Welcome to Our Pre-Conference Voting Rights Workshop

Ray Block Jr., Penn State University

Winter 2021

Overview

  1. Reiterate the importance of expert witness work

  2. Describe the overall plan for this course

  3. Outline some of the objectives for this course

1. RPV work in today’s political climate

Expert witnesses, de-mystified

In the court of law…

  • “Lay” (fact) witness = testify based (only) on personal knowledge of people, events, etc.

  • “Expert” (opinion) witness = can draw conclusions based on their examination of information

Expert witnesses, de-mystified

Who gets to be an expert?

  • According to Federal Rules of Evidence, Rule 702:

    • Anyone with an established reputation in the subject area that is central to testimony

    • It helps to have an advanced degree in the subject area, but I don’t think that’s a requirement

Expert witnesses, de-mystified

Job description: prepare a report, which is a document that:

  • identifies the opinions you tend to express

  • outlines the data analyses supporting those opinions

    • Sometimes, that report is all you need to do.

    • Other times, you get invited to share ideas from that report in court

Why we need you

The voting rights of minorities are always under attack; this is especially true now

  • Census Bureau to release redistricting data this fall; states need this data to redraw legislative boundaries

  • Voter fraud lies fueled dozens of legal challenges, culminated in the riots on January 6, 2021, and inspires ongoing efforts to restrict access to the ballot

What’s it like to do RPV work

2. Course plan

What this bootcamp is about

  • This mini-course will give you the skills and knowledge needed to perform racially polarized voting (henceforth referred to as ``RPV’’) analyses.

  • Such training will be particularly important as we enter the upcoming redistricting cycle in 2021, as proposals for the redrawing of district lines proliferate and need to be evaluated.

What this bootcamp is about

In preparation for this next redistricting cycle, this mini-course will explore

  • what RPV analysis is,

  • how such analysis is done, and

  • why it is relevant to expert witnesses, analysts, attorneys, community leaders, etc.

3. Course objectives

Skills we will build

After this course, you should be able to

  • Use the R software package in general (and the desktop version of RStudio in particular) to conduct RPV tests

    • these methods and approaches include (but are not limited to) homogenous precinct analysis, bivariate ecological regression, ecological inference analysis, etc.

  • Disseminate results from RPV analyses in various formats (e.g., data visualizations, slide decks, reports, etc.)

Before we go…

  • If you have not done so already, download RStudio and get accustomed to it. We will start using it next week. Here are some excellent user-guide videos for people who (like me) are new to RStudio.

References (FYI)

Engstrom, Richard L., and Michael P. McDonald. 2011. “The political Scientist as Expert Witness.” PS: Political Science and Politics 44(2): 285-289.

Engstrom, Richard L., Daniel McCool, Jorge Chapa, and Gerald R. Webster. 2017. “Social Science Expert Witness Testimony in Voting Rights Cases.” National Political Science Review 17(1): 97-120