Policy Work

Along with academic publications on elections, voters, and election administration, I have been part of a number of policy briefs covering topics aimed at practitioners and the general public. Below is a brief summary of this work.

Our academic team collaborated with nonpartisan election officials in Texas, Georgia, Colorado, and Los Angeles County to design this survey gauging voter confidence after the 2022 midterm elections and to test the impact of their public information efforts. After the contests concluded, trust in the United States’ election system rose sharply among both Democratic and independent American adults, but not among Republicans. Regardless of partisanship, respondents have more faith in the integrity of elections in their own state than in other states and are confident that their own ballot will be counted accurately. And while trust in elections is correlated with voter turnout, a significant majority of those who do report distrust in our election system still participate in it.

UCSD Press Release, Covered by KPBS, San Diego Union Tribune, Forbes

Is there a Partisan Divide over Voting by Mail in California’s November 2020 Election? w/ Thad Kousser, Mindy Romero, Seth Hill, and Jennifer Merolla.

(May 2020)

Governor Gavin Newsom issued a May 8th executive order requiring all county registrars to send a mail ballot to all registered for November 2020 general election. By analyzing a statewide survey of a diverse sample of 12,276 eligible voters conducted April 8-22, 2020, we asked eligible voters how they wanted to cast their ballots this November, we found no significant divide between the parties. More than half of eligible voters in both parties prefer to cast a ballot by mail, with nearly another two in ten voters preferring to drop off a ballot that has been automatically sent to them in the mail.

Covered in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Scientific American

How Do Californians Want to Cast their Ballots During the COVID-19 Crisis? w/ Thad Kousser, Mindy Romero, Seth Hill, and Jennifer Merolla.

(May 2020)

How do Californians of all demographic groups want to cast their ballots during the COVID-19 pandemic, what changes to the electoral process will they demand and support during this critical moment, and how will reforms made in 2020 reshape our state’s electorate in the future? By analyzing a statewide survey of a diverse sample of 12,276 eligible voters (adult citizens) conducted April 8-22, 2020, we find just over half (52%) of California eligible voters prefer to mail in their ballot in the upcoming election, while another 18% prefer to use a mail ballot but drop it off at a vote center or drop box. As a whole, California’s eligible voters plan to vote by mail more than ever before in November 2020.

Covered in the LA Times

What Policies and Interventions Can Increase Voting Among All Californians? w/ Seth Hill, Thad Kousser, Gabe Lenz, and Elizabeth Mitchell.

(September 2019)

This project gathers evidence about what policies and interventions can increase voting among Californians, especially Californians with a low propensity to vote. We have proceeded in two parts. First, in summer 2018, we surveyed a diverse sample of voting and non-voting Californians about their political attitudes. Based on analysis of this survey, we concluded that feeling inadequately informed and feeling inefficacious may contribute to low turnout rates. Second, based on the results of the survey, we designed an experiment to increase turnout in two special elections in June 2019 by targeting these feelings; analysis of the experimental results is still in progress.