I study election administration, race and political behavior. The topic of my dissertation focuses on the various types of physical locations in which polling places are located. Pictured left is my own frequent polling place, our local Fiesta Mart
Dissertation:
Disparities in Democracy: The Causes and Consequences of Disparities in Polling Place Conditions and Operations --
My dissertation is a cross panel, time series study of physical conditions and operations at precinct polling places in different geographic areas across the country which vary by region, urban/rural environment, and ethnic/racial composition of the areas served. The idea is to determine whether precinct conditions vary in quality across different geographic environments and the demographic composition of the constituents served.
Publications:
Knowing What You Don't Know: The Role of Information and Sophistication in Ballot Completion--With Steven Perry (In Social Science Quarterly):
We seek to examine how individual factors such as information and political sophistication can affect the likelihood of a voter completing their ballot.Through the use of an original experiment, we examine the individual level effects of information and political sophistication on ballot completion. We find that having less information about the candidates on a ballot result in lower levels of ballot completion. On average, voters complete 12% less of their ballot when they possess low levels of information about the candidates involved. Moreover, there are significant differences in how political sophisticates and non-sophisticates respond to deficiencies in candidate information. Even though voters are likely to be hesitant to make a decision for a ballot contest when they are lacking in information, political sophisticates are more comfortable making a voting choice than non-sophisticates, even when they are operating under the exact same information constraints.
Below is a list of my working papers at various stages of development:
Is the Effect of Cyber Participation on Civic Engagement a Uniquely American Phenomenon? A Comparative Study of Canada and the United States -- with Alan Steinberg [In Revise and Resubmit Stage]:
There have been mixed findings as to whether engaging in online political chatter, is predictive of voting and other “real life” political activities. Additionally, there have been mixed findings as to whether the determinants of cyber participation are similar to those of traditional political participation. But do results regarding the effect of cyber participation on voting still holding up using more recent data? Additionally, do these findings hold true in other countries? We find that cyber participation is predictive of various types of public participation, such as attending meetings or participating in a march, in the American and Canadian contexts. However, cyber participation is not predictive of voting in the Canadian context. Also, age and income have a statistically significant and negative relationship with cyber participation in both contexts. This suggests that the determinants of cyber participation are indeed different from traditional participation
The "Cost" of Voting: The Determinants and Consequences of Election Spending in Colorado -Sole Author [Under Review]:
To date, there have only been two major studies done regarding the determinants of election expenditures for the purpose of election administration. In this paper, I use Colorado as a case study because of its unique set of election institutions (universal VBM, in person Early, in person Election Day voting are all offered statewide), to determine the social and institutional determinants of election administration expenditures.
Room for Discussion: The Impact of Race & Ethnicity on the Propensity to Discuss Politics in Different Social-Sole Author Contexts [Under Review]:
Do people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds discuss politics at the same frequency in similar social contexts. In this paper, I test whether African Americans and Latinx citizens talk about politics across various social contexts (with family; at work; amongst friends; online; at place of worship) compared to Anglo whites. I find suggestive evidence that African Americans discuss politics more than Anglo whites across various social contexts and Latinx voters talk discuss politics much less frequently across social contexts compared to Anglo whites.
Non-peer reviewed publications:
"Racially Polarized Voting," "Mi Familia Vota", "LULAC v. Perry", "SVREP", "MALDEF", "La Raza Unida" in Mark P. Jones, ed., Voting and Political Representation in America: Issues and Trends. 2020. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
I study election administration, race and political behavior. The topic of my dissertation focuses on the various types of physical locations in which polling places are located. Pictured left is my own frequent polling place, our local Fiesta Mart
Dissertation:
Disparities in Democracy: The Causes and Consequences of Disparities in Polling Place Conditions and Operations --
My dissertation is a cross panel, time series study of physical conditions and operations at precinct polling places in different geographic areas across the country which vary by region, urban/rural environment, and ethnic/racial composition of the areas served. The idea is to determine whether precinct conditions vary in quality across different geographic environments and the demographic composition of the constituents served.
Publications:
Knowing What You Don't Know: The Role of Information and Sophistication in Ballot Completion--With Steven Perry (In Social Science Quarterly):
We seek to examine how individual factors such as information and political sophistication can affect the likelihood of a voter completing their ballot.Through the use of an original experiment, we examine the individual level effects of information and political sophistication on ballot completion. We find that having less information about the candidates on a ballot result in lower levels of ballot completion. On average, voters complete 12% less of their ballot when they possess low levels of information about the candidates involved. Moreover, there are significant differences in how political sophisticates and non-sophisticates respond to deficiencies in candidate information. Even though voters are likely to be hesitant to make a decision for a ballot contest when they are lacking in information, political sophisticates are more comfortable making a voting choice than non-sophisticates, even when they are operating under the exact same information constraints.
Below is a list of my working papers at various stages of development:
Is the Effect of Cyber Participation on Civic Engagement a Uniquely American Phenomenon? A Comparative Study of Canada and the United States -- with Alan Steinberg [In Revise and Resubmit Stage]:
There have been mixed findings as to whether engaging in online political chatter, is predictive of voting and other “real life” political activities. Additionally, there have been mixed findings as to whether the determinants of cyber participation are similar to those of traditional political participation. But do results regarding the effect of cyber participation on voting still holding up using more recent data? Additionally, do these findings hold true in other countries? We find that cyber participation is predictive of various types of public participation, such as attending meetings or participating in a march, in the American and Canadian contexts. However, cyber participation is not predictive of voting in the Canadian context. Also, age and income have a statistically significant and negative relationship with cyber participation in both contexts. This suggests that the determinants of cyber participation are indeed different from traditional participation
The "Cost" of Voting: The Determinants and Consequences of Election Spending in Colorado -Sole Author [Under Review]:
To date, there have only been two major studies done regarding the determinants of election expenditures for the purpose of election administration. In this paper, I use Colorado as a case study because of its unique set of election institutions (universal VBM, in person Early, in person Election Day voting are all offered statewide), to determine the social and institutional determinants of election administration expenditures.
Room for Discussion: The Impact of Race & Ethnicity on the Propensity to Discuss Politics in Different Social-Sole Author Contexts [Under Review]:
Do people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds discuss politics at the same frequency in similar social contexts. In this paper, I test whether African Americans and Latinx citizens talk about politics across various social contexts (with family; at work; amongst friends; online; at place of worship) compared to Anglo whites. I find suggestive evidence that African Americans discuss politics more than Anglo whites across various social contexts and Latinx voters talk discuss politics much less frequently across social contexts compared to Anglo whites.
Non-peer reviewed publications:
"Racially Polarized Voting," "Mi Familia Vota", "LULAC v. Perry", "SVREP", "MALDEF", "La Raza Unida" in Mark P. Jones, ed., Voting and Political Representation in America: Issues and Trends. 2020. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.