Unreliable Data Can Threaten Democracy

Data analysis is playing an increasing role in the U.S. electoral system, raising an important question as the Trump administration prepares to oversee the 2020 Census: What if the data aren't reliable?

Across the country, political operatives have been hard at work finding new ways to use data to gain an advantage. In North Carolina, as the Washington Post reported, staffers of the Republican-controlled state government employed breakdowns by race of early voting behavior and ID preferences to craft laws that seemed guaranteed to reduce black representation. Luckily, a federal judge looked at the same data and prevented the state from enforcing the laws.