Journal Articles
12. McLean, William P. and Cameron Wimpy. 2026. “Rural Election Administration in the Lower Mississippi Delta.” Journal of Election Administration Research & Practice Forthcoming.
11. Schur, Lisa, Mason Ameri, Joseph Dietrich, Michael Herron, Douglas Kruse, Whitney Quesenbery, Melissa Rogers, Jean Schroedel, Daniel A. Smith, and Cameron Wimpy. 2025. “Ensuring Voting Access Across the Electorate.” Journal of Election Administration Research & Practice 3: 3-10.
Abstract: This paper summarizes evidence on barriers that can limit access to voting faced by several key groups: people with disabilities, senior citizens, Native Americans, rural citizens, and young citizens. The barriers faced by these groups shed light on many common issues that limit access more generally. Common barriers include polling places that are hard to reach and navigate, difficulties in voting by mail, and insufficient access to voting information. Difficulties specific to particular groups include inaccessible voting systems and not being allowed to vote among some people with disabilities, intimidation and harassment of Native Americans, declining rural populations leading to fewer resources for voting systems, and high mobility among young voters. We review best practices, suggest improvements to election systems, and identify fruitful areas for new research. Partnerships with key organizations and individuals can facilitate efforts to make voting information and opportunities more readily available and accessible.
10. Baltz, Samuel, Alexander Agadjanian, Declan Chin, John Curiel, Kevin DeLuca, James Dunham, Jennifer Miranda, Connor Phillips, Annabel Uhlman, Cameron Wimpy, Marcos Zárate, and Charles Stewart. 2022. “American Election Results at the Precinct Level.” Nature: Scientific Data 9(651): 1-12.
Abstract: We describe the creation and quality assurance of a dataset containing nearly all available precinct-level election results from the 2016, 2018, and 2020 American elections. Precincts are the smallest level of election administration, and election results at this granularity are needed to address many important questions. However, election results are individually reported by each state with little standardization or data quality assurance. We have collected, cleaned, and standardized precinct-level election results from every available race above the very local level in almost every state across the last three national election years. Our data include nearly every candidate for president, US Congress, governor, or state legislator, and hundreds of thousands of precinct-level results for judicial races, other statewide races, and even local races and ballot initiatives. In this article we describe the process of finding this information and standardizing it. Then we aggregate the precinct-level results up to geographies that have official totals, and show that our totals never differ from the official nationwide data by more than 0.457%.
9. Wimpy, Cameron. 2021. “Political Failure and Bureaucratic Potential in Africa.” Journal of Policy Studies 36(4): 15-25.
Abstract: Recent scholarship theorizes that shortcomings in good governance are a result of political, not bureaucratic, failures. These challenges are no less important in the developing world, and they are particularly acute in many African countries where resources are scarce and political development is relatively limited. Although the impacts of public administration quality on governance outcomes in Africa are well established, the empirical relationship between political failures and bureaucratic capacity remains underexplored. In addition, political issues in developing countries often cause bureaucratic pathologies to vary across the additional dimensions of corruption, judicial independence, and political pluralism. Using a combination of unique datasets, I turn the recent theories on political failure into testable propositions for how these processes unfold in the African context. The findings are of interest both for improving governance in developing countries and adding to the growing body of literature examining the severity of the challenges posed by political failure in various contexts.
8. Wimpy, Cameron, Laron K. Williams, and Guy D. Whitten. 2021. “X Marks the Spot: Discovering the Treasure of Spatial-X Models.” The Journal of Politics 83(2): 722-739.
Abstract: In recent years, political scientists have made extensive use of spatial econometric models to test a wide range of theories. In a review of spatial papers, we find that a majority of these studies use the spatial autoregressive (SAR) model. Although this is a powerful method that reveals inferences about diffusion processes, it is also highly restrictive and makes assumptions that often are not appropriate given the expressed theories. We contend that spatial-X (SLX) models are a better reflection of typical theories about spatial processes. Our simulations demonstrate that SLX models consistently retrieve the direct and indirect effects of covariates when the true data-generating process reflects other spatial processes. SAR models, however, tend to find phantom higher-order effects that are not present in the data. We further demonstrate how SLX models reveal heterogeneity in patterns of spatial dependence in countries’ defense burdens that SAR models cannot discover.
7. Whitten, Guy D., Laron K. Williams, and Cameron Wimpy. 2021. “Interpretation: The Final Spatial Frontier.” Political Science Research and Methods 9(1): 140-156.
Abstract: The use of spatial econometric models in political science has steadily risen in recent years. However, the interpretation of these models has generally ignored the important substantive, and even spatial, nature of the estimated effects. This leaves many papers with a (non-spatial) interpretation of coefficients on the covariates and a brief discussion of the sign and strength of the spatial parameter. We introduce a general approach to interpreting spatial models and provide several avenues for an exposition of substantive spatial effects. Our approach can be generalized to most models in the spatial econometric taxonomy. Building on the example of the diffusion of democracy, we elucidate how our approach can be applied to modern political science problems.
6. Stewart, Charles III, R. Michael Alvarez, Stephen Pettigrew, and Cameron Wimpy. 2020. “Abstention, Protest, and Residual Votes in the 2016 Election.” Social Science Quarterly 101(2): 925-939.
