Keynote: Democracy and the Power of Your Vote

Event Overview

The right to cast your vote is in crisis. This is not new; the electoral process has long been riddled with voter suppression strategies like gerrymandering and other restrictions that flagrantly target underserved communities. But the unprecedented challenges of the 2020 election season have intensified the barriers to the ballot box, from the social distancing necessitated by the mishandled COVID-19 response to the politically motivated attacks on the practice of voting by mail.

In this discussion, we’ll examine both the historical and modern-day efforts to prevent people of color from voting, comparing and contrasting tactics like the literacy tests of the past to the voter roll purges of today. We’ll also reflect on the lessons that election officials learned from primary voting as the pandemic escalated and the ways this could affect equal access to the polls in the upcoming general election. It’s only by providing context for the current obstacles to voting that we can find an equitable way forward.

What You'll Learn

The history, tactics, and consequences of voter suppression
Evidence of racial inequities in voter registration rates, access to polling locations, and voting by mail
Voting rates in both local and national elections that are the foundation of our democracy
What you can do to ensure your right to vote

Speakers

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Charles Stewart III

Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science

MIT

Charles Stewart III is the Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science at MIT, where he has taught since 1985, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research and teaching areas include elections, congressional politics, and American political development.

Professor Stewart is co-director of the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project, a leading research effort that applies scientific analysis to questions about election technology, election administration, and election reform. Working with the Pew Charitable Trusts, he helped with the development of Pew’s Elections Performance Index. Professor Stewart also provided advice to the Presidential Commission on Election Administration. His research on measuring the performance of elections and polling place operations is funded by Pew, the Democracy Fund, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Professor Stewart co-edited “The Measure of American Elections” (2014) with Barry C. Burden.

In 2017, with the support of the Hewlett Foundation, Democracy Fund, and the Joyce Foundation, Professor Stewart established the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, which applies scientific principles to how elections are studied and administered. In 2020, he partnered with Professor Nate Persily of the Stanford Law School to establish the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project.

Recognized at MIT for his undergraduate teaching, Professor Stewart has been named to the second class of MacVicar Fellows in 1994, was awarded the Baker Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and is the recipient of the Class of 1960 Fellowship. From 1992 to 2015, he served as Head of House of McCormick Hall, along with his spouse, Kathryn M. Hess.

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Gilda R. Daniels

Associate Professor

University of Baltimore Law School

Professor Gilda Daniels is a voting rights expert and former Deputy Chief in the U.S. Dept. of Justice Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, where she served during both the Clinton and Bush administrations. She is currently a Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore Law School and the Director of Litigation for the Advancement Project’s National Office, a multiracial civil rights organization.

“Uncounted: The Crisis of Voter Suppression in America” is Professor Daniels’ first book. Published in 2020 by New York University Press, it has already been called “required reading” by Ms. Magazine and earned a starred review in Booklist that said it “provides a road map and a call to arms for participants in what [Daniels] calls the fight to vote…This book is a valuable resource for all participants in civic life.”

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