Can we ever trust polls again? Why did Biden crater among Latino voters in South Florida? And how can people know what news sources to trust?

VCU experts say early voting, voter turnout and the role of the suburbs could be key in this year’s elections.

On Oct. 26 VCU's Young Democrats and College Republicans faced off in a virtual debate about many of the key issues voters will consider in the 2020 election.

The economic impact of market restrictions prompted by the pandemic—not to mention the coronavirus’s broader toll of more than 200,000 Americans deaths and other losses from ruined health and well-being—will likely linger well into the next president’s term. In the meantime, the pandemic appears to be accelerating trends toward greater income and wealth inequality within the country.

How likely is it that we'll know the outcome of the presidential election when we wake up on November 4th? In this video from a recent webinar, Political Science faculty at VCU say Americans should brace for uncertainty and explain a number of factors that might complicate the process of declaring a winner such as the COVID-19 pandemic, voter suppression tactics, the Electoral College and the media's corporate imperative.

This episode of VCU’s "Civil Discourse" podcast explores the election certification process, possible problems with the process at each stage, and potential solutions.

There is good scientific evidence that if young people turned out at the same rates as older citizens, American democracy would be transformed. Here's how to make your voting plan today.

Alex Keena, Ph.D., moderates a webinar discussion sponsored by the VCU Office of Alumni Relations on election integrity and advocacy efforts in the lead up to the 2020 elections. He is joined by a panel of VCU alumni involved in the protection of free and fair elections, voter registration and advocacy efforts and issues regarding voting accessibility and security.

In this video, Judyth Twigg, Ph.D., examines the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s critique of that response. Twigg also compares the Trump and Biden campaigns’ proposals for handling the COVID-19 crisis going forward.

Everywhere you look there are predictions. But what do we really know?

Dr. Wintersieck helps voters prepare for the oceans of mis- and disinformation that will flood social media from now through Election Day.

Black women continue to occupy a unique position in American politics. Their status remains widely misunderstood and undetermined. In this article, I focus on one aspect of that problem that is often overlooked: the exceptional burden they carry in the democratic process.

As we approach the 2020 presidential election, there is growing concern over the U.S. states’ ability to administer the election during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors write that if the election result is close, and there are questions over the vote count, then state legislatures which are Republican-dominated due to partisan gerrymandering may attempt to intervene and make their own decisions on their state’s presidential electors.

The Democrats in the House of Representatives have asked the Office of Special Counsel to investigate whether Republican National Convention actions violated the Hatch Act, a law intended to protect/limit unelected, career civil servants.

President Trump entered office with a pledge to disrupt the foreign policy establishment, in order to focus on U.S. national interests with an “America first” perspective. As Prof. Saladino argues, Trump’s efforts have not succeeded. Instead, they have profoundly diminished America’s global leadership, and have otherwise reduced the federal government’s ability to achieve its objectives. The presidential contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, he argues, amounts to a high-stakes choice about America’s role in the world, and its ability to achieve necessary foreign policy goals.

News audiences are often critical of election news coverage, accusing political reporting of being too negative, too focused on polling and too biased against a particular candidate. Mallory Perryman, Ph.D., studies public perceptions of news and walks us through three major problems that audiences have with election coverage and why – despite these complaints – election news is the way it is.

This episode of VCU’s "Civil Discourse" podcast explores campaign rhetoric this election season. The discussion of lines crossed and regretted utterances circles back to the concept of civilized political speech and the potential negatives of mudslinging.

In addition to highlighting the importance of the 2020 elections to the international community, Dr. Okoth examines how the presidential electoral outcome will affect America’s external image. Why does the external image of a country matter, and why should it be linked to the presidential election?

Even as we seek to encourage voting, and to increase turnout despite being mired in the midst of a pandemic, it may be worth returning to one of the great American poets and political thinkers for some perspective on democracy.

In this video, Bill Oglesby, J.D., tells us about the history of gerrymandering and the efforts at redistricting reform.

In this video, Andrea Simonelli, Ph.D., compares Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s very different approaches to the climate change problem.

In this video, which is part of a three-part video series exploring issues of American suffrage in this anniversary year of the passing of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Katheryn Coker of the Richmond Public Library and Carolyn Eastman, Ph.D., of the VCU Department of History discuss the issues surrounding white female suffrage at the turn of the century.

In this video, which is part of a three-part video series exploring issues of American suffrage in this anniversary year of the passing of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Meldon Jenkins-Jones of the Richmond Public Library and John Aughenbaugh of the VCU Department of Political Science discuss the legal cases and legislation that surrounds the questions of suffrage, from passage of the 19th Amendment to explorations of the future of suffrage.