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Gladys Gonzalez, who helped thousands of Latino entrepreneurs launch and build their Utah businesses, dies at 79
“She was just this dynamic woman,” said the CEO of the Pete Suazo Business Center, which Gonzalez founded.
Tim Cook says heavy Siri users may have to pay extra
Heavy users of Apple Intelligence may need an iCloud+ subscription
A Shocking New Book Reveals Why JD Vance Might Be Even More Dangerous for America Than We Thought
Let’s hope the vice president’s is so unlikeable that it keeps him from climbing the ranks any higher.
The US ‘golden age’ science strategy: what Europeans need to know
The US has unveiled what officials claim is the most radical overhaul of the public R&D system in a generation, which if implemented could have significant implications for transatlantic research collaboration. Science: A New Golden Age derides universities as “legacy institutions” and instead wants to prioritise funding on technological challenges, new research labs and funding that follows individual scientists, rather than being linked to their institutions. “Too much of our research enterprise has come to serve itself rather than the scientists within it,” writes Michael Kratsios, director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the only named author of the report. “Federal funding agencies should support a broader range of performers.” But some critics argue that the strategy is a smokescreen, using genuine problems in academia as an excuse to further weaken US universities, which US vice-president JD Vance has labelled “the enemy..”Even as it talks of a “golden age” for science, the White House has proposed halving the 2027 budget of the US National Science Foundation (NSF), and has put forward double-digit cuts for other funding bodies, such as the National Institutes for Health. It asked for similarly steep savings in 2026, but Congress stopped them going through. Science: A New Golden Age says success will be measured by the extent to which scientists are “free” to pursue the most “vital questions,,” painting academia as currently hidebound by bureaucracy, sluggishness and consensual conservatism. And yet the Trump administration is simultaneously planning new rules that will hand political appointees unprecedented powers to screen and cancel grants. The report has pretentions to be the successor to Science: The Endless Frontier, the seminal 1945 document in which presidential science advisor Vannevar Bush set out the case for post-war government funding of basic research, helping to spur the creation of funders such as the NSF. Even the title page font is the same. But it remains unclear if the latest report will leave anything like as lasting a legacy.Here, Science|Business explains some of the biggest proposed changes in Science: A New Golden Age, and how Europeans think it might change the landscape of their biggest science partner.Universities under fireA key target of the report are US universities, which it repeatedly suggests are outmoded as research institutions. It criticises the NSF for channelling resources “overwhelmingly to a single type of performer, the university-based, principal investigator-led research group..” Universities “extract” money from researchers’ grants to support “growing administrative bloat,” alongside legitimate uses. The Trump administration has been trying to cut the overhead costs in federal research grants that flow to universities. Instead, new institutions are being built. In May, the NSF announced it would spend $1.5 billion on two new so-called X-Labs, focused on scientific instrumentation and quantum systems. The idea is that they fill a niche in the landscape, tackling problems that are too big for a university lab, but too early stage for private start-up funding. Parallel with Europe?This shift to new research organisations parallels moves in Europe to set up new innovation agencies, such as Germany’s Sprind, the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency, and the EU’s European Innovation Council. The Dutch and French governments are looking to set up their own entities too. There’s now an emerging consensus, evident in a number of new strategies, that public R&D needs to be shaken up, Charles McIvor, an economist at the OECD, has written in response to Kratsios’s plans. “What stands out for me across these strategies [in the US, Germany, South Korea and Japan] is that governments are realising that the old ways of delivering STI [science, technology and innovation] programming no longer works,” he said in a LinkedIn post. Metascience wins?The document is, at least on the face of it, also a big win for some policy thinkers in the US who want far more experimentation with new forms of research grant and institution.It name-checks a litany of new public R&D ideas, from focused research organisations