Mobility, election administration, and democracy in america Jon Griffiths

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Griffiths, Jon, author.

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania. Political Science., degree granting institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political science.

Public administration.

Public policy.

Finance.

0615.

0617.

0630.

0508.

Local Subjects:

Political science.

Public administration.

Public policy.

Finance.

0615.

0617.

0630.

0508.

Genre:

Academic theses

Physical Description:

1 online resource (215 pages)

Contained In:

Dissertations Abstracts International 87-12A

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 2026

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this dissertation, I examine the relationship between residential mobility, election administration, and political participation. In the first chapter, I provide an overview o f t he literature o n the participatory effects of moving and discuss patterns in residential mobility across the United States. In the second chapter, I detail election administration in North Carolina, which I use as a case study in the subsequent three chapters. In Chapter 3, I use residential mobility to examine the relative importance of administrative, social, and informational costs to voter turnout. Using real estate transaction data to measure residential mobility, I identify that moves producing higher administrative costs (often cross-county moves) significantly reduce voter turnout. I find mixed evidence that higher informational and social costs reduce turnout. Chapter 4 examines fail-safe voting under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which aims to reduce administrative costs. This policy allows registered voters who move within their election jurisdiction without updating their address to correct their registration and vote on Election Day. I find that 18,000 to 24,000 individuals in North Carolina used fail-safe voting in each of the 2020, 2022, and 2024 general elections. In Chapter 5, I examine how the managerial capacity of county-level chief election officials and the financial capacity of their jurisdictions affect voter list maintenance. Managerial capacity improves the accuracy of voter rolls in counties with high residential mobility, as high-capacity election officials in these counties are more likely to develop better processes to capture address changes. However, I do not detect an effect of financial capacity. In the final chapter, I discuss my findings and their implications for election administration

Notes:

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 87-12, Section: A.

Advisors: Meredith, Marc Committee members: Hopkins, Daniel; Morse, Michael

Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 2026

Vendor supplied data

Local Notes:

School code: 0175

ISBN:

9798247982906

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license