This web site contains documentation and information about a nationwide project to systematically observe polling places in 2018, for both research and educational purposes.
The idea behind the project is simple: Participating faculty members arrange for teams of students to visit polling places on Election Day to research dynamics at those polling places. These student researchers count arrivals and line-lengths at 10-minute intervals, time how long it takes voters to do things like mark their ballots, and record data about the physical setup of the polling place. If a faculty member doesn't want to have the data entered locally as part of the learning experience, the coding sheets are sent to MIT, where they are entered and then shared back with the faculty member.
One conference paper (currently in R&R) was written from the data gathered in 2016, and one article assessing the pedagogical value of the project has been published in PS.
The web site that documents this project from 2016 is accessible by clicking here.
For more information, contact Charles Stewart III at MIT (cstewart@mit.edu).