Michael Hanmer

Michael Hanmer joined the faculty in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland in the Fall of 2007. He is currently a Professor in GVPT and Director of the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement. Mike specializes in American politics, with an emphasis on voting rights, election administration, civic engagement, and public opinion, and political methodology. His first book, Discount Voting: Voter Registration Reforms and Their Effects (Cambridge University Press, 2009), investigates the effects of registration laws on turnout, the composition of the electorate, and party behavior in the United States. He is a co-author of Citizens of the World: Political Engagement and Policy Attitudes of Millennials across the Globe (Oxford University Press, 2023), and Voting Technology: The Not-So-Simple Act of Casting a Ballot (Brookings Institution Press, 2008). Hanmer has also published articles on the effect of ballot style on electoral outcomes, Election Day registration, voting systems, the over-reporting of voting in surveys, vote-by-mail, absentee and early voting, voter identification laws, limited dependent variable models, the use of ecological inference estimators to understand split-ticket voting, mobilization, the evaluation of political leaders in international affairs, the effects of COVID-19 on comfort with various voting methods, and youth voting. 

Complete Bio - Department of Government and Politics

Research Interests

• Voter registration, voting, voting rights
• Election administration, election laws
• Youth engagement
• Public opinion 
• Sports and politics