Research
SJ Democracy Research specializes in customized, personal, research designed to gain the maximum insight without sacrificing technical rigor. We are experts at managing the entire research process from beginning to end, including research design, data collection, analysis, visualization, report writing, and public presentation of findings. Take a tour of some our work below or contact us for more information.
Research Highlights
Cited In
Full List of works
Academic Publications
o DeBats, Donald A, Cara Griggs, and Sarah John. 2020. “Southern Voting in Postbellum America: An Archives Tale.” Mid-Atlantic Archivist. Vol. 49, No. 4: 6 – 9.
o John, Sarah, Haley Smith and Elizabeth Zack. 2018. “The Alternative Vote: Do Changes in Single-Member Voting Systems Affect Descriptive Representation of Women and Minorities?” Electoral Studies Vol. 54: 90-102.
o Research featured in Time, New York Times, and Vox.
o John, Sarah and Andrew Douglas. 2017. “Candidate Civility and Voter Engagement in Seven Cities with Ranked Choice Voting.” National Civic Review Vol. 106, No. 1: 25-29.
o John, Sarah. 2016. “Recognition and Regulation Resisted: The Question of Party Labels on Ballot Papers”, in Anika Gauja and Marian Sawer (eds) Party Rules and Regulation: Dilemmas of Political Party Regulation in Australia. Canberra: ANU Press.
o John, Sarah. 2015. “Compulsory Voting: For and Against” (book review) Election Law Journal Vol. 14, No. 4: 430-433.
o John, Sarah and Donald A. DeBats. 2014. “Not Trailblazing, Uncontested or Democratic: Revising the Narrative of Australia’s Adoption of Compulsory Voting”, Australian Journal of Politics and History Vol. 60, No. 1: 1-28.
o Winner: 2013 Best Student Research Paper Award from Flinders University
o Hargreaves, Leigh and Sarah John. 2012. “Modelling Ordinal Electoral Systems: The Uniqueness of South Australian Legislative Elections”, Australian Journal of Political Science Vol. 47, No. 2: 273–283.
Academic Conference Papers and Presentations
o John, Sarah et al 2020. “Witnessing the Dawn of Black Voting: A Tale of Two Political Revolutions.” Webinar presented for Virginia Humanities. October 27, 2020.
o DeBats, Donald, Sarah John and Morgan Tompkins. 2020. “The Arrival of Black Voting: A Political Revolution, April 25, 1870.” Webinar presented for Virginia Humanities. April 24, 2020.
o John, Sarah, Donald DeBats and Morgan Tompkins. 2019. “Learning how to Discriminate: The Block Vote at Reconstruction.” Paper presented at Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting 2019. April 5, 2019.
o DeBats, Donald, Sarah John and Matthew Pietryka. 2019. “Social Proximity and ‘Friends-and-Neighbors’ Voting in Local Elections.” Paper presented at Southern Political Science Association Annual Meeting 2019. January 15, 2019.
o John, Sarah and Donald DeBats. 2018. “Celebrating the Fifteenth Amendment? A Study of Individual Black and White Political Engagement in the Post-Civil War Kentucky.” Paper presented at Social Science History Association Annual Meeting 2018. November 18, 2018.
o Pietryka, Matthew, Donald DeBats and Sarah John. 2017. “Social Proximity and Friends-and-Neighbors Voting in Local Elections.” Paper presented at American Political Science Association Annual Meeting 2017. 31 August 2017.
o John, Sarah, Haley Smith and Elizabeth Zack. 2016. “Reconciling Two Conflicting Wisdoms on Single-Member Districts”. Paper presented at American Political Science Association Annual Meeting 2016. 2 September 2016.
o John, Sarah. 2014. “Can’t We Have One Without the Other? Recognition and Regulation of Parties in Australia.” Workshop on the Legal Regulation of Political Parties in Australia. University of Sydney. 19 – 20 June 2014.
o John, Sarah. 2013. “The Benefits of a More Comparative American History: The Case of a Seemingly Unlikely Political Reform.” Paper presented at the Organization of American Historians Annual Conference 2013. 13 April 2103 (Invited Presentation).
o John, Sarah. 2013. “Comparative Perspectives on Compulsory Voting: Conservatives, Progressives and Fence-sitters Waiting to be Bribed” Paper presented at the Australian and New Zealand Studies Association of North America Conference 2013. 16 February 2013.
o John, Sarah and Leigh Hargreaves. 2011. “The Alternative Vote in Australia: Exacerbating a Culture of Adversarialism?” Proceedings of the Australian Political Studies Association Conference 2011. 27 September 2011.
o John, Sarah. 2011. “The Role of Political Parties in Shaping Campaign Finance Reform in the 1970s: Canada, Australia and the United States” Paper Presented at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference, 3 April 2011.
o John, Sarah. 2010. “The History of Compulsory Voting in Australia: A Reinterpretation” Paper delivered to Australia and New Zealand Law and History Conference 2010, 14 November 2010.
o John, Sarah. 2010. “Compulsory Voting in Comparative Perspective: Australia, Canada and the United States” paper delivered to Flinders University School of International Studies Graduate Student Conference 2010, 24 September 2010.
