EAC Releases 2004 Election Day Survey Results

Posted on October 21, 2005

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) today released the 2004 Election Day Survey, the largest and most comprehensive survey on election administration ever conducted by a U.S. governmental organization. The survey is available at www.eac.gov.

"The 2004 Election Day Survey tells us a great deal about voting and elections practices throughout the country," said EAC Chair Gracia Hillman. "The survey provides critical statistics on voter registration and turnout, voting equipment and locations, and other information about the voting process. All of this will assist us in making certain that every vote is counted fairly and accurately.

"EAC thanks the thousands of election officials throughout the country who provided data for this survey. We sincerely appreciate their input and cooperation."

Key 2004 Election Facts (As reported by the states)

60.7 percent voter turnout rate (based on citizen voting age population)
96.9 percent of absentee ballots were counted
64.5 percent of provisional ballots were counted
Lowest presidential drop-off rate since World War II at 1.02 percent

EAC's Election Day Survey was distributed last fall to election administrators in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. State administrators worked with local election officials to complete the survey. In total, information was received from 6,568 election administration jurisdictions. The survey included 43 questions covering topics such as voter registration, election results, provisional and absentee ballots, overvotes and undervotes, polling places and workers, voting equipment and disability access.

EAC conducted the survey in its role as a national clearinghouse and resource of information regarding election administration as established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA).

EAC is an independent bipartisan commission created by HAVA. It is charged with administering payments to states and developing guidance to meet HAVA requirements, implementing election administration improvements, adopting voluntary voting system guidelines and serving as a national clearinghouse and resource of information regarding election administration.

The four EAC commissioners are Gracia Hillman, chair; Paul DeGregorio, vice chairman; Ray Martinez III and Donetta Davidson.

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