“Did Consolidating Polling Places in Milwaukee Depress Turnout?”

Brennan Center:

Polling place closures did reduce turnout in the 2020 primary election. The table above indicates that turnout in Milwaukee City was depressed by roughly 8.6 percentage points. Considering that 26 percent of our control voters cast a ballot, this implies that polling place closures in the city reduced turnout by a third.

Of particular note, we found that this effect was larger for Black voters. Although polling place consolidation decreased turnout among non-Black voters by around 8.5 percentage points, it reduced turnout among Black voters by 10.2 percentage points.

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