Entries by Madeline Martinez

California Voter’s Choice Act: Utilizing Bayesian Improved Surname Geocoding (BISG) on the 2025 Special Election Voter File

By the UCLA Voting Rights Project in partnership with the California Secretary of State Office In response to the mid-cycle redistricting proposed in Texas in June 2025, California Governor Gavin Newsom recommended that California redraw its congressional district maps to favor Democrats. As a result, California Proposition 50, officially known as the Election Rigging Response […]

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The American Dilemma in Election Administration: How Street Level Bureaucrats Racialize Voting

Author: Michael Alan Herndon Problem: The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in a new reliance on non-traditional voting methods, as over one third of voters utilized vote-by-mail (VBM) in the 2024 general election. While this sweeping transition has increased convenience for many voters, it has opened a door for another form of voter suppression: ballot rejection […]

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California Voter’s Choice Act: Utilizing Bayesian Improved Surname Geocoding (BISG) on the 2021 Recall Election Voter File

By the UCLA Voting Rights Project in partnership with the California Secretary of State Office The 2021 California Gubernatorial Recall Election statewide began in August 2021 and concluded on September 14, 2021. The result⎯California voters chose not to recall Governor Gavin Newsom. This report provides a comprehensive analysis of voter registration and turnout in the […]

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Portugal et al. v. Franklin County

With UCLA Voting Rights Project assistance, Latino voters have succeeded on their Washington Voting Rights Act claim and Franklin County Commission seats will be elected in single-member districts. The UCLA Voting Rights Project (VRP), representing three individual Latino voters and the League of United Latino America Citizens (LULAC), succeeded in demonstrating that Franklin County, Washington […]

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Understanding the Intersection Between Voter Access and Disability in Voter’s Choice Act Counties for the 2022 Primary and General Elections

In this report, the UCLA Voting Rights Project (UCLA VRP) was tasked with providing an analysis of how voters with disabilities engage in the voting process in Voter’s Choice Act (VCA) counties. As of the writing of this report, no state collects data on voters with disabilities, and there is no way to quantitatively evaluate […]

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Statewide Survey of California Opinions on Democracy

On April 27, 2026, the UCLA Voting Rights Project and the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies hosted the release and discussion of the UC Berkeley IGS poll on California attitudes towards Democracy reforms. Pollsters Dr. Eric Schickler and Dr. Matt Barreto provided an in-depth review of the poll results and what these data reveal […]

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VRP Data Scientists Present Language Access Research in Sacramento

C&P New Press Release Below:  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  Contact: Alberto Lammers; alammers@luskin.ucla.edu Jessica Cobian and Diego Casillas, UCLA PhD students present important research on the efficacy of bilingual voting materials at Sacramento briefing. SACRAMENTO (June 23, 2025) — This year marks the 50th anniversary of Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, a landmark federal provision […]

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Voter’s Choice Act: Understanding Language Access in Voter’s Choice Act Counties for the 2022 General Election

The California Secretary of State’s Office commissioned these research reports from the UCLA Voting Rights Project (VRP) to assess the effectiveness of the Voter’s Choice Act (VCA). These reports include data analysis on how voters that speak a primary language other than English cast their ballots during the 2022 General Election utilizing VoteCal data and […]

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UCLA VRP Analysis of August 2025 Texas Redistricting Map

Authors: Michael Rios & Emma Kim During the current debate over Texas districts some analysts and legislators have commented that Black and especially Hispanic voters are now shifting Republican and this was a basis for drawing new safe-Republican districts with sizable minority populations. However, federal law prohibits purposefully drawing large populations of Black and Hispanic […]

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Partisanship and Racial Bias in Signature Matching: Explaining the Ballot Rejection Gap in California

Author: Michael Herndon In Partisanship and Racial Bias in Signature Matching: Explaining the Ballot Rejection Gap in California, Michael Herndon showcases his research findings on the ballot rejection gap in California. In the current vote-by-mail (VBM) process, millions of people’s identities are verified/adjudicated by comparing copies of their signature as a measure of fraud-prevention. This process […]

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