Sociology 150/ 250 Rev 8/24/2026

Title: The 2026 US election, Participation and Theory

Number of units: 4

Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:30-4:20
Room 370-370

TAs: TBD

Quarter offered: Fall quarter, 2026

Instructor: Michael Rosenfeld, Professor of Sociology

Specific Soc 150 information (including reading questions, class community guidelines, directions for presenters and directions for papers are on my website).

Additional class material on Canvas

Goals:
In this class we will read and discuss the literature on voting, voting rights, public opinion polling, and elections. The most important part of the class is the field component, as students will not only be obligated to register to vote (if they are eligible), but also make phone calls or canvass in person to talk to citizens about some issue or candidate. Students will have the opportunity to pick any candidate (local, state, or national), any party, and any nonpartisan issue or group (such as ballot measures, the League of Women Voters, the Environmental Defense Fund, the National Rifle Association, nonpartisan voter registration drives, etc.) that they want. Political persuasion only makes sense if you, the person doing the persuading , believe in the candidate or cause.

Students will learn to understand the election system through participation. Each student will pick an issue or candidate, and then the student will phone call (or canvass in person) around that issue or candidate and learn about what their fellow citizens have to say about their chosen issue. By taking this class you commit to interacting with the public, and you need to be aware that the public you interact with can be rude, biased, and impolite. Students will learn about how their candidate or issue campaign recruits, trains, and treats volunteers. Students will present a post-mortem about their chosen candidate or issue after the November elections are over.

It is certain that we in this class will not all be supporting the same candidates. We will always show respect to each other regardless of our partisan differences.

The Chatham House rule: We all required to observe the Chatham House rule, which means that while you may talk to people outside of class about what happens inside of class, you may not name anyone inside of class to anyone outside of class, and of course there is no posting to social media about what goes on in class. Following the rule ensures that we can have open discussions inside of class. Failure to follow the rule will result in strong grading deductions.

The situation we are in: The world is not normal right now. If the world-wide craziness is interfering with your ability to get things done, reach out to me and we will find an accommodation as best we can.

Device-free classroom: To enhance your learning and the focus of those around you, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and wearable devices like smart glasses or smart watches are not permitted in class except as an accommodation for a documented disability. Please keep all devices silenced and stowed in your bag for the entire duration of class.

Students with Disabilities:
Students with disabilities that may necessitate an academic accommodation must initiate a request with the Stanford Office of Accessible Education, https://oae.stanford.edu/.
If you need accommodations, please share your OAE letter with Professor Rosenfeld early in the quarter.

The Honor Code:
Students are responsible for understanding the University’s Honor Code policy and must make proper use of citations of sources for writing papers, creating, and presenting their work, and doing research. Each paper you write for this class must include on the title page or first page a statement about whether you used AI tools in writing the paper, and if so how exactly you used the tools. If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact me.

Proctored final:
To foster a climate of academic honesty, effective learning, and fair assessment, examinations in this course may be proctored in accordance with the Stanford Honor Code. Final exam will be an in-person, blue book exam with questions that are all known in advance, and therefore easy to study for.

Readings: There are two required books, both on reserve at the Green library and available for purchase through Amazon. I strongly recommend that you buy these two books. We read these books in the beginning of the quarter so make sure you have them, or have easy access to them.

Amazon Books link: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2SRJABELZ5AVF

General history and theory of American democracy:

*Dahl, Robert. 1989. Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City. Available Online at Stanford Libraries. https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/13055255

Theory and evidence of what influences voter turnout:

* Green, Donald P. and Alan S. Gerber. 2024. Get Out the Vote: How to Increase Voter Turnout. Washington, DC. Brookings Institution. Fifth Edition.

On the constantly changing environment of gerrymandering, election law, and election interference in the runup to the 2026 midterm election, we will try to keep up with the news:

* The Brennan Center has regular reports on the legal and political battles over voting rights, from a mostly pro-voting-rights perspective.

