The mission of the Rice Center for Voting is to support the conduct of free and fair elections through high-quality, non-partisan academic research in four major areas:

1. Understanding how voters and poll workers use electronic voting equipment, from poll books to check voters in, to ballot marking devices, and their impact on the polling place operations.
2. Designing ballots to reduce voter errors and the efficacy with which voters verify their ballot choices.
3. Determining the optimal number, location, staffing, and equipping of early, Election Day, and vote center polling locations.
4. Organizing polling place space and operations, including the spacing of voting equipment inside the location, as well as entry to and exit from polling locations.

The Rice Center for Voting is currently engaged in voting research in a number of important areas:

1. The usability of ranked choice ballots in both electronic and paper form;
2. The usability of UOCAVA voting systems for overseas and military voters;
3. The human factors of hand counting ballots;
4. Understanding the ability of voters to examine their paper ballots for errors;
5. Measuring voters’ trust in a wide selection of voting systems;
6. Methods for restoring voter confidence in the conduct and outcome of elections;
7. Recruitment, retention, and training of poll workers for the conduct of elections;
8. Election operations;
9. How to measure and assess the turnout effects of election laws; and
10. Designing ballots to reduce the undervote.

Website:  https://https://centerforvoting.rice.edu/

Source:  Michael Byrne, Director, Rice Center for Voting

Last updated:  April 2026