Political Science and the 2016 Election

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Alternate Thursdays • 12:30 p.m.-2 p.m. • Mackey Auditorium

September 14, 28 • October 12, 26 • November 9, (23 break), 30

What can data and political science tell us about the 2016 US Presidential election results? This class will utilize voting data, the American National Election Survey (ANES), polling, political science models, and other sources to help explain what happened. We will look at state and county voting data to compare 2016 to past elections. Where was this election like recent elections and where did it turn out differently? What do the results tell us about red vs. blue states and polarization? How did the polls and forecasters like Nate Silver do in predicting the results? We will look at post-election studies such as the AAPOR Evaluation of 2016 Election Polls to assess which crystal balls were accurate and which were blurry. What can we learn from the ANES and other scholarly studies about why the election turned out as it did? How important were demography, geography and attitudes? In addition to presentations by the instructor, the class may include presentations by CSUF and UCI faculty.

Instructor/Coordinator : Edwin Batson.