Election science is a discipline within political science that seeks to apply quantitative tools from hard sciences to the study of elections. It is distinct from the study of public opinion in elections, which describes how elections affect voter opinion and election campaigns, by focusing on the ways that institutions and their administration affect public opinion rather than the other way around.

The "butterfly ballot" used in Palm Beach County was suspected of causing Al Gore's supporters to accidentally vote for Pat Buchanan

The study of election science can be traced back to early scientific studies of electoral systems, like the development of the Condorcet method to analyze voting methods in the 18th century. The field came into being following the 2000 United States presidential election,[1] where the administrative[2] and technical failures[3] affected the outcome of the election. Examples of subjects where election science methods are applied include gerrymandering, electoral fraud, and voter registration.

There is an academic conference[4] dedicated to the study of election science and the Southern Political Science Association has a sub-conference for the study of election science.[5] In addition, multiple universities now offer a bachelor of science in political science for a data science track.[6][7]

References

  1. ↑ Brams, Stephan J.; Herschbach, Dudley R. (2001). "The Science of Elections". Science. 292 (5521): 1449. doi:10.1126/science.292.5521.1449. PMID 11379606. S2CID 28262658.
  2. ↑ Stuart, Guy (2004). "Databases, Felons, and Voting: Bias and Partisanship of the Florida Felons List in the 2000 Elections". Political Science Quarterly. 119 (3): 453–475. doi:10.2307/20202391. JSTOR 20202391. Retrieved 2023-02-10.
  3. ↑ Wand, Jonathan N. (December 1, 2001). "The Butterfly Did It: The Aberrant Vote for Buchanan in Palm Beach County, Florida". American Political Science Review. 95 (4): 793–810. doi:10.1017/S000305540040002X. JSTOR 3117714. S2CID 12182778. Archived from the original on November 24, 2016. Retrieved 2023-02-10.
  4. ↑ "Election Science, Reform, and Administration Conference". esra-conference.org. Retrieved 2023-02-10.
  5. ↑ "2023 Election Science Conference-within-a-Conference". Joseph A. Coll. Retrieved 2023-02-10.
  6. ↑ "BS in Data Sciences in Political Science". American University. Retrieved 2023-02-10.
  7. ↑ "Data Science Track | Political Science". politicalscience.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2023-02-10.


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