Do some segments of the population receive a disproportionate share of the resources to serve the voting process, which could encourage some or dissuade others from voting? We conduct the first empirical panel data study to examine whether minority and Democrat voters in Florida experience lower poll worker staffing, which could lengthen the time to vote. We do not find evidence of a disparity directly due to race. Instead, we observe a political party effect—all else equal, a 1% increase in the percentage of voters registered as Democrat in a county increases the number of registered voters per poll worker by 3.5%. This effect appears to be meaningful—using a voting queue simulation, a 5% increase in voters registered as Democrat in a county could increase the average wait time to vote from 40 minutes (the approximate average wait time to vote in Florida in 2012 and the highest average wait time across all states in that election per the Cooperative Congressional Election Study) to about 115 minutes.

Suggested Citation

  • Gérard P. Cachon & Dawson Kaaua, 2022. "Serving Democracy: Evidence of Voting Resource Disparity in Florida," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(9), pages 6687-6696, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:68:y:2022:i:9:p:6687-6696
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2022.4497
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    References listed on IDEAS

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