Leonora Willet (CM ’25) More than three years ago, whistleblower Christopher Wylie exposed how Cambridge Analytica, a U.K. based consulting firm, accessed Facebook consumers’ data without their consent. As a former employee of the British consulting firm, Wylie witnessed firsthand Facebook’s use of consumer data to target users for disinformation campaigns. The primary means by which...
By Camryn Fujita (SC’21) Former President Donald Trump and his allies have faced intense legal fallout since the certification of the 2020 election results and the January 6th storming of the U.S. Capitol. Last week, attorneys for Fox News petitioned a New York state court to drop the defamation suit brought against the network by voting technology company, Smartmatic. Smartmatic, the...
Andy Liu, Mudd ‘23 Despite opposition from organized labor groups, the most expensive ballot measure in California history won by a comfortable margin last Tuesday, with voters approving Prop 22 by a 58-42 margin. Prop 22 classified rideshare and delivery drivers as contractors rather than employees. This exempted corporations such as Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash, who spent over two hundred million...
Kenyamarie Mahone (PO ’23) After months of campaigning and punditry, Tuesday’s election brought a record breaking turn-out of nearly 160 million Americans. While much of the focus of this election season has been on the presidential race between incumbent Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, several citizen led ballot-initiatives made history this week. From education policy to...
Kenyamarie Mahone (PO ’23) The final Presidential debate on Thursday at Nashville’s Belmont University brought unexpected levels of professionalism from both Donald Trump and Joe Biden. After the chaos that unfolded during the first debate, it was unclear whether this one would offer any substance on either candidates’ platforms or policy goals. Fortunately, with the change in debate rules...
By Ebere Amadi (PO ’22) On Wednesday, October 7th at 6 PM PST, The U.S. Vice Presidential Debate kicked off with Californian Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Pence clashing in Kingsbury Hall, Salt Lake City, Utah. Senator Harris spent the duration of the debate defending the Presidential nominee Joe Biden and hitting the Trump administration for their poor response to the...
By Sam Fiske (CMC ’21) Rational choice theory suggests that people are motivated to maximize utility through self-serving behavior and in recent years, this idea has become increasingly popular in political science. In An Economic Theory of Political Action in Democracy, Anthony Downs adopted the assumption that “political parties in a democracy formulate policy strictly as a means of gaining...
Aditya Bhalla (PO ’23) Last week’s Iowa caucus was supposed to be the emphatic beginning of a widely anticipated electoral cycle. However, as 25 candidates narrowed to a handful of legitimate contenders for the Democratic Party nomination, the caucuses went awry, as precincts had yet to report results late into the night. Final results from the caucuses hadn’t emerged until late in the...
Andy Liu (HMC ‘23) Last Sunday night, five full days after results were expected, the controversial Iowa caucuses finally produced a winner, as Pete Buttigieg narrowly edged out Sen. Bernie Sanders in state delegate equivalents. While the results are still subject to change, the public opinion of Iowa as an unmitigated disaster will not. Historic delays, breakdowns in communication, and widely...
Soksamnang Lim (PO’23) The recent Iowa Caucus marks a significant milestone in America’s transition into a digital democracy, defined as the use of information and communication technology in political and electoral processes. However, the Caucus’ delayed results from the poorly tested polling app demonstrate the growing role of technology within America’s election process...