Abstract: Objective. We analyze the significant increase in the residual vote rate in the 2016 presidential election. The residual vote rate, which is the percentage of ballots cast in a presidential election that contain no vote for president, rose nationwide from 0.99 to 1.41 percent between 2012 and 2016. Method. We use election return data and public opinion data to examine why the residual vote rate increased in 2016. Results. The primary explanation for this rise is an increase in abstentions, which we argue results primarily from disaffected Republican voters rather than alienated Democratic voters. In addition, other factors related to election administration and electoral competition explain variation in the residual vote rates across states, particularly the use of mail/absentee ballots and the lack of competition at the top of the ticket in nonbattleground states. However, we note that the rise in the residual vote rate was not due to changes in voting technologies. Conclusion. Our research has implications for the use of the residual vote as a metric for studying election administration and voting technologies.
5. Meier, Kenneth J., Mallory Compton, John Polga-Hecimovich, Miyeon Song, and Cameron Wimpy. 2019. “Bureaucracy and the Failure of Politics: Challenges to Democratic Governance.” Administration and Society 51(10): 1576-1605.
Abstract: Bureaucratic reforms worldwide seek to improve the quality of governance. In this article, we argue that the major governance failures are political, not bureaucratic, and the first step to better governance is to recognize the underlying political causes. Using illustrations from throughout the world, we contend that political institutions fail to provide clear policy goals, rarely allocate adequate resources to deal with the scope of the problems, and do not allow the bureaucracy sufficient autonomy in implementation. Rational bureaucratic responses to these problems, in turn, create additional governance problems that could have been avoided if political institutions perform their primary functions.
4. Walker, Matthew W., Sarah A. Evans, Cameron Wimpy, Amanda Berger, and Alexandria Smith. 2018. “Developing Smokeless Tobacco Prevention Messaging for At-Risk Youth: Early Lessons from ‘The Real Cost’ Smokeless Campaign.” Health Equity 2(1): 167-173.
Abstract: Introduction: Smokeless tobacco (SLT) use continues to be a significant public health challenge in the United States, particularly among young males in rural areas, where use remains disproportionately high. In support of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s first nationwide SLT public education campaign, formative research was conducted to inform campaign strategy development and test creative concepts. Methods: Qualitative research methods were used to inform the strategic direction of the campaign, identify salient message themes, and refine creative concepts. Focus groups were conducted with 252 rural male youth ages 12–17 in seven states. Groups were organized by SLT status (i.e., at-risk for initiating vs. experimenting with SLT) and age group. Results: SLT use is culturally ingrained in rural communities, and rural youth are commonly exposed to SLT through close relationships. Among this group, ‘’dipping’’ (SLT use) has strong cultural significance and is perceived as safe. Members of the target audience are receptive to straightforward facts delivered by authentic messengers about the potentially harmful consequences of SLT use, specifically those that leverage the progression of short-term consequences (e.g., white patches) to long-term health effects. Conclusions: This study addresses SLT literature gaps related to youth knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs by summarizing audience learnings from formative research that was used to develop the first national SLT public education campaign.
3. McKallagat, Chris, Flávio D. S. Souza, Jenifer Whitten-Woodring, and Cameron Wimpy. 2017. “Are Media at Work in Your Neighborhood? The Effect of Media Freedom, Internet Access and Information Spillover on Workers’ Rights.” Social Science Quarterly 98(3): 1078-1098.
2. Wimpy, Cameron and Guy D. Whitten. 2017. “What Is and What May Never Be: Economic Voting in Developing Democracies.” Social Science Quarterly 98(3): 1099-1111.
Abstract: Objective. We propose and test a theory that media freedom determines the extent of economic voting in developing democracies. Methods. Building on extant work that suggests economic voting takes place in developing democracies much like it does in established democracies (Lewis-Beck and Stegmaier, 2008), we test our theory using a new collection of aggregate data from elections in 22 developing democracies in Africa Results. Media freedom rather than political freedom may be a bigger determinant of economic voting in developing democracies. Moreover, the threshold of political development needed for economic voting is lower than previously suggested by the literature. Conclusion. Economic voting is alive and well in developing democracies—even those with relatively low levels of economic and political development.
1. Garcia, Blake E. and Cameron Wimpy. 2016. “Does Information Lead to Emulation? Spatial Dependence in Anti-Government Violence.” Political Science Research and Methods 4(1): 27-46.
Abstract: This study examines whether acts of anti-government violence exhibit spatial dependence across state boundaries. In other words, to what extent can acts of anti-government violence in one country be attributed to violence in neighboring countries? Past research, which has largely focused on civil war or large-scale conflict contagion, finds that geographically proximate states are more likely to experience the cross-boundary diffusion of conflict due to action emulation. However, this assumes that actors are fully aware of conflicts occurring in neighboring countries. To address this, the article argues that the proliferation of communication technology increases access to information about events in neighboring states, thereby allowing emulation to occur and subsequently conditioning the potential for violence to spread. It tests this expectation by modeling the effects of a unique spatial connectivity matrix that incorporates both state contiguity and access to communication technology. An analysis of all acts of anti-government violence in 44 African countries from 2000 to 2011 supports the argument.