Thessalia Merivaki, Ph.D.

Thessalia Merivaki, Ph.D.

Division

  • Faculty

Title

  • Assistant Professor

Contact

lia.merivaki@pspa.msstate.edu
662-325-2711

Address

  • 105 Bowen Hall

View Curriculum Vitae Personal Website

My research delves into the growing field of Election Sciences, which studies election processes from institutional, behavioral, and administrative lenses, and is built upon inter-disciplinary collaboration.

My contribution to the scholarship of Election Sciences is the systematic assessment of the mechanics of voting, which have not been adequately addressed in the literature, yet they are important in our understanding of how election administrators behave, how voters are able to access the electoral process, and how issue-prone processes may be reformed.

My research contributes to the field in four distinct ways:

One, how the administration of voter registration minimizes participation gaps at the local level, and how errors in the voter list maintenance process can exclude eligible voters from voting, as well as casting a valid ballot.

Two, how informational gaps in voter education across and within states increase participation barriers for voters, but also increase pressures for local election officials (LEOs) to expand the breadth of their activities to reach and educate prospective voters.

Three, how the spread of election misinformation in social media creates echo chambers that are resilient, and resistant to accurate information from trusted sources, such as LEOs.

Four, how the inconsistency in election data transparency and accessibility creates challenges for researchers, election officials, policy makers, civil society, and journalists from meaningfully evaluating election processes, and identifying practices with the potential to impact voters in a disproportionate manner.

Details about my book, The Administration of Voter Registration: Expanding the Electorate Across and Within the States, can be found here.

You can read more about my ongoing projects here.