Experts

I am Associate Professor of Integrated Systems Engineering at The Ohio State University. My interest relates specifically to ending in-person waiting in elections using simulation optimization and related methods. More broadly, I seek to enable officials to run efficient and accurate elections using integrated systems engineering methods, including securing systems from cyber security threats.

Stephen Ansolabehere is Professor of Government at Harvard University. He is an expert in public opinion and elections, and has published extensively on elections, mass media, and representation, political economy, and public opinion, especially concerning energy and the environment.

Professor Atkeson's general research program involves a wide number of subfields within political science including elections, campaigns, election administration, public opinion, political behavior, the media, political psychology, state politics, gender politics, and political methodology. She is a national expert in the field of election administration.

Barry Burden's research is focused on electoral politics, with an emphasis on the effects of election law and administration on a variety of outcomes including voter turnout. He is hosting the 2018 Election Sciences, Reform, and Administration conference.

Rachael V. Cobb, Ph.D. is Chair and Associate Professor of Government at Suffolk University. Cobb specializes in U.S. elections, election administration and political participation. In 2006, Cobb received a grant from the EAC to establish the University Pollworkers Project. Cobb serves on the board of MassVOTE and the Boston Election Advisory Committee.

John C. Fortier is the director of BPC's Democracy Project. He is the author of Absentee and Early Voting: Trends, Promises and Perils, the author and editor of After the People Vote: A Guide to the Electoral College, and numerous academic articles in political science and law journals. Fortier has been a regular columnist for The Hill and Politico.

Heather Gerken is the Dean and Sol & Lillian Goldman Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Dean Gerken is one of the country’s leading experts on constitutional law and election law. A founder of the “nationalist school” of federalism, her work focuses on federalism, diversity, and dissent.

Gronke is the founder and Director of the Early Voting Information Center (EVIC) at Reed College, where he and his team conduct research on early voting and election reform, predominantly in the United States. EVIC is proud to have co-hosted the inaugural Election Sciences, Reform, and Administration Conference in 2017.

I specialize in political participation, public opinion, and election reform. This work has led me to explore various stages of the voting process from the adoption of election laws that regulate the process, the ways government officials implement the laws, and the effects of the laws on behavior, to the interactions of citizens and the technology they use to cast a ballot.

I study civic participation and the relationship between election rules, strategies, and the behavior of voters. I have used such databases to study the voter registration system, voter ID laws, early voting, and electoral participation. I have also used voter files to answer questions on a wide range of topics, including terrorism, medical practice, and religious leadership.

M.V. (Trey) Hood III is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Georgia and Director of the SPIA Survey Research Center. In the area of election administration he has conducted research on voter ID laws, early in-person voting, election fraud, online voter registration, redistricting, and Section 2 VRA claims.  

In general, I would like to find ways to make election administration as effective and fair as possible. My research has examined the impact of ballot design, voting equipment, election officials, and voting rules on voter behavior. I have also done research on the disparate sizes of local jurisdictions and how that creates challenges for election administration and reform in the United States.

Kropf is author of Institutions and the Right to Vote in American (Palgrave, 2016) and co-author of Helping America Vote: The Limits of Election Reform (Routledge, 2013, with David C. Kimball).

Jan E. Leighley's research and teaching interests focus on American political behavior, voter turnout, media and politics, and racial/ethnic political behavior. She is a co-author with Jonathan Nagler, NYU, of Who Votes Now? Demographics, Issues, Inequality and Turnout in the United States (Princeton: 2014).

Milyo's research projects examine the effects of state campaign finance regulations on political corruption and trust in government; the effects of campaign spending on electoral competitiveness, the effects of lobbying and disclosure regulations on political participation; and the effects of voter identification laws on voter turnout and confidence in the integrity of elections.

Lisa Schur received a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California-Berkeley and a J.D. from Northeastern University. Her research in the area of election science focuses on the barriers and facilitators to voting among people with disabilities, including polling place accessibility, and the importance of voting for political and social inclusion.

Professor Shaw's areas of expertise include elections and campaigns, public opinion and voting behavior, political parties, and survey research and analysis. He is currently on the advisory group for the Pew Elections Performance Index, and in 2013 he served as one of the lead academic research directors for the Presidential Commission on Election Administration.

Philip B. Stark is Professor of Statistics and Associate Dean of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the originator of risk-limiting audits, a rigorous method that ensures that tabulation errors did not change the reported election outcome—or (with pre-specified probability) corrects the outcome if it is incorrect.

Charles Stewart III is the Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science at MIT, where he has taught since 1985, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research and teaching areas include congressional politics, elections, and American political development. He is the founding director of MEDSL and a member of the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project.