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.
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.
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.
Forbes contributor Jason Brett writes that Prof. Ron Rivest testified before Congress on the feasibility of Blockchain voting technology.
Boston Magazine reporter Alyssa Vaughn spotlights Prof. Azra Aksamija’s design proposal for a piece of public art in Cambridge that would honor the passage of the 19th Amendment. Aksamija’s project “takes the form of a three dimensional palimpsest,” writes Vaughn, “that is visible through an arrangement of concrete elements. These elements are inscribed with names and quotes from notable activists.”
Inspired by the interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, researchers at MIT have developed a “four-point strategy to understand the impact of fake news and social-media manipulation,” reports Annalisa Merelli for Quartz. Prof. Sinan Aral notes that “granting data access for analysis while otherwise maintaining strong protection of it would be vital” in order for the strategy to be used properly.
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.
In an article about how the social messaging app WhatsApp could have a large influence on the upcoming election in India, the Financial Times spotlights postdoctoral associate Kiran Garimella’s work examining how misinformation spreads in India through platforms such as WhatsApp.
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.”
In an article for Quartz about the role the media will play in influencing voters in India’s upcoming general election, Sahil Wajid highlights Prof. Emeritus Noam Chomsky’s book, “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media.” The book is a “seminal work on systemic bias afflicting the corporate news industry,” writes Wajid.
Los Angeles Times reporter Melissa Healy writes that a study by Prof. Adam Berinksy examines how fact-checking impacts how voters view politicians who lie. Healy writes that in a study of Australian voters, Berinksy found that, “fact-checking changed subjects’ views about which politicians they supported, but only slightly.”
Writing for The Washington Post, Alexander Agadjanian of the MIT Election and Data Science Lab examines how the Trump administration impacts the image of the U.S. abroad. “Trump does not unconditionally shape foreign opinion of the United States. Instead, citizens abroad react more to the content of a U.S. policy message — whether it is cooperative or uncooperative in nature,” notes Agadjanian.
Prof. Charles Stewart speaks with New York Times reporter Frances Robles about how the Florida recount highlights the need for the state’s recount process to be updated. “I would hope wiser heads in Florida would take a deep breath and say, ‘O.K., we can do better next time,’” says Stewart.