On October 4th, the Schwarzenegger Institute partnered with the California Institute of Technology to host an “Election Roundtable” event at Caltech in Pasadena. The focus of the event was on ballot reform initiatives to change primaries and redistricting across the country; and on challenges and threats facing election administrators in the 2024 election due to disinformation.
Participants included Academic Director Christian Grose, Caltech Professor and Elections Expert Michael Alvarez, Carnegie Fellow and CSU Fresno Professor Lisa Bryant, Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County Registrar/Recorder, Professor Efren Perez of UCLA, and Professor Sara Sadhwani of Pomona College. Grose and Alvarez explained how changes to primary systems are on the ballot in several states in 2024, including an attempt to repeal a new open primary top-4 system in Alaska. They discussed their research “Electoral Innovation and the Alaska System” published in Political Research Quarterly that shows that the primary system led to the election of moderate Republican Lisa Murkowski in 2022, as well as insights into which types of voters support the 2024 reform ballot initiatives.