Voting During the Pandemic: The Benefits and Challenges of Voting in the Time of COVID-19
This Zoom event is sponsored by the Caltech Y and the Caltech Management Association (CMA).
This event is free. All members of the Caltech campus and JPL communities and retirees are welcome, but registration is required. There is a limit to the number of participants for this talk, so registration is on a first-come-first-served basis. After you register, Zoom will send a confirmation email with a link to the event. If you are new to Zoom, it would be helpful to watch this video.
For more event information, contact Athena Castro at athena@caltech.edu.
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the established voting process in the United States in dramatic and unexpected ways. Join us as Barry Burden discusses the variety of ways that states have been responding to the unprecedented demand for voting by mail in the primaries and in the upcoming presidential election. The shift from voting in person to voting by mail comes with some obvious public health benefits, but also some surprising challenges for both election officials and voters that will make the 2020 presidential election unique and potentially problematic.
Barry Burden is the Lyons Family Professor of Electoral Politics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Director of the Elections Research Center. He has written and edited several publications, including "The Measure of American Elections," "Personal Roots of Representation," and "Why Americans Split Their Tickets: Campaigns, Competition, and Divided Government." Burden received his B.A. from Wittenberg University and his Ph.D. from Ohio State University. He is also affiliated with the La Follette School of Public Affairs, the Center for Demography of Health and Aging, the Tommy G. Thompson Center of Public Leadership, and the Election Administration Project.