Election Science: Convergence Accelerator Workshop Proposal

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This timely workshop addresses improving election administration, a critical component of democracy. The objective of this workshop series is to help understand and build confidence in the outcomes of US elections, using the many years of scholarly study in this area as the background. The workshop series will build upon prior work and extant knowledge to further explore the topic in the context of the Convergence Accelerator. The workshop discussions will be centered around the theme of “building confidence”, where “confidence” is defined as (1) scientific or empirical certainty that the elections were performed accurately and securely and (2) that winners identified, in fact, received more votes than the losers, and that the election was conducted fairly. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.