Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Logo for the University of Maryland Right Now Site
Skip to Content

A resource for media highlighting UMD experts, cutting-edge research and innovation, rankings, and breaking campus news

All Experts Social Sciences

Michael Hanmer

Professor, Director of the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement, and Co-Principal Investigator for the Maryland Democracy Initiative

College of Behavioral and Social Sciences

Expertise

Government and Politics

Election

Language Proficiency

english

Dr. Michael Hanmer is a Professor in the Department of Government and Politics, Director of the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement, and co-PI for the Maryland Democracy Initiative at the University of Maryland. His research focuses on political participation, public opinion, voting rights, election administration, and political methodology. He co-directs The Washington Post-UMD poll. Hanmer is the author of Discount Voting: Voter Registration Laws and Their Effects, and co-author of Voting Technology: The Not-So-Simple Act of Casting a Ballot, and Citizens of the World: Political Engagement and Policy Attitudes of Millennials across the Globe. He has published articles on a variety of topics related to elections such as voter registration, absentee voting, voting-by-mail, ballot design, college student voting, early voting, public agency registration, and voter identification laws. He has also published on public opinion toward foreign policy, methods to increase the accuracy of survey responses, and methods to improve the reporting of statistical analyses.

Dr. Hanmer received his B.A. in economics from SUNY Geneseo and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan.


Follow @UMDRightNow on Twitter for news, UMD experts and campus updates