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EAVS FAQs

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The Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS) provides information related to federal election administration, registration, and voting.

The survey includes national, state, and county-level data on:

  • Voter Registration 
  • Uniformed and Overseas Voters 
  • Early, Mail, and Provisional Voting
  • Voter Participation
  • Voting Equipment Usage 
  • Poll Workers, Polling Places, and Precincts

The Election Administration and Voting Survey has included a Policy Survey section since 2008 (the Policy Survey was previously known as the Statutory Overview from 2008-2016, the name changed to the Policy Survey in 2018). In this section, states are asked a series of questions about their state election laws, definitions, and procedures. This information helps the EAC and its stakeholders understand the quantitative data from the EAVS while also providing a clearer picture of the local legal landscape governing U.S. elections.

The EAVS is sent to election officials in 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five territories – Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

The EAC released its first survey in 2004 under authority granted to the commission by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002.

HAVA includes several provisions that both mandate and authorize EAVS.

The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993 required the Federal Election Commission (and subsequently, the EAC) to report to Congress by June 30 of the year following a Federal election on the impact of the Act on the administration of elections and to include recommendations for improvements in procedures, forms, and other matters affected by the Act.

Section 703 of HAVA mandates that for each regularly scheduled general election for a Federal office, the EAC shall collect comprehensive data from the states on all the ballots sent to military and overseas voters and received back by election administrators. The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) of 1986 protects the voting rights of members of the uniformed services and U.S. citizens residing outside of the country.

In addition, Section 202 of HAVA mandates the EAC to serve as a national clearinghouse and resource for the compilation of information and review of procedures with respect to the administration of Federal elections. Section 202(3) authorizes the EAC to conduct studies and carry out other duties and activities to promote the effective administration of Federal elections.

The information collection associated with the EAVS is conducted every two years following a federal election.

Every two years, the EAC administers the survey to 56 states and territories, requesting election administration-related data at the county-level or county-level equivalent. Most states rely at least to some degree on centralized voter registration databases and voter history databases, which allow state election officials to respond to the survey at the local level for each question. Other states rely on cooperation from county election offices to complete the survey.

  • Variation in Reporting Practices: States and localities use a range of methods for collecting and reporting election data. Although EAVS offers standardized definitions and formats, variations in local data systems and procedures may result in differences in reporting.
  • Missing or Incomplete Data: Certain jurisdictions may be unable to provide comprehensive data for each question. The EAVS employs “casewise deletion,” a method that calculates percentages solely from those jurisdictions that have responded to a particular question. While this approach yields more accurate percentages based on the number of reporting jurisdictions, the results may differ from those obtained through other sources.
  • Different Methodologies Across Sources: Other sources of election data may use different definitions, sampling techniques, or timeframes, leading to differences in reported data.

The EAVS report provides the state-reported figures for U.S. voter participation and registration, as well as the estimated citizen voting age population as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The EAC makes all of its data publicly available for interested parties to examine and analyze. 

The EAVS data can be found on the EAC’s website. For questions about a specific state’s data, please review the data and contact the state’s election office for more information. 

You can find the reports and data at Studies and Reports. On this page, you can use the Data Interactive tool, which has at least one page dedicated to each section in EAVS. Users can navigate from one page to another depending on the topic they are interested in. Lastly, users can access State Data Briefs, which contain EAVS data points on the statewide level for each state.

Please call the EAC at 1-866-747-1471/ 202- 451-2031 or send an email to [email protected].