Peter Miller

Peter Miller is a senior research fellow at the Brennan Center focusing on redistricting, voting, and elections. His research interests include U.S. and comparative politics, voting behavior, political institutions, and public opinion. He is an associate editor of Political Research Quarterly. His work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Politics, the Annual Review of Political Science, Electoral Studies, Election Law Journal, American Politics Research, and the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion, and Parties. One of Miller’s articles on redistricting commissions was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. He is a frequent commentator on topics related to redistricting reform, voting rights, and elections.

Miller was a 2016–2017 Fulbright Scholar at Tampere University in Finland. He was previously a Podlich Fellow at the Center for the Study of Democracy at the University of California, Irvine, and a Templeton Foundation Fellow in the philosophy, politics, and economics program at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Reed College and a doctorate and a master’s degree in political science from the University of California, Irvine.

DRAWN INTO A CORNER (Nonfiction, Politics/Current Affairs)

The process and politics of redistricting is complicated by a mix of mandatory federal requirements to draw equally-populated districts that comply with what little remains of the Voting Rights Act now and various sets of state-level criteria—such as compactness, preservation for cities and counties, and prioritizing competitive districts—that are often mutually exclusive. Within these regulatory boundaries, fierce competition between the parties for the power to guide the process for their benefit, and by the role of the federal and state judiciary to resolve any disputes in time for the orderly administration of elections ends up with the redistricting process can giving rise to distorted representation, whether by partisan or racial gerrymandering. Can anything be done to reduce the biases inherent in the districting process?

Rights Available: All
Agent: Zeynep Sen