Jonathan Cervas

Jonathan Robert Cervas

Revised July 2026

::: {custom-style=”Address”} Carnegie Mellon University
Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences
5000 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Office: 412-268-4519
Email: cervas@cmu.edu
Homepage: https://jonathancervas.com
:::

Academic Employment

Carnegie Mellon University

Assistant Teaching Professor, 2024-
Post-Doctoral Fellow, 2020–2024

Education

University of California, Irvine

Ph.D., Political Science, 2020

Dissertation Committee: Bernard Grofman (Chair), Michael Tesler, Carole Uhlaner
Dissertation: A Quantitative Assessment of the U.S. Electoral College, 1790–2020
Fields: American Politics, Political Methodology, Comparative Politics

M.A., Political Science, December 2018

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

B.A., Political Science, 2007

Major: Political Science
Confer: 05/12/2007
Degree GPA: 3.277

Additional Training

Workshop on Research Design for Causal Inference, Northwestern University, 2017
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), University of Michigan, 2016

Professional Experience

Special Master or Court-Appointed Expert

Redistricting and Elections Consultant

Court Filings and Amicus Briefs

Expert Witness

Consultant

Research Interests

American Politics, Elections, Voting Rights, Public Opinion & Representation, Methodology.

Teaching Experience

Courses

Grants

Research

Publications

My contributions in joint papers are typically the data construction, statistical and geographic analysis, and modeling. I contributed substantially to the writing, and on the law reviews, to legal research.

15. “Partisan Gerrymandering.” In Elgar Encyclopedia of Public Choice, edited by Richard Jong-A-Pin and Christian Bjørnskov (2025) (with Bernard Grofman).

14. “Partisan Gerrymandering Cases in State Supreme Courts in the 2020s Redistricting Round.” Albany Law Review 87, no. 4 (2024) (with Bernard Grofman, Scott Matsuda, and Justine Kawa).

13. “Statistical Fallacies in Claims about ‘Massive and Widespread Fraud’ in the 2020 Presidential Election.” Statistics and Public Policy 11, no. 1 (2023) (with Bernard Grofman).

12. “The Role of State Courts in Constraining Partisan Gerrymandering in Congressional Elections.” University of New Hampshire Law Review 21, no. 2 (2023): 421 (with Bernard Grofman and Scott Matsuda).

11. “Using Folded Seats-Votes Curves to Compare Partisan Bias in the 2020 Presidential Election with Other 21st Century Elections.” Presidential Studies Quarterly (2022) (with Bernard Grofman).

10. “Why Donald Trump Should Be a Fervent Advocate of Using Ranked-Choice Voting in 2024.” PS: Political Science & Politics 55, no. 1 (2022) (with Bernard Grofman).

9. “Turning Communities of Interest into a Rigorous Standard for Fair Districting.” Stanford Journal of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties 18 (2022): 101 (with Sam Wang, Sandra Chen, Richard Ober, Bernard Grofman, and Kyle Barnes).

8. “A Systems Framework for Remedying Distortions in U.S. Democracy.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, no. 50 (2021): e2102154118 (with Sam Wang, Bernard Grofman, and Keena Lipsitz).

7. “The Unanticipated Effect of Covid-19 on House Apportionments.” Social Science Quarterly 102, no. 5 (2021): 2432–2434 (with Bernard Grofman).

6. “ZIP Codes as Geographic Bases of Representation.” Election Law Journal (2021) (with Bernard Grofman).

5. “Legal, Political Science and Economics Approaches to Measuring Malapportionment.” Social Science Quarterly 101, no. 6 (2020): 2238–2256 (with Bernard Grofman).

4. “Tools for Identifying Partisan Gerrymandering: Pennsylvania Case Study.” Political Geography 76 (2020): 102069 (with Bernard Grofman).

3. “Are Presidential Inversions Inevitable?” Social Science Quarterly 100, no. 4 (2019): 1322–1342 (with Bernard Grofman).

2. “Can State Courts Cure Partisan Gerrymandering? Lessons from League of Women Voters v. Pennsylvania.” Election Law Journal 17, no. 4 (2018): 264–285 (with Bernard Grofman).

1. “Why Noncompetitive States Matter: The Electoral College 1868–2016.” Public Choice 173, no. 3–4 (2017): 251–265 (with Bernard Grofman).

Op-Eds and Public Commentary

“The Effects of Mid-Decade Redistricting on Electoral Outcomes,” Medium, 2025.

“Trump the Wrestler and the 2024 Grudge Match,” Medium, 2024 (with Bernard Grofman).

“Fracking: A Contiguity-Related Redistricting Metric,” Election Law Blog, 2021 (with Bernard Grofman).

“The GOP Scared Latinos from the Census. Now That May Cost the Party Red Seats,” The Washington Post, May 1, 2021 (with Sam Wang).

“A More Equitable Voting System in Maine: Ranked-Choice Voting,” Medium (3Streams), 2021 (with Anjali Akula and Elsie Goren).

“How Likely is Trump to Lose the Popular Vote but Win the Electoral College?” Medium (3Streams), 2020 (with Bernard Grofman).

“These Are the Political Consequences of Excluding Undocumented Immigrants from Apportionment,” Medium (3Streams), 2020 (with Angela Ocampo).

“Pennsylvania Has to Draw New Congressional Districts but Getting Rid of Gerrymandering Will Be Harder Than You Think,” The Washington Post, February 9, 2018 (with Bernard Grofman).

Working Papers/Pipeline

Public Engagement & Digital Projects

Talks (Invited and Conference)

Service to Carnegie Mellon

Service to the Discipline

Referee: American Journal of Political Science, Political Analysis, Political Geography, Election Law Journal, Public Choice, Political Research Quarterly

References

Bernard Grofman, UC Irvine

Distinguished Professor of Political Science
Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Email: bgrofman@uci.edu

Mark Nordenberg, University of Pittsburgh

Chancellor Emeritus, University of Pittsburgh
Dean Emeritus, Pitt Law School
Email: norden@pitt.edu

Carole Jean Uhlaner, UC Irvine

Professor of Political Science
Email: cuhlaner@uci.edu

Richard L. Hasen, UCLA Law School

Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science
Email: rhasen@uci.edu