and advance market commitments to “golden tickets,” which allow grant reviewers the power to hand applicants money without requiring the consensus of other review panellists.Related articlesEuropean researchers sound the alarm that Trump rule changes will hit cooperationFocused research organisations: what are they, and how do you set them up? NIH turmoil risks reciprocal EU-US access to health research funding In addition, every federal research funding agency should set up a metascience unit, the strategy says, “with authority to run controlled experiments on review and funding mechanisms.” The UK has already set one up, the strategy points out. This mirrors recommendations to the European Commission. In 2024, a report led by former Portuguese science minister Manuel Heitor also advised the EU to set up an “experimental unit” to test out new methods of funding research. So far, however, Brussels hasn’t put forward any plans to do so. Bypass universitiesBut there’s a worry that the Trump administration is using the metascience movement to justify an overhaul of public R&D that punishes universities, which it sees as centres of political resistance. Last year, it threatened to cut Harvard University’s federal funding unless it hired and admitted a “critical mass” of new faculty and students to create “viewpoint diversity” across campus. It’s also attempted to strip academics of funding for working on politically forbidden areas, like LGBTIQ people’s health.The new strategy appears to be a “move to bypass the power of universities full stop and allow funders and political bureaucracies to handpick the projects and people who will execute them,” said Jean-Claude Burgelman, a former senior official in the Commission’s research directorate, on LinkedIn.The EU’s science counsellor in Washington, Florent Bernard, wrote that the plans risk diverting public research funding so that it “solely serves private interests.” “Who, if not independent universities, will do research that demonstrates the impact of tobacco on lung cancer or the role of human activities in our current climate crisis?” he wrote.Should we take it seriously?“I would view the overall document as a bad faith argument,” said Cole Donovan, director of science policy at the campaigning group Stand Up for Science, and a former OSTP official. “I don’t see the project itself as something that can be isolated from the broader attack on the system.” He thinks the argument that academia has become dysfunctional and in need of radical reform is being deployed as part of a “PR argument” to legitimate moves against US scientists. The strategy presents ideas like metascience units as new, whereas there were moves to set them up at the NSF during the previous administration of Joe Biden, Donovan said. The other caveat here is that the OSTP has limited power to carry out any of these recommendations. While Kratsios has issued a memo to research agencies telling them to implement the recommendations in the report, he doesn’t have direct budgetary control. “As a former OSTPer myself, this does not seem like a document that is realistic,” said Donovan.
Ransomware attack on medical billing company results in data on 1.3M leaked to dark web
The data trove from Medical Computer Business Services includes sensitive patient care information. A hacker group called PEAR had claimed credit for the attack, which occurred in 2025.
MCP just got its biggest update ever — here’s what changes for AI agents
The Model Context Protocol’s biggest update yet makes MCP stateless, strengthens security and governance, and positions AI agents for large-scale enterprise deployment across cloud and Kubernetes environments.
Jimmy Smith: Entertainment value
Amusement Park Entertainment’s Chairman, CEO and Chief Creative Officer discusses cultural storytelling, fearless ideas and why advertising must earn people’s attention.
NFL training camp news, live updates: Chiefs' Eric Bieniemy steps away from team; Commanders part ways with TEs coach Ben Steele
‘Carrie’ season 2? Mike Flanagan sees TV series ‘not as a finite story’ (exclusive)
‘Carrie’ season 2? Mike Flanagan addresses potential for more episodes and talks expanding the world of Stephen King during an exclusive interview with EW.
You think U.S. politics have never been worse? It has, says this Utah professor and podcaster.
Rabic partisanship and fake news are not new ideas in America, a Utah Valley University professor argues. He explains why in his new book.
Nebraska football representatives announced for Big Ten Media Days
Representatives for Nebraska football at the 2026 Big Ten Media Days have been announced.
Why 3 secretive biotechs are keeping their science close to the chest
Startups like Altos Labs are keeping pipeline details scarce to protect their ideas from competitors — but some experts say stealth only works for biotechs with deep pockets.
