The Voting Wars of 2012
Professor Charles Stewart, MIT
Presented by the League of Women Voters of Lexington
Since the election of 2010, a number of states have passed laws that have imposed new voter ID requirements and restricted access to the polls. These laws reverse a trend, begun with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, to make voting more accessible to all Americans. Opponents of these laws worry that they will have a disproportionate effect on the ability of racial minority voters, as well as the less affluent and students, to vote in 2012. Many worry (or hope) that these laws will have an influence on who wins the presidency in November.
This talk discusses the rise of these laws, which are intended to tighten-up access to the polls, and the larger political context that has led to their passage. Ironically enough, reforms passed to mitigate the problems unearthed in the controversy over the 2000 presidential election opened a Pandora's Box of political issues in the administration of elections in the U.S. Activists on the left and the right have gained traction in casting doubt on the legitimacy of election outcomes based on claims that rest on little-to-no empirical evidence.
Despite the clearly partisan politics of these laws, Professor Stewart will discuss why they are unlikely to have much of an influence on the outcome of the 2012 presidential election. This is not to say that problems with election administration more generally couldn't lead to a repeat of the 2000 fiasco. Many of the "battleground states" have features of their voting systems that could lead to controversy, conflict, and chaos, should the results of the election rest on an election dispute in one of these states.
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About the Speaker
Charles Stewart III is the Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science at MIT, where he has taught since 1985. His research and teaching areas include congressional politics, elections, and American political development. His current research about Congress touches on the historical development of committees, party leadership, and Senate elections. Since 2001, Professor Stewart has been a member of the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project, a leading research efforts that applies scientific analysis to questions about election technology, election administration, and election reform. He is currently the MIT director of the project. Professor Stewart is an established leader in the analysis of the performance of election systems and the quantitative assessment of election performance.