Policy Lab: Electoral Integrity in Comparative Perspective

(1 Credit Hour) · Undergraduate

This course focuses on the challenges policy makers face when designing electoral legislation that seeks to maximize civic rights without compromising certainty. In this course students will embark on a comparative analysis based on different case studies on how electoral processes are shaped and designed by the context in which policy makers operate (i.e. Georgia's Election Integrity Act 2021). Students will analyze the legal, political and cultural conditions that shape policy design in specific relation to the so-called chain of trust of electoral integrity (i.e. registry, polling station officials, ballot design, electoral observation, preliminary results, oversight and auditing). In order to do so, the course will look into regulatory practices in countries where a longstanding distrust in elections has fostered comprehensive federal laws able to standardize electoral public policy. We will embark on informed discussions with specialists in the field who can share first-hand experience in relation to policy design and the challenges resulting from confronting perspectives on electoral integrity.