Nielson

Lindsay Nielson

Senior Researcher, Fors Marsh Group
Chapter Member: Virginia SSN
Areas of Expertise:

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About Lindsay

Nielson leads large-scale data collection efforts for federal clients including the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and the Federal Voting Assistance Program. Nielson provides expertise on election administration; survey data collection; and data analytic techniques. Prior to FMG; Nielson taught political science courses at Bucknell University; the University of San Diego; and the University of California; San Diego.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | In the News | Publications

Contributions

Strict Voter Identification Laws Advantage Whites – and Skew American Democracy to the Right

    Zoltan L. Hajnal
  • Nazita Lajevardi
Key Findings Brief,

In the News

Research discussed by Andrew Gelman, in "A New Controversy Erupts Over Whether Voter Identification Laws Suppress Minority Turnout," The Washington Post, June 11, 2018.
Quoted by Emma Ginader in "Expect Fewer Millennials to Vote This Year," Daily Item, October 3, 2016.

Publications

"Primaries and Candidates: Examining the Influence of Primary Electorates on Candidate Ideology" (with Neil Visalvanich). Political Science Research and Methods (forthcoming).

Demonstrates that the ideology of congressional primary electorates affects the ideology of the elected nominee. Argues that extreme Republicans are more likely to win their party’s primary, but Republican and Democratic candidates are responsive to different segments of their electoral constituencies.

"Political Norms and the Private Act of Voting" (with Christopher F. Karpowitz, J. Quin Monson, Kelly D. Patterson, and Steven A. Snell). Public Opinion Quarterly 75, no. 4 (2011): 659-685.

Argues that some voters have deep concerns about voter privacy that are not easily assuaged. Utilizes data from a field experiment and the 2008 Cooperative Congressional Election Study and demonstrates that those who go against their community's descriptive political norm or majority are more sensitive to issues of privacy and harder to reassure that voting conditions will safeguard the confidentiality of their choices.