The 2020 U.S. election, issues and challenges

From addressing how to vote safely during a pandemic to tackling disinformation and misinformation on social media, Stanford scholars examine the issues and uncertainties facing American voters as they cast their ballot in November's general election. This November, Americans are casting their ballot amid turmoil and uncertainty: a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic; a summer of civil unrest and a racial reckoning; disinformation and conspiracy theories muddying the media landscape; an economy rebounding in spurts; record-shattering weather and climate disasters. Stanford research intersects with many of these issues that are troubling the nation and the world at large. From across the social and political sciences, humanities, science and medicine, scholars are applying their expertise to better understand how people, policy and democratic processes can come together to address them. As Stanford political scientist Condoleezza Rice recently pointed out , while democracy "is hard," it inspires change in a way that aligns itself to human dignity. "I think if each and every one of us recognizes that democracy is not a spectator sport and that you have to commit yourself to being willing to play your own role, then the aggregated roles will come to mean something," added Rice, director of Stanford's Hoover Institution , who spoke at a session of Democracy Matters: Challenges Facing Democracy in the U.S., an ongoing webinar series that highlights challenges to democracy in the U.S. and around the world.