Pints with Professors Moraguez and Bahls – Why Do/Don’t People Vote and What Can Go Wrong with Voting Anyway?

From 7-8:30 p.m. on Election Night, Nov. 6, UNC Asheville faculty members Ashley Moraguez and Patrick Bahls will discuss “the paradox of voting in the United States” when the Pint with a Professor series resumes at Habitat Tavern & Commons, 174 Broadway St. in Asheville. This event is open to everyone and admission is free; food and beverages are not.

Moraguez, assistant professor of political science, and Bahls, professor of mathematics and director of UNC Asheville’s Honors Program, provide this description:

“Fifty-five percent of eligible voters turned out to vote in 2016, a 20-year low for presidential elections. Turnout in the 2014 midterms was just 36.4 percent, the lowest since World War II. We’ll talk about Arrow’s Theorem, Duverger’s Law, and Donald Saari’s geometric analysis of positional systems in order to learn just how much can go wrong with a seemingly ordinary election. And, we’ll discuss the paradox of voting in the United States, explore some of the individual and institutional factors that determine turnout, and discuss the implications they have for our democracy. ”