In an article for The Guardian, Prof. Kathleen Thelen explores how the U.S. media can help ensure the credibility of the upcoming presidential election. “We need bipartisan and authoritative panels to work with the networks as returns start to come in,” write Thelen and her co-authors. “Ideally, the media should create an independent panel of election certification, drawn from a diverse body of experts representing both major parties.”
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Prof. Charles Stewart III argues that “those out to undermine Americans’ confidence in the mechanics of their democracy are depending on an information void following Nov. 3, which they will try to fill with a torrent of disinformation designed to foment potentially violent conflict. To protect the legitimacy of the outcome, election officials and journalists will need to fill that void with facts about the counting.”
In an article for The New York Times, Prof. Charles Stewart III examines how to ensure that voting is safe and accessible during this year’s presidential election. “We need the campaigns, the leaders with big followings and civil society to point voters to the correct information on all the different ways to vote this November and why each mode is safe and secure,” writes Stewart.
Graduate student Marsin Alshamary writes for The Washington Post about the return of the Baath Party archives to Iraq. “In Baghdad, Iraqi scholars may have greater access to these documents, and an opportunity to put this information to use in fortifying a shared sense of national unity at a time of authoritarian nostalgia and political turmoil,” writes Alshamary.
Writing for The Washington Post, Prof. Charles Stewart III examines the risks posed by voting by mail. “The greatest risks of voting by mail are voters’ own mistakes,” writes Stewart. “To minimize this problem, election officials can warn voters that a mistake on their absentee ballot means it won’t be counted — or they can design ballots and instructions using plain language.”
Prof. Charles Stewart III speaks with Audie Cornish of NPR about the security of absentee and mail-in voting. Stewart notes that states that have offered mail-in voting for years, such as Oregon, Washington and Colorado, have not had issues with widespread voter fraud.
Writing for Fortune, graduate student Nina McMurry examines how public health authorities can allay fears about contact tracing apps. “Public health authorities need to make sure that the public understands what the technology is doing,” McMurry and her co-authors write. “Even if an app is privacy-preserving, the public may not perceive it as such.”
A new analysis by researchers from MIT’s Election Data and Science Lab and CBS News finds rejection rates of absentee and mail-in ballots ranged from under 1% to nearly 2% during primary elections held during the pandemic.
Prof. Richard J. Samuels reviews “Unconditional: The Japanese Surrender in World War II” by Marc Gallicchio for The New York Times. “’Unconditional’ is a sharp reminder of the power, imperfection and politicization of historical narrative,” writes Samuels, “and of the way debates can continue long after history’s witnesses have left the stage.”
A new study by Prof. Charles Stewart III “predicts that the outcome of this year’s presidential election — and the problem known as the ‘lost vote,’ in which legitimate ballots go uncounted — could fuel postelection allegations of a rigged election,” reports The New York Times.
Axios reporter Erica Pandey writes that a study by Prof. Thomas Kochan underscores how the Covid-19 pandemic has uncovered longstanding shortcomings in worker power. "The key to going from isolated protests at a place like Amazon or Walmart to a force that’s really going to get the company to respond is the customer," says Kochan."Customers are the hidden source of power for workers."
The Economist highlights a study by MIT researchers examining the impact of happiness on voting patterns. The researchers found that life satisfaction “was twice as important in explaining how incumbents did as the unemployment rate and about 30% more important than GDP growth.”
Graduate student Michael Freedman writes for The Washington Post about how growing religious polarization in Israel contributes to an unstable political environment. “Growing polarization in Israel may lead to electoral instability as it becomes harder to make political coalitions in Israel,” posits Freedman.
Prof. Regina Bateson examines President Trump’s proposal to cut off aid to several countries in Central America in an article for WBUR. Bateson argues that the “decision isn’t really about policy. It’s about populism.”
Writing for The Washington Post, Prof. Ariel White examines how jail sentences can make people less likely to vote. White explains that her research suggests we should “worry about jail’s political consequences, even in the case of short jail terms. The legal system disproportionately pushes black voters out of the electorate, and the problem goes far beyond felon disenfranchisement.”