Research

Amicus Brief → Democracy & Voting Rights

Amicus Brief, Merrill et.al., v. Milligan et.al.

On July 18, 2022, UCLA Voting Rights Project (VRP) filed an amicus brief on behalf of UCLA Social Scientists with the U.S. Supreme Court in the voting rights case Merrill et. al., v. Milligan et. al. The VRP argued for the Court to keep the Voting Rights Act’s longstanding protections of minority voting rights intact.

Taking a Deeper Look at Hispanic Voting Patterns in South Florida

South Florida has a population of over 4.7 million, the majority of the region being Hispanic or Latino residents. This report examines voting patterns by Latino ethnicity in South Florida using official precinct election data.

Navajo Nation, et al. v. San Juan County, NM et al.

The San Juan County Board of Commissioners’ new legislative map dilutes the vote of the Indigenous population within the county, preventing them from electing their choice candidates in all but one of the five county districts.

Riverside County Redistricting Memo

As the Riverside County Board of Supervisors begins to finalize its new district map for adoption, the County must adopt a map that respects Latino voters and other communities of color that have grown over the past ten years.

UCLA VRP Report Urges Orange County to Create Its First Latino-Majority District During the 2021 Redistricting Process

The UCLA Voting Rights Project is urging the Orange County Board of Supervisors to create the county’s first Latino-majority supervisorial district and to increase the political influence of its growing Asian American electorate in a report issued today. The UCLA VRP’s analysis is intended to inform the 2021 district maps.

UCLA VRP Report Urges Changes to Proposed Maps in Yolo County to Preserve the Strength of the Latino Vote

The UCLA Voting Rights Project today issued a memo to the Yolo County Board of Supervisors urging them to reject redistricting map proposals that would split the Latino vote in the only supervisorial district where a Latino official has been elected.

Dr. Matt Barreto Congressional Testimony Before the Committee on House Administration on Voting In America: The Potential For Voter ID Laws, Proof-Of-Citizenship Laws, And Lack Of Multi-Lingual Support To Interfere With Free And Fair Access To The Ballot

LPPI’s Faculty Director, Dr. Matt Barreto, testified in a hearing on “Voting In America: The Potential For Voter ID Laws, Proof-Of-Citizenship Laws, And Lack Of Multi-Lingual Support To Interfere With Free And Fair Access To The Ballot” before the Committee on House Administration of the U.S. House of Representatives

An Evaluation Of The Efficacy Of Community Clinic-Based Integrated Voter Engagement During California’s 2020 General Election

This report outlines the findings from a randomized experiment with treatment, placebo, and control groups to measure the effectiveness of AltaMed’s Get Out The Vote (GOTV) campaign for the presidential election of November 3, 2020.

Georgia: COVID-19 and Language Access Litigation

During the 2020 Election, the UCLA VRP was involved in three separate projects to ensure that all eligible Georgians were able to access the ballot box. The UCLA VRP team partnered with the ACLU of Georgia and authored two separate expert reports to support litigation to access mail voting and combat long voting lines. The Project also issued a notice letter to Gwinnett County, GA on behalf of Spanish language access voters to force the county to provide important election instruction materials in Spanish on their website.

Trump v. Boockvar (Pennsylvania)

The Trump campaign filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State and all county boards of elections in Pennsylvania.

Texas League of United Latin American Citizens v. Abbott

On October 1, 2020, after voting had begun, Governor Greg Abbott issued a proclamation that prohibited the counties in Texas from offering absentee voters more than one location to return completed absentee ballots in person.

An Evaluation of the Efficacy of Community Clinic-Based Integrated Voter Engagement During California’s 2020 Primary Election

This report analyzes AltaMed’s GOTV efforts of low propensity voters leading up to the 2020 primary election. AltaMed engaged in voter outreach in East Los Angeles, Anaheim & Santa Ana, Oakland, and South San Diego counties.

Analysis of New York State’s Absentee Ballot Laws and Process and the Immediate Need for Absentee Ballot Reform

With the rise in COVID-19, New York’s election laws need to improve their absentee ballot process in order to ensure that there is no voter disenfranchisement.

Protecting Public Health in the 2020 Elections

This first-of-its-kind report brings together political science data with public health insights on the spread of COVID-19 to conclude that the safety of in-person voting during the 2020 elections depends on expanding absentee voting, eliminating polling place congestion, and reducing wait times at polling stations. The report reviews existing medical literature on risk factors for COVID-19, political science research on congestion during voting, and evidence of the public health impacts of the 2020 primary elections to create urgent policy recommendations for the November general election.

Assessing Latino Vote Growth: 2014 to 2018

On June 5, 2018 California voters head to the polls to elect candidates in races for all eight statewide constitutional offices, Congress, and down the ballot. LPPI Policy Expert Dr. Matt A. Barreto and a team of policy fellows assess election returns in real-time to identify: 1) Latino Vote Choice in all eight statewide constitutional…

Letter to Fort Bend

The UCLA Voting Rights Project has observed that Fort Bend County is not providing its sizable and rapidly growing Chinese and Vietnamese communities with the resources to best exercise their right to vote. The UCLA Voting Rights Project wrote a letter to bring this shortcoming to the Fort Bend County’s attention so that their officials can collaborate to provide a timely remedy in advance of the upcoming elections.

Legal Theories to Compel Vote-by-Mail in Federal Court

Plaintiffs seeking access to vote-by-mail face legal uncertainty as to the claims that might enable their access to mail voting during this pandemic.

Implementing and Assessing Automatic Voter Registration: Lessons Learned and Policy Recommendations to Improve Voter Registration in the U.S.

This report offers a comprehensive review of different states’ voter registration practices, with a particular focus on the implementation and impact of Automatic Voter Registration (AVR).

Debunking the Myth of Voter Fraud in Mail Ballots

The UCLA Voting Rights Project found that voter fraud in vote-by-mail ballots was virtually nonexistent, eliminating the concern as advocates push for universal vote by mail amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

UCLA Voting Rights Project: Letter to Connecticut Governor

A letter from LPPI expert Matt Barreto and UCLA Voting Rights Project expert Chad Dunn urges Governor Lamont of Connecticut to reform absentee voting in Connecticut due to COVID-19 and improve accessibility to the voting polls.

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