Roundup of New 2020 Election Research
While all elections are significant and consequential, the fervor of the November 2020 Presidential Election (and the entire season around it) was particularly unique on multiple levels — not the least of which is that it was conducted in the midst of a global health pandemic. While exit polls and other sources often give us early data and signals about who voted, for (or against) whom, and why, it takes time to analyze those data with a thoughtfulness that leads to true meaning.
It has now been eight months, and new research is helping us make sense of the election from a few different angles (including just how unique it really was). We wanted to spotlight newly released reports that deepen our understanding of the current electorate and state of our election system:
- The Virus and the Vote: Administering the 2020 Election in a Pandemic, Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project. This research compendium provides an in-depth look at various aspects of the 2020 Election, including research on how COVID shaped the primary season, in-person and mail voting, counting/recounting/litigating the vote, and election-related misinformation and social media.
- Crisis of Confidence: How Election 2020 Was Different, Democracy Fund Voter Study Group. This report asked “How different was 2020 relative to earlier elections, and how worried should we be going forward?” New data suggest that voter confidence in the 2020 election was indeed different than previous years. More from the Voter Study Group: Voices on the Vote — takeaways from the perspectives of voters, and Theft Perception — an examination of beliefs the election was stolen.
- Behind Biden’s 2020 Victory, Pew Research Center. New analysis of validated 2020 voters examines changes and continuity in the electorate, looks at how new voters voted, and offers a portrait of the demographic composition and vote choices of the 2020 electorate. Pew previously analyzed voter turnout as well.
- How Should We Encourage and Safeguard Voting? National Issues Forum. A new issue guide facilitates collective deliberation about what we should do to keep our election system fair, honest, and secure. The three options presented reflect different views of the problem and suggest a different set of ideas about what should be done.
Free and fair elections that uphold citizens’ right to vote are a cornerstone of our system of representative democracy, and these resources can help us ensure the safe and effective preservation of that right. Also, as our friends at the Democracy Funders Network reminded us recently: “a democracy agenda for philanthropy must encompass more than voting rights and voter participation.” For those of us who believe that democracy is larger than politics (and that politics is larger than partisanship), there are a multitude of ways to get involved to sure that the American system of self-governance is not just protected and maintained, but can live up to its full potential.
