Publications

In this paper, I examine the effects of vote-by-mail on voter behavior and voter knowledge. I argue that vote-by-mail electoral systems result in a more informed electorate, because voters have additional time with their ballot and access to resources to conduct research about races on the ballot that they know nothing about. I present the results of two empirical studies that support this prediction. First, I find that all-mail elections in Utah cause a 6.368 percentage point decrease in straight ticket voting. This is consistent with the logic that voters spend more time with their ballots when voting by mail relative to when they are voting at a polling place. Second, I estimate the effects of vote-by-mail on voter knowledge using an original repeated cross-sectional survey that was fielded during the 2018 general election in California. The research design exploits the implementation of the California Voters Choice Act (VCA), which resulted in five counties in the state switching to an election system in which all voters in the counties are sent a mail-in ballot. I find that the VCA causes an increase in voter knowledge and an increase in time that voters spend gathering information about the election. However, the reform does not affect the prevalence of political discussion or levels of knowledge about the party identification and ideology of candidates.

Objective. In the historic 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election, which for the first time featured a black Democratic woman against a white Republican man, we assess opinions toward voting-related concerns and their impact on voters’ preferences. Methods. We surveyed political behavior with a representative sample of likely Georgia voters to gauge their perceptions of voting-related improprieties and their possible effect on vote choice. Results. Our analysis makes it clear that not only did voters divide over election-related concerns, which dominated the narrative of the gubernatorial contest, but opinions on this matter strongly influenced the choice for governor. Conclusions. Reflecting a national development, but amplified in Georgia because demographic changes and growing minority participation are increasing competition, election administration has become highly politicized and it was the focal point of the 2018 gubernatorial campaign and the principal short-term factor shaping mass voting behavior.

Since the 2016 American election, issues of cyber-security have been at the forefront of public debate on electoral integrity. Issues of disinformation, fake news, voter privacy, and database hacking have been of top interest to policymakers, scholars and the public alike. One key theme that underlines this debate is how the use of new technologies impact the perceptions of voters and their trust in the electoral process. Even if elections are made secure from hacking and manipulation, just the perception of this threat as prevalent will impact voters’ confidence in elections and democracy more generally.  

This paper responds to the question: How does the use of electoral technology at the voting booth impact voters’ trust in the electoral process? This project focuses in on the use of voting machines at polling places, one of the most basic and well-known forms of technology used in elections. While election administrators use technology throughout the electoral cycle, for everything from voter registration to announcing the results, the voter most intimately experience the use of technology in elections through their experience at the ballot box, with the use of direct recording electronic voting mechanisms, optical scanning machines or other forms of e-voting technology.  

This paper seeks to provide additional evidence on the impact of these technologies on voter trust, by considering the use of technology in in-person voting in the United States. The American experience is particularly useful to study since the technology used at the polls varies widely between American counties, due to a de-centralized system of election administration. Taking advantage of the differences in electoral technology used between and within state, this paper considers the impact of voting technology on citizen trust in American elections in the 2014 and 2016 American elections. It considers the predictors of public survey responses on trust in elections. It tests whether there is a relationship between the technology used and voter confidence in their vote and concerns about hacking. The results speak to current debates about the use of technology in elections and their influence on public trust.  

Voters are systematically unrepresentative of the eligible electorate. Many reforms intended to increase turnout and improve the representativeness of the voters have had underwhelming results. The ability to cast votes on a mobile device could potentially have more powerful effects since mobile voting would drastically lower the cost of voting, particular for certain underrepresented groups. In 2018, West Virginia became the first U.S. state to utilize mobile voting in a federal election, allowing it for overseas voters from 24 of its counties. I utilize this trial to assess the likely effects of mobile voting on the size and composition of the voting population. Implementing a differences-indifferences design with individual-level administrative data, I estimate that the ability to vote with a mobile device increased turnout by 3-5 percentage points, a large effect relative to other electoral reforms. At the same time, novel survey data shows that many Americans are understandably wary of online voting. 

