REVISITING THE U.S. VOTING SYSTEM: A RESEARCH INVENTORY
November 27-28, 2006
Convened by the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Main | Participants/Synopses | Voting Research Database
Description
The AAAS 2004 report, Making Each Vote Count: A Research Agenda for Electronic Voting, noted: “For a matter as critical to the functioning of our society as public elections are, it is distressing how little knowledge exists in order to make evidence-based reforms in our voting system.” The report identified gaps in our knowledge and recommended research that could generate badly needed data about how the election process functions, the nature of the public’s understanding and perception of the current system, and possible effects of proposed reforms. Two years later, it is time to take stock of completed or ongoing research in order to facilitate the sharing of information, the synthesis of key findings, and the identification of priorities in the face of forthcoming elections.
Toward that end, AAAS convened an invitational meeting on November 27-28, 2006, in Washington, DC, to highlight the research and to recommend how to effectively acquire the additional knowledge needed in order to inform election reform generally as well as increase voter understanding, access, and confidence in the system. Among those attending were leading researchers, public interest groups, election officials, and private and public funders that could support the needed research. Workshop participants will: (1) describe ongoing or completed research on the voting system; (2) identify priorities for expanding our knowledge base; and (3) propose ways to translate that knowledge into practice. This effort will help launch AAAS’s development of a comprehensive inventory of research on the U.S. voting system that will be accessible on the web.
The project was funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