Daniel Cormier: Magomed Ankalaev Next for 205 lbs Title Shot
UFC commentator Daniel Cormier believes that Magomed Ankalaev has done enough to get another title shot at 205 lbs.Ankalaev defeated Bogdan Guskov via fifth-round TKO in the main event of UFC Abu Dhabi to get back into the win column after losing the UFC light heavyweight title in his last fight to Alex Pereira at […] The post Daniel Cormier: Magomed Ankalaev Next for 205 lbs Title Shot appeared first on HEAVY.
Relocating CT scanners closer to ED cuts turnaround times with potential to save lives
Every minute saved improves patients’ odds of disability-free survival, experts involved in the analysis noted.
Dallas Cowboys 2026 training camp: Key storylines to watch in Oxnard
The Dallas Cowboys are set to open 2026 training camp in Oxnard, California. Led by head coach Brian Schottenheimer, the Cowboys feel their offseason moves have them trending in the right direction. Here are some storylines as the Boys invade Oxnard.
7 Rarely Mentioned JDM Engines With Surprising Power
The 2JZ and RB26 are famous, but the Toyota 7M-GTE and Nissan S20, among others, prove the sheer power and depth of Japanese engineering.
Cori Bush and Wesley Bell's rematch sets up key test for Democrats in Missouri
Former Rep. Cori Bush, outside the courthouse where the Dred Scott case was argued, promises to reverse her ouster from Congress.
Cori Bush and Wesley Bell's rematch sets up key test for Democrats in Missouri
Former Rep. Cori Bush, outside the courthouse where the Dred Scott case was argued, promises to reverse her ouster from Congress.
Cori Bush and Wesley Bell's rematch sets up key test for Democrats in Missouri
Former Rep. Cori Bush, outside the courthouse where the Dred Scott case was argued, promises to reverse her ouster from Congress.
Bills Face Dire Prediction on Josh Allen’s Future in Buffalo
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen may need to leave Buffalo for a shot at winning a Super Bowl, an NFL analyst suggested. The post Bills Face Dire Prediction on Josh Allen’s Future in Buffalo appeared first on HEAVY.
Vance, Caine raised munitions stockpile concern, source says, as US pauses consecutive nights of strikes in Iran
Vice President JD Vance and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine both raised concerns about the US munitions stockpile to President Donald Trump as he weighed potentially escalating the war with Iran during a White House meeting on Friday, a US official told CNN.
Hundreds attend inaugural St. Louis County NAACP health fair in Dellwood
Hundreds of people gathered Saturday for the inaugural St. Louis County NAACP Health Fair at the Dellwood Recreation Center.
Bucks Executive Has Promising Update for Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr.’s Futures
The Bucks are interested in extending two of their newest stars.
Sports Illustrated ranks Chiefs star Kenneth Walker No. 9 RB in NFL
Chiefs star Kenneth Walker was recognized in Sports Illustrated’s running back rankings this year, placing as the No. 9 player at the position.
Every Rookie Worth Tracking at Detroit Lions Camp This Summer
The wait for Detroit Lions training camp is nearly over, as the team's rookies are set to report on Saturday, with the veterans following on Tuesday. Moore had a breakout senior season at Michigan in 2025, tallying 10 sacks and 41 quarterback pressures, which led to him being the Lions' second-round pick.
Trump administration admits grants for clean energy were canceled based on politics
The Trump administration has again acknowledged in court documents that it terminated $7.6 billion in grants for hundreds of clean energy projects “based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state,” in this case, 16 states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
Is North Star-Rochester Regional deal still on after dueling news releases?
Conflicting news releases have raised questions about the status of a potential partnership between North Star Health Alliance and Rochester Regional Health.
‘Reacher’ star Alan Ritchson seemingly slams Donald Trump in scathing Epstein files rant: ‘Go to jail!’
Alan Ritchson did not hold back when sharing his thoughts on the current state of American politics, giving a scathing rant about the handling of the Epstein files and the “f---ing rapists” in government.
Industry and D.C. Are Racing Ahead on