Mason Reece

Hi, I’m a PhD candidate in MIT’s Political Science department and an affiliate with MIT’s Election Data + Science Lab. I’m primarily interested in the behavior of voters and political actors at the state and local level in the United States. I also collect and develop methods to analyze large datasets. My dissertation uses ballot-level data (cast vote records) to study representation and competition in politics.

To bring a practical lens to my research, I have served as the lead poll worker in Houston and Cambridge and organized a youth voters conference. In my free time, I love riding my bike, hiking, and trying food from around the world.

Working Papers

Mason Reece and Daniel M. Thompson. “Partisan Elections and Partisan Voting: Evidence from Partisan Judicial Elections.” Under review.
Shigeo Hirano, Joseph Loffredo, Mason Reece, and James M. Snyder Jr. “Trends in Nationalization of State and Local Elections.”
Adam Rauh, Mason Reece, and Tyler Simko. “Local community opposition to data centers is clear and growing.” Under review.
Mason Reece. “Even Faster Ideal Point Estimation: Using Variational Autoencoders to Estimate Item-Response Theory Models”
Mason Reece. “Politics Without the Fight: The Consequences of Uncontested Elections”

Publications

Shiro Kuriwaki, Mason Reece, Samuel Baltz, Aleksandra Conevska, Joseph R. Loffredo, Can E. Mutlu, Taran Samarth, Kevin E. Acevedo Jetter, Zachary Djanogly Garai, Kate Murray, Shigeo Hirano, Jeffrey B. Lewis, James M. Snyder Jr., and Charles H. Stewart III (2024). “Cast vote records: A database of ballots from the 2020 U.S. Election.” Nature Scientific Data. Co-first author with Kuriwaki. Github. Dataverse.
Lonna Atkeson, M. V. Hood III, Colin Jones, Mason Reece, and Robert M. Stein (2022). “Postal Voting in the 2020 Election.” Journal of Election Administration, Research and Practice.