Florida State University Political Science Professor and Director of the LeRoy Collins Institute, Lonna Atkeson, Ph.D., received a $10,000 grant from Public Agenda for its Democracy Renewal Project to contribute to trust-building electoral research.
Dr. Atkeson and her team were one of 10 teams selected for the project to conduct practice-relevant studies showing how to achieve universal access to elections while strengthening trust and confidence in elections.
Dr. Atkeson will work in partnership with Wendy L. Hansen, Ph.D., of the University of New Mexico and Maggie Toulouse Oliver, the New Mexico Secretary of State, to study the effects of nonpartisan academic election observers.
Dr. Hansen and Dr. Atkeson will implement a field experiment at vote centers in Sandoval County, New Mexico, to investigate whether the presence of clearly identified university elections observers and non-partisan election observers bolsters voter confidence.
“Public Agenda launched the Democracy Renewal Project because a major barrier to success in efforts to strengthen democracy is the lack of high-quality, actionable evidence,” said Public Agenda President Andrew J. Seligsohn. “I’m pleased by the breadth, quality, and importance of the studies we are funding through this first cycle. These projects will be valuable to people seeking to make improvements to our democracy, and they demonstrate the value of investing in rigorous research that’s focused on questions at the heart of pro-democracy practice.”
The funded projects will explore various aspects of electoral participation, including the impact of placing election observers at polling sites and informing voters about accessible records, as well as strategies for public officials to foster trust and bipartisan engagement.
Additionally, studies will examine the impact of targeted outreach on access and trust, particularly among communities and families affected by the criminal justice system and will produce new data to inform future research on equitable ballot access and communications by election officials.
As the funded research projects are completed, Public Agenda will transform findings into practical tools and resources tailored for pro-democracy advocates, policymakers, and funders.
Each grantee was selected through a highly competitive process involving in-depth review by a panel of external experts.
For more information about each of the research projects, visit publicagenda.org/initiative/democracy-renewal-project.