Nazita Lajevardi

Associate Professor of Political Science, Michigan State University

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About Nazita

Lajevardi’s work focuses mainly on issues related to religion, race, and ethnicity in American politics; political behavior; voting rights; and immigration. Her research has been published in academic venues, including American Political Science Review, The Journal of Politics, Political Psychology, Political Behavior, Cambridge University Press, and more. Her work also been featured in numerous media outlets as well, and has been supported by funders including: The Swedish Research Council (VR), Facebook, National Science Foundation, Formas, the Social Science Research Council, and the Harvard Bloomberg Center for Cities.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | Member Spotlight | In the News | Publications

Contributions

Strict Voter Identification Laws Advantage Whites – and Skew American Democracy to the Right

Nazita Lajevardi
Lindsay Nielson

Key Findings Brief, March 2016

In the News

Opinion: "The Trump Administration Sanctioned China for Detaining 1 Million Uighurs. Here’s What Americans Think.," Nazita Lajevardi (with John Kuk), Monkey Cage Analysis, The Washington Post, September 21, 2020.

Interviewed in "Decision 2020 66 Days," MSNBC, August 29, 2020.

Interviewed in "WSU Police Chief on Protests; the Muslim American Experience; Art’s Role in Tough Times," Stateside, June 1, 2020.

Interviewed in "How Islamophobia changed politics for Muslim America," Religion News Service, April 23, 2020.

Interviewed in "What drives Islamophobia? ," The Young Turks , December 31, 2019.

Interviewed in "We Will Not Be Banned," The Young Turks , November 7, 2019.

Opinion: "Most U.S. Muslims Are Patriots. Asking Them to Choose Between Faith and Nation Has a Pernicious Consequence.," Nazita Lajevardi, Monkey Cage, The Washington Post, August 23, 2019.

Research discussed by Andrew Gelman, in "A New Controversy Erupts Over Whether Voter Identification Laws Suppress Minority Turnout," The Washington Post, June 11, 2018.

Research discussed by "How Donald Trump’s ‘Muslim Ban’ Produced Rare Shift in Public Opinion," Financial Express, January 13, 2018.

Quoted by Tara Isabella Burton in "Study Suggests Trump's “Muslim Ban” Actually Improved Attitudes toward Muslims," Vox, January 10, 2018.

Opinion: "Do Voter Identification Laws Suppress Minority Voting? Yes. We Did the Research.," Nazita Lajevardi (with Zoltan L. Hajnal and Lindsay Nielson), The Washington Post, February 15, 2017.

Interviewed in "Hispanics Can Have A Great Impact on National Elections," The Agenda, February 11, 2016.

Publications

"A Disproportionate Burden: Strict Voter Identification Laws and Minority Turnout" (with John Kuk and Nazita Lajevardi). A Disproportionate Burden: Strict Voter Identification Laws and Minority Turnout (2020).

Discusses how counties with higher non-White voters in a state that enacted strict voter ID laws show decreased turnout compared to counterparts in states that did not enact strict voter ID laws.

"Voter Identification Laws and the Suppression of Minority Votes" (with Nazita Lajevardi and Lindsay Nielson), University of California, San Diego, forthcoming.

Argues that voter identification laws decrease minority turnout in American elections. Discusses how voter turnout among whites does not change, but turnout among Hispanics, Blacks, Asian Americans, and liberals falls by several percentage points when states require citizens to show identification in order to vote.