Both the academic literature and popular press have speculated as to why voter turnout in the US is so much lower than in other advanced industrialized democracies. One proposed explanation posits that the division of elections for different offices into separate contests held relatively frequently plays a key role. Leveraging a recent reform in California that required consolidation of some municipal elections with statewide elections through a difference-indifferences framework, this paper investigates this hypothesis, finding that election consolidation appeared to raise turnout of registered voters in midterm contests by around three to five percentage points relative to what it would have been in the absence of consolidation. These results suggest that consolidating local elections with the federal general elections in November of even years may be a feasible strategy to address persistently low turnout in both local and national contests.

Low and uneven election turnout has contributed to widespread concern about bias in American democracy as well as wide-ranging efforts at reform.  Unfortunately, few reforms have proven to be both effective and politically viable.  In this paper, we investigate the effect of local election timing as one such possible reform.  Moving to on-cycle city elections that are held on the same day as statewide contests is viable because support for such a change is high public and the reform is relatively easy to implement. But is it effective? We combine data on the timing of all municipal elections in California between 2008 and 2016 and detailed micro-targeting data with demographic information appended to the voter file data to document the substantial impact of election timing on who votes in urban democracy.  Leveraging variation in election times within cities over time, we show that moving to on-cycle elections lead to an electorate that is much more representative in terms of race, class, age, and partisanship — especially when these local elections coincide with a presidential election race. 

In 2018, California implemented a series of voting reforms under the new Voters Choice Act. Counties were allowed to opt in to the program rather than be required by law. Five counties, Madera, Napa, Nevada, Sacramento and San Mateo, implemented the changes for the 2018 primary and general elections. This paper examines the effects from the adoption of the Voter Choice Act in 2018 in terms of turnout and voting methods, with a focus on the shift toward vote by mail. The goal of this study is to better understand who is voting when and how in the revamped California election environment. Results show that when given multiple convenience options such as vote by mail and vote centers with early voting hours, voters overwhelmingly choose to vote by mail. Results also suggest than when voters change their behavior in a reform environment, the majority move from in person voting to vote by mail rather than vice versa. While the Voter’s Choice Act does not push California toward all mail voting, it does aid vote by mail to a greater extent than in person voting and the results suggest that adopting counties voted by mail at high enough rates in 2018 that all mail elections could be on the horizon.  

In the 20 years since the 2000 presidential election, there has been a push toward more active engagement by election administrators in educating and reaching out to eligible voters. To date, however, there is not a systematic understanding of what the voter education statutes and policies that guide local election administrators look like across American states. Examining state-submitted voter education plans mandated by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 and state election statutes on voter education and outreach, this paper describes the variation in state guidance and mandates for voter education in the United States. This research is an important first step toward understanding how the laws that structure voter education and outreach ultimately shape voter engagement in American elections.  

In 2018, Maine became the first state in the nation to use ranked choice voting in statewide and congressional elections. In a decentralized system of election administration local election officials play an important role in implementing new voting rules. We examine the implementation of ranked choice voting based on a survey sent to municipal clerks in Maine. The survey asked local officials about their experience with ranked choice voting, including its impact on election costs, administrative burden, poll worker training, and voter education. We test hypotheses derived from policy implementation theory in assessing election officials’ evaluations of ranked choice voting. In preliminary results, we find that most municipal clerks in our sample are not enthusiastic about implementing ranked choice voting and do not want to continue its use in Maine. In addition, there are strong partisan divisions, with Democratic clerks offering much more positive assessments of ranked choice voting than Republican clerks.

Variation in electoral rules and institutions at the local level have an impact on voter turnout and representation. Ranked Choice Voting is a relatively new type of electoral system adopted in several cities throughout the U.S. Previous research focused, focused on only one or a small subset of cities, has found either no effect, or a small reduction in voter turnout under RCV. In this paper, I employ a differences-in-differences design to analyze turnout in elections in over 200 cities, ranging from the early 1990s to 2018. The results indicate a significant decrease in voter turnout of approximately 3–5 percentage points in RCV cities after the implementation of RCV. In addition, I find that the negative effect of RCV varies with election timing cycle, and that it diminishes as elections become more competitive. Finally, I find that the negative RCV effect is more pronounced in open-seat elections.