Pre-Election Day Voting Accounts for More Than 1-in-3 Ballots Cast in Recent Presidential Elections, but Has Received Very Little Attention

Assistant Professor of Political Science at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY

Ph.D., Political Science, Yale University, 2009B.A., Politics, Pomona College, 1994

Field Experiments on Voter Registration & Voting ParticipationFirst, I use large-scale field experiments to better understand the decision to participate in elections, and how participation can be increased. I am especially interested in substantial differences between voting by mail (a.k.a. no excuse absentee voting), early in person voting, all-mail voting (a.k.a. postal voting) and Election Day voting. Pre-Election Day voting accounts for more than 1-in-3 ballots cast in recent Presidential Elections, but has received very little attention from scholars. My experiments explore how participation and mobilization differ when voters have options about how to cast their ballot. Additional work with field experiments explore the effect of voter registration programs on participation, the spillover/dispersion of mobilization effects in social networks, and experimental methodology.

I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. My research has been published in the Journal of Politics, Political Analysis, Political Behavior, Public Opinion Quarterly, and other journals. My research focuses on several aspects of elections, campaigns, and voting.

Prior to Skidmore, I was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Miami (FL) Assistant Professor of political communication in the Manship School of Mass Communication and Department of Political Science at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA. I was also the Director of the Academy of Applied Politics at LSU. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University in 2009.

Recent press coverage and lectures:

Christian Science Monitor:http://www.skidmore.edu/news/2016/1027-election16-teachtrump.php

The Albany Times Union: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Skidmore-panel-tackles-the-Trump-phenomenon-10416181.php

The Daily Gazette: http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2016/oct/30/capital-region-students-get-taste-election-process/