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A Texas Voter registration application lays on a table; we can see a brown hand with a pen as someone fills it out. A Texas driver's license is off to one side.

Grant Opportunity

Practice-Oriented Research

Improving Voter Registration and List Maintenance

Seeking to improve understanding of how the voter registration system currently operates, encourage innovation in adopting new approaches to list maintenance, and equip policymakers, administrators, and the public with reliable information about the system.

A close up of the word TRUST written in gothic serif font on a brown piece of paper.

New Research

Results that Matter: Building Trust in Elections

Equipping election officials with resources and information to build trust among the electorate and bolster trustworthy practices.

Research-Practice Partnerships

Mathematical tools, including a compass, a protractor, and a compass, lie on a wooden table on top of paper maps.

Mapping Election Administration + Election Science

Assessing the current state of knowledge and practice in election administration.

Defining Issues

Studying Voters' Experiences

Survey of the Performance of American Elections

The Survey of the Performance of American Elections is the only national survey of registered voters that is focused on understanding the voting process from the perspective of the voter. It was begun in 2008 and repeated in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2020, and 2024. Access the dataset and latest reports here.

Research + Data

Apr 5, 2023

Subscribe to the MEDSL Newsletter

Have you subscribed to our newsletter yet? The next quarterly installment will go out later this month; click through to keep up-to-date on resources, new data, events, and interesting research from scholars and election officials.

By applying scientific principles to how elections are studied and administered, MEDSL aims to improve the democratic experience for all U.S. voters.

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Explore

Research Projects

Using data-driven scientific analysis, we strive to better understand how elections function in the U.S. Read more about our core research, and keep up to date with our newest projects.

Learn more about our research

Our Data

Our lab is a clearinghouse for data sets that can fuel studies on elections and how they're conducted. Here you'll find our portal for election data and research tools produced by us and others.

Peruse our data, tools, and resources