* Scotusblog is a good resource for understanding US Supreme Court decisions that have relevance for the election.
* A 2026 Propublica report on the rarity of non-citizen voting.

On Political lies:

*Allcott, Hunt, and Matthew Gentzkow. 2017. "Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election." Journal of Economic Perspectives 31 (2):211-236. Online here.

* Arendt, Hannah. 1971. "Lying in Politics: Reflections on the Pentagon Papers." The New York Review of Books, November 18 1971. https://www-nybooks-com.stanford.idm.oclc.org/articles/1971/11/18/lying-in-politics-reflections-on-the-pentagon-pape/

*Vosoughi, Soroush, Deb Roy, and Sinan Aral. 2018. "The Spread of True and False News Online." Science 359:1146-1151. Online here.

On felon disenfranchisement:

*Chris Uggen, Ryan Larson, and Sarah Shannon. 2016. 6 Million Lost Voters. https://www.sentencingproject.org/app/uploads/2022/08/6-Million-Lost-Voters.pdf

* And see this 2024 update by Nicole Porter et al “Out of Step: US Policy on Voting Rights in Global Perspective” at https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/out-of-step-u-s-policy-on-voting-rights-in-global-perspective/

* Christopher Uggen, Mischelle Van Brakle, and Heather McLaughlin. 2009. “Punishment and Social Exclusion: National Differences in Prisoner Disenfranchisement.” Pages 59-78 in Criminal Disenfranchisement in an International Perspective, edited by Alec Ewald and Brandon Rottinghaus. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Available online at Stanford libraries, https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/13517064

On Voter Fraud:

*Ansolabehere, Stephen, Samantha Luks, and Brian F. Schaffner. 2015. "The perils of cherry picking low frequency events in large sample surveys." Electoral Studies 40:409-410. https://www-sciencedirect-com.stanford.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S0261379415001420

*Goel, Sharad, Marc Meredith, Michael Morse, David Rothschild, and Houshmand Sirani-Mehr. Forthcoming. "One Person, One Vote: Estimating the Prevalence of Double Voting in U.S. Presidential Elections." American Political Science Review.https://5harad.com/papers/1p1v.pdf

* Levitt, Justin. 2007. "The Truth about Voter Fraud." New York: Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/truth-about-voter-fraud
* Levitt, Justin. 2014. "A Comprehensive Investigation of Voter Impersonation finds 31 Credible Incidents out of One Billion Ballots Cast." The Washington Post, August 6, 2014. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast/

*Richman, Jesse T., Gulshan A. Chattha, and David C. Earnest. 2014. "Do non-citizens vote in U.S. elections?" Electoral Studies 36:149-157. https://www-sciencedirect-com.stanford.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S0261379414000973

* See also Center for an Informed Public, Digital Forensic Research Lab, Graphika, and Stanford Internet Observatory. 2021. "The Long Fuse: Misinformation and the 2020 Election." Stanford Digital Repository. https://purl.stanford.edu/tr171zs0069.

On Shelby County:

* The Shelby County v. Holder decision (https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=301092622958164034) and its aftermath, i.e. “How Shelby County v. Holder” broke America, by Vann R. Newkirk in the Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/how-shelby-county-broke-america/564707/

* Blackshear, James, and Lani Guinier. 2014. "Free at Last: Rejecting Equal Sovereignty and Restoring the Constitutional Right to Vote Shelby County v. Holder." Harvard Law and Policy Review 8 (1):39-70. https://heinonline-org.stanford.idm.oclc.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/harlpolrv8&id=39&collection=journals&index=

* Rachel Lears, Director. Knock Down the House (2019). Featuring Alexandria Occasio-Cortez. Available on Netflix.

