× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

Election officials won’t just be checking your photo IDs at the polls on Tuesday. Stopwatches in hand, some in Madison will also be looking to see whether the new state requirement that voters show identification prior to voting adds to the wait time to cast a ballot.

Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell and Madison City Clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl are collaborating with the UW-Madison Political Science Department to time the vote at Tuesday’s nonpartisan primary so adjustments can be made prior to the April 5 presidential primary and spring election, the fall primary in August and the general election in November.

“We’re interested in understanding the effect of various changes on election administration,” said professor Ken Mayer.

The data will be collected at city of Madison polling places, then fed into a model created by MIT, so scenarios played out at the polls later in the year can be handled by having more workers at the polls, organizers said.

“We’ll give people an idea how long it’ll take to vote,” McDonell said.

Local officials had hoped to check IDs of voters while they waited in line. But state statutes don’t allow that, so an extra poll worker will be at the table where voters sign the poll book to check IDs.