Mara Suttmann-Lea is associate professor of American politics at Connecticut College specializing in elections. Their work is driven by an interest in strengthening access to and confidence in American democracy, and ensuring all those who wish to participate in the democratic process have the correct information needed to do so.
Suttmann-Lea’s research and teaching interweave assessments of how the intermediaries of democracy — election officials and political actors — shape the impact of voting laws on the public’s engagement in elections. They are a leading scholar of research on voter education, and their findings have been used to support the work of American election officials. Their research has been funded by the Social Science Research Council, the M.I.T. Election Data and Science Lab, and the United States Election Assistance Commission, and has been featured in a range of scholarly and public-facing outlets. They are also the founder of the podcast What Voting Means to Me, which features interviews with people from different walks of life about their experiences living in a democracy, and conversations with scholars and election officials about what can be done to improve the health of American democracy.
Motivated by an existentially threatening indicator of political polarization in the United States, election denialism, their project, “Are You There, Voter? It’s Me, Your Election Official: Depolarizing Attitudes Toward Election Administration in the United States,” will use communications data and survey research to assess how voter education by election officials can insulate the public from election denialism and depolarize perceptions of elections. Alongside public-facing outreach and peer-reviewed publications, the project will culminate in the creation of a voter education hub for election officials that identifies data-driven best practices for trust-building communications.
May 2024
