Brian Amos, Dr.

Overview

Dr. Amos joined the Political Science department in 2019 after earning his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Florida. His research explores the impact of geography on elections with a primary focus on legislative redistricting. Other areas of research interest include election administration, automated redistricting, and methodology in working with Census and election data. Dr. Amos has also worked in voting rights litigation as a consulting expert in gerrymander challenges in Florida and Maryland and as an assistant to expert witnesses in cases relating to voter ID laws, early voting access, and polling place changes. He is also a member of the Voting and Election Science Team (VEST), which is collecting, collating, and distributing election data in the run up to the post-2020 redistricting process.  VEST is funded in part by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation on which Dr. Amos is a co-principal investigator.

Personal Website

Academic Interests and Expertise

Education

• Ph.D. in Political Science, University of Florida.
• M.A. in Political Science, University of Florida.
• B.A. in Linguistics, Cornell University.

Areas of Research Interest

Research Interests

• Redistricting and gerrymandering
• Election administration
• Local government
• Research methodology

Areas of Teaching Interest

• Introduction to American Government
• State and Local Politics
• Legislative Politics
• Introduction to Data Analysis
• Redistricting Seminar

Publications

• Amos, Brian and Michael P. McDonald. 2020. “A Method to Audit the Assignment of Registered Voters to Districts and Precincts.” Political Analysis. Forthcoming.
• Smith, Daniel A., Brian Amos, Carl Klarner, Daniel Maxwell, Thessalia Merivaki, and Tyler Richards. 2019. “Rigged? Assessing Election Administration in Florida’s 2016 General Election,” in Florida and the 2016 Election of Donald J. Trump, Michael Binder and Matthew Corrigan, eds. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
• Amos, Brian, Diana Forster, and Daniel A. Smith. 2018. “Who Signs? Ballot Petition Signatures as Political Participation.” American Review of Politics 36(2): 19-37.
• Amos, Brian, Michael P. McDonald, and Russell Watkins. 2017. “When Boundaries Collide: Constructing a National Database of Demographic and Voting Statistics.” Public Opinion Quarterly 81(S1): 385-400.
• Amos, Brian, Daniel A. Smith and Casey Ste. Claire. 2017. “Reprecincting and Voting Behavior.” Political Behavior 39(1): 133-156.

Grants

Voting and Election Science Team (VEST) is funded in part by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation on which Dr. Amos is a co-principal investigator.