Select Presentations and Interviews
o John, Sarah. 15 January 2021. “Setting Ourselves up for Disappointment? The Risks of Over Promising on Electoral Reform.” Invited presentation to Princeton University’s Election Innovation Lab.
o John, Sarah. 5 November 2020. ABC News Radio, Sydney, Australia radio interview with Laura Tchilinguirian.
o John, Sarah. 22 October 2020. ABC News Radio, Sydney, Australia radio interview with Glen Bartholomew.
o John, Sarah. 31 July 2020. “Grammy Voting Process: An Evaluation of Ranked Choice Voting.” Presentation to the Recording Academy Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce.
o Bergman, Rachel and Sarah John. 17 May 2019. “Erasing the Affordable Care Act: Using Government Web Censorship to Undermine the Law.” Congressional briefing hosted by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
o John, Sarah. 8 November 2016. 5AA Adelaide, Australia (1395 AM) radio interview with Jeremy Cordeaux.
o John, Sarah. 6 June 2016. “PAC Giving to Female Candidates.” Representation 2020 Annual Meeting
o John, Sarah. 2 September 2015. “Developments in RCV around the World.” FairVote short course on Ranked Choice Voting at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting 2015.
o John Sarah. 22 April 2015. “Rebuttal: Why Compulsory Voting would Harm American Democracy.” Presentation to the National Democracy Slam 2015, Washington College of Law.
o John, Sarah, Dania Korkor and Amaris Montes. 22 November 2014. “Why Structure Matters for Women’s Representation.” VoteRunLead National Go Run Conference.
o John, Sarah. 9 October 2014. “Institutionalized Party Practices and the Election of Women.” Representation 2020/Political Parity Conference for Exploring Structural Solutions to Improve Women’s Representation.
Select Writings and Reports for Popular Audiences
o John, Sarah. 5 November 2020. “Donald Trump is aiming for an election win with court challenges in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia. This is how it's looking.” The Conversation (Australia) (republished by Australian Broadcasting Corporation News).
o John, Sarah. 22 October 2020. “Over 1 million mail-in ballots could be rejected in the US election — and the rules are changing by the day.” The Conversation (Australia).
o John, Sarah et al. 30 September 2020. “The first US presidential debate was pure chaos. Here’s what our experts thought.” The Conversation (Australia).
o Nigenda Zárate, Andrés, Aaron Lemelin, Sarah John and Jon Campbell. 21 November 2019. “Identity, Protections, and Data Coverage: How LGBTQ-related language and content has changed under the Trump Administration.” Sunlight Foundation Web Integrity Project Trend Report.
o Research featured in Government Executive.
o Lemelin, Aaron, Sarah John, Sonja Williams and Andrés Nigenda Zárate. 3 October 2019. “Alterations to the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s Website since President Trump’s Inauguration.” Sunlight Foundation Web Integrity Project Trend Report.
o John, Sarah. 2 August 2019. “Think that Minute Details on Federal Government Websites Don’t Matter? Think Again.” Sunlight Foundation Blog.
o John, Sarah. 11 June 2019. “Removal of ICE Speeches Collection Demonstrates Weaknesses in Federal Agencies’ Archiving Practices.” Sunlight Foundation Blog.
o John, Sarah. 17 July 2019. “Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act would increase accountability of agencies.” Sunlight Foundation Blog.
o John, Sarah. 24 July 2018. “The Alternative Vote can increase representation of women and people of color in US elections” London School of Economics US Centre American Politics and Policy Blog.
o Oh, Michelle, Lim Lee, and Sarah John. 2018. By the Numbers 2017: The Data Underlying Legal Aid Programs. Legal Services Corporation.
o Oh, Michelle, Lim Lee, and Sarah John. 2017. By the Numbers 2016: The Data Underlying Legal Aid Programs. Legal Services Corporation.
o John, Sarah. 4 November 2016. “Can this Election be Over Already? The Rise of Early Voting” Flinders University U.S. Election 2016 Blog.
o John, Sarah, Kelsey Kober, Michelle Whittaker, and Tiffany Monzon. October 2016. “The State of Women’s Representation on the Eve of the 2016 Election” Representation2020 Research Report.
o John, Sarah, Haley Smith, and Elizabeth Zack. August 2016. “The Impact of Ranked Choice Voting on Representation” Representation2020 Research Report.
o John, Sarah. 8 July 2016. “Australians cast RCV ballots in a House of Representatives election that’s too close to call” FairVote Blog.
o John, Sarah. 18 October 2015. “Anything but Fair: The Sad Tale of the Canadian Election System” FairVote Blog.
o John, Sarah. 12 May 2015. “Inequitable British Elections Provide Lessons for US Reformers” FairVote Blog.
o John, Sarah, and Caroline Tolbert. April 2015. Socioeconomic and Demographic Perspectives on Ranked Choice Voting in the Bay Area. Ranked Choice Voting Civility Project Research Report.
o John, Sarah. 5 September 2014. “Ethnic Minorities and Proportional Representation in Myanmar” FairVote Blog.
o John, Sarah. 6 June 2014. “Reforming the Australian Senate” FairVote Blog.
o John, Sarah. 1 July 2013. “‘A Leadership Challenge: Future Strengths and Present Weaknesses” Online Opinion.
o John, Sarah. 30 June 2010. “‘We the People’: Mere Powerless Observers” Online Opinion.
Primary source, historical, qualitative, research. Program evaluations. Survey research and questionnaires. Testing. Ballot image files (cast vote records), census, and American community survey, ACS. Journalistic research. Large datasets. Working with administrators and election officials. Quantitative and qualitative research.