Voting and elections

"Will the November 2020 election be delayed? The answer is, 'no.'" says Charles Stewart III, Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science, and co-founder, MIT Election Data and Science Lab. "Even if the asteroids are raining on our heads and the zombies are roaming the streets on November 3, we will be voting."

3 Questions: Charles Stewart on the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on the 2020 elections

Head of the MIT Election Data and Science Lab discusses the greatest risks, voting by mail, zombies, and asteroids.

April 15, 2020

Testing a voting system may show that certain adversarial attacks don’t work, but it doesn’t reveal that there are no attacks that work.

3 Questions: Ron Rivest on trusting electronic voting systems

MIT cryptography expert and election technology developer explains how to verify an election outcome.

February 26, 2020

MIT researchers identify security vulnerabilities in voting app

Mobile voting application could allow hackers to alter individual votes and may pose privacy issues for users.

February 13, 2020

A physics-based analysis of U.S. elections finds that the electorate has become more polarized over time, leading to an unstable situation in which very small chages in opinion can lead to wide swings in electoral outcomes.

Study uses physics to explain democratic elections

U.S. elections have become more “unstable,” sometimes swinging in the opposite direction from the greater electorate’s preferences.

January 21, 2020

"The story here is not just about whether people are legally allowed to vote," says Ariel White, "but about whether they are practically able to vote, whether they know they're allowed to vote, and whether they think they have any reason to do so."

3 Questions: Ariel White on the impact of incarceration on voting

The political consequence of even short jail terms is disproportionately pushing African-American voters out of the electorate.

October 28, 2019

The MIT Vote-a-saurus in Lobby 7 helped encourage students to register to vote.

MIT student voting rates climb to nearly 40 percent

New technologies and campus engagement helped to spur a 26.4 percent increase in voting rates from 2014 to 2018.

October 22, 2019

"In my view," says MIT Professor Elizabeth Wood, "the core motivation behind [election] interference is Russia's two-fold belief a) that the most important goal of the Russian state is world power status and b) that such status cannot be achieved without recourse to espionage and manipulation."

3 Questions: Historian Elizabeth Wood on election interference

How do we understand Russia’s multi-layered interference in the 2016 elections? A Russia expert and professor of history analyzes Russia’s motives.

October 17, 2019

Looking under the surface of politics in Latin America

Associate Professor Danny Hidalgo’s work reveals some difficult truths about money, elections, and political influence.

September 24, 2019

Richard Samuels, the Ford International Professor of Political Science and director of the MIT Center for International Studies, introduces Suzanne Berger, MIT’s John M. Deutch Institute Professor, and Jan-Werner Mueller, a professor of politics at Princeton University, at MIT’s Starr Forum event on global populism, Sept. 12.

Understanding populism

At MIT forum, scholars wrestle with the dynamics of a global political trend.

September 16, 2019

A new study co-authored by MIT scholars examines the impact of political information on voter behavior, under a variety of conditions. The schematic images here represent voter information networks, ranging from those with connections across political parties, upper left, to those with no contact between opposing party members, bottom right.

How “information gerrymandering” influences voters

Study analyzes how networks can distort voters’ perceptions and change election results.

September 4, 2019

'It's not so much that political discussion on TV used to be so much better than it is today," says MIT media historian Heather Hendershot, "but that there used to be one show that really nailed the best way to discuss politics, and now there are (arguably) no such shows."

3 Questions: Heather Hendershot on the state of US political discourse

Media historian and expert on conservatism considers the end of rational dialog.

August 20, 2019

Certain kinds of political media affect a cross-section of viewers in different ways, and to varying degrees, new research shows.

Does cable news shape your views?

MIT study finds partisan news coverage has a bigger impact on viewers without strong media preferences.

August 7, 2019

The 2018 Election Insights series includes: Research-based commentaries by MIT experts on key issues for the country; a "Music for the Midterms" playlist; and an annotated election booklist.

Analyzing the 2018 election: Insights from MIT scholars

SHASS faculty members offer research-based perspectives with commentaries, plus a Music for the Midterms playlist, and an election book list.

October 30, 2018

3Q: Alyce Johnson on upholding the rights of MIT’s transgender community

At MIT, “we are committed to looking after each other,” says interim Institute community and equity officer.

October 29, 2018

General Michael Hayden took questions from the audience and from Joel Brenner (right), who was a former senior counsel at the NSA and head of US counterintelligence under the director of National Intelligence. Brenner is a research affiliate of the MIT Center for International Studies and CSAIL’s Internet Policy Research Initiative.

An assault on American intelligence

In MIT visit, former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden describes current difficulties faced by society and U.S. intelligence services.

October 3, 2018

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Browse By

Topics

Departments

Centers, Labs, & Programs

Schools

Topic