I am an assistant professor of political science at UCLA studying American politics and political methodology. I study how the rules governing elections affect who participates, who wins, and ultimately the policies governments choose. I collect new data on elections and electoral institutions which I combine with large administrative datasets on government behavior. I then use modern empirical techniques for causal inference to study how electoral institutions shape election outcomes and public policy. Prior to joining UCLA, I received a PhD in political science from Stanford in 2020 and a Master of Public Policy degree from UC Berkeley in 2014.

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Publications

Are Dead People Voting By Mail? Evidence From Washington State Administrative Records. Joint with Jen Wu, Chenoa Yorgason, Hanna Folsz, Sandy Handan-Nader, Andy Myers, Toby Nowacki, Jesse Yoder, and Andy Hall. Forthcoming. Election Law Journal.

Did Private Election Administration Funding Advantage Democrats in 2020? Joint with Apoorva Lal. 2024. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121(22):1-11. (Coverage: Wall Street Journal, Washington Post)

How Partisan Is Local Election Administration? Joint with Joshua Ferrer and Igor Geyn. 2024. American Political Science Review 118(2):956-971. (Online appendix, Coverage: Not Another Politics Podcast, The Science of Politics, Good Authority)

Do Citizens Vote Against Incumbents Who Permit Local Immigration? Evidence from the Mariel Boatlift. 2022. Political Science Research and Methods 11(4): 728-745. (Online appendix)

How Did Expanding Absentee Voting Affect the 2020 US Election? Joint with Jesse Yoder, Sandy Handan-Nader, Andy Myers, Toby Nowacki, Jen Wu, Chenoa Yorgason, and Andy Hall. 2021. Science Advances 7(52):1-8. (Online appendix)

Universal Vote-by-Mail Has No Impact on Partisan Turnout or Vote Share (previous title: The Neutral Partisan Effects of Vote-by-Mail: Evidence from County-Level Roll-Outs). Joint with Jen Wu, Jesse Yoder, and Andy Hall. 2020. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117(25): 14052-14056. (Online appendix; Coverage: Bloomberg, Not Another Politics Podcast, Politico, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post)

How Partisan Is Local Law Enforcement? Evidence from Sheriff Cooperation with Immigration Authorities. 2020. American Political Science Review 114(1): 206-221. (Online appendix)

Who Punishes Extremist Nominees? Candidate Ideology and Turning out the Base in U.S. Elections. Joint with Andy Hall. 2018. American Political Science Review 112(3): 509-524. (Online appendix; Coverage: New York Times, New York Times Upshot, Vox, Washington Post)

Working Papers

Does Leader Turnover Degrade Local Government Performance? Evidence from Local Election Officials. Joint with Joshua Ferrer.

Do Elections Increase Police Responsiveness? Evidence from Elected Police Commissioners. Joint with Toby Nowacki.

Who Becomes a Member of Congress? Evidence From De-Anonymized Census Data. Joint with Andy Hall, James Feigenbaum, and Jesse Yoder