On Political Polarization:

Baldassarri, Delia, and Andrew Gelman. 2008. "Partisans Without Constraint: Political Polarization and Trends in American Public Opinion." American Journal of Sociology 114 (2):408-446. https://www-jstor-org.stanford.idm.oclc.org/stable/pdf/10.1086/590649.pdf

Lord, Charles G., Lee Ross, and Mark R. Lepper. 1979. "Biased Assimilation and Attitude Polarization: The Effects of Prior Theories on Subsequently Considered Evidence." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37 (11):2098-2109. https://psycnet-apa-org.stanford.idm.oclc.org/fulltext/1981-05421-001.pdf

Assignments and grades:

	For undergraduates, Soc 150	For graduate students, Soc 250
Registering to vote and voting (if eligible)	10%	10%
Three page Pre-election report on your candidate or issue, and your experience so far, and whether you predict victory and why.	10%	10%
In-class presentation on a reading of your choice	N/A	15%
Regular section participation	10%	10%
Section pre-election presentation	5%	5%
Section post-election presentation	10%	5%
Section presentation on assigned reading	10%	5%
Regular in-class participation	5%	5%
Final in-person Exam (on the readings and theory)	20%	20%
Final report on your candidate or issue, how they won or lost and why	20%	15%
Total	100%	100%

	Reading Assignment	In Class	In Section
Week 1
Sept 21		No class, Yom Kippur	No section week 1
Sept 23		Introduction to class

Week 2			Discussion of Dahl, students introduce their chosen candiate or issue
Sept 28	On democratic theory. Reading: Dahl, Who Governs? Book I and II, chapters 1-12	discuss democracy theory
Sept 30	On Democratic theory. Dahl’s Who Governs? finish the book	discuss democracy theory

Week 3			Discussion of Green and Gerber, students, students discuss their first canvassing experiences
Oct 5	On how campaigns work: Green and Gerber Get Out the Vote, read Ch 1-7	discuss the evidence of what works (and what doesn’t work) in getting out the vote, and why, and how we know what works
Oct 7	On how campaigns work: Green and Gerber Get Out the Vote, read Ch 8-12	Students introduce their chosen issue and campaign Students describe their first canvassing experiences

Week 4			Pre-election presentations, discussions of voting rights
Oct 12	* Shelby County v Holder (US Supreme Court decision)	Discuss the state of voting rights now.
Oct 14	* Newkirk in the Atlantic * Blackshear and Guinier	.

	Reading Assignment	In Class	In Section
Week 5			Pre-election presentations, discussions of political lies and fake news
Oct 19	* Allcott, Hunt, and Matthew Gentzkow. * Vosoughi et al	Discussion of political lies and their impact
Oct 21	* Arendt 1971 And a discussion of polling and measurement error.

Week 6			Discussion of the literature on voter fraud, discussion of what is on students’ ballots
Oct 26	* Richman et al * Ansolabehere et al * Levitt 2007 report, The Truth about Voter Fraud	Discussion of the evidence of Voter fraud in the US
Oct 28	* Levitt 2019 article * Goel et al, One person One Vote	Discussion of what is on your ballot

Week 7			Open discussion
Nov 2	No class: canvassing day!
Nov 3	Election Day!
Nov 4		Elections initial post-mortem

Week 8			Post-election presentations
Nov 9	Netflix Movie Knock down the House.	On running for office and campaigning
Nov 11		More elections post-mortem

Week 9			More post-election presentations, discussions of
	Reading Assignment	In Class	In Section
Nov 16	A report and a paper by Uggen on felon disenfranchisement	Discussion of felon disenfranchisement and re-enfranchisement. Also, a discussion of polling accuracy.
Nov 18	Porter et al report by the Sentencing Project

Nov 23	Thanksgiving Recess, no class
Nov 25	Thanksgiving Recess, no class

Week 10			More post-election presentations and discussions of polarization
Nov 30	Lord et al and on political polarization	Discussion of political polarization
Dec 2	Baldassari and Gelman	Final exam review

Wednesday, Dec 9	Final exam, in person, at the date and time specified by the registrar	7P-10P, final exam