Liberal Arts and Sciences
Election Lab
Led by Daniel A. Smith · Political Science
What we study
Dr. Smith studies elections, voting rules and direct democracy, such as mail voting, ballot validation and turnout in Florida and other states. His Election Lab involves undergraduates in research; he received the 2026 Craig L. Brians Award for undergraduate research mentorship.
What working here is like
- Computational
- Coding helps
- Papers
- 5
Recent papers, explained
- Leader-Motivated Behavior: Voting by Mail in the 2020 General Election
2026 · Public Opinion Quarterly
Shows how Trump supporters voted by mail in 2020.
- Validating Vote-by-Mail Ballots: The Subjective Nature of Signature Verification
2026 · Political Research Quarterly
Tests whether voters can reliably match signatures on mail-in ballots.
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- Ticket-splitting in Georgia
2026 · Journal of Elections Public Opinion and Parties
Analyzes ticket-splitting in Georgia's 2022 midterms, using ballot data and surveys to explore its causes.
- Laboratories of Electoral Democracies: What Have We Learned from a Quarter Century of Research on Voting and Elections in the American States?
2026 · State Politics & Policy Quarterly
- Enabling the vote? Disabilities and mail voting in Florida
2026 · Electoral Studies
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
Daniel A. Smith hasn't set up this page yet. Their UF Scholars profile lists their publications.