About the 2017 Conference

The first ESRA conference was held on July 27th and 28th, 2017, at the University Place Hotel & Conference Center in Portland, Oregon.

The inaugural conference, co-organized by the Early Voting Information Center (now the Elections & Voting Information Center) at Reed College and the Center for Public Service at Portland State University, brought together scholars of political science and election administration to develop rigorous empirical approaches to the study of how laws and administrative procedures affect the quality of elections in the United States. The conference aimed to identify major questions in the field, foster collaboration between election administrators and election scientists, and connect senior and junior scholars.

Sponsors

Hosted by Reed College and Portland State University, and co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College, the Election Data and Science Lab at MIT and the Democracy Fund.

Program Co-Chairs

Lonna Atkeson
University of New Mexico

Bernard Fraga
Indiana University

Conference Organizers

Paul Gronke
Reed College

Phil Keisling
Portland State University

2017 Conference Schedule

Click to view full schedule

The first half of the first day schedule
The second half of the first day's schedule
The first half of the second day's schedule
The final four panels of the schedule

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Papers and Final Program

Please click the following link to access digital copies of the papers and presentations from the conference:

Election Science Reform and
Administration Papers and Presentations

Click on the image to the left to view the final printed conference program.

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Additional Materials

Election administration and reform materials by and for our attendees:

Election reform in California

CalVotes

Improving California’s Vote-by-Mail Process: A Three-County Study by Kim Alexander
Modernizing California’s Voting Technology: A Look Back, A Look Ahead by Kim Alexander
VoteCal and the Struggle to Modernize California’s Statewide Voter Registration Database by Kim Alexander

Public Policy Institute of California

California’s Missing Voters: Who is Not Voting and Why by Eric McGhee
What to Expect from California’s New Motor Voter Law by Eric McGhee and Mindy Romero

Voter turnout in the cities

Who Votes for Mayor by Jason Jurjevich, Phil Keisling, Kevin Rancik, Carson Gorecki, and Stephanie Hawke

Oregon Motor Voter

Who Votes With Automatic Voter Registration?: Impact Analysis of Oregon’s First-in-the-Nation Program by Rob Griffin, Paul Gronke, Tova Wang, and Liz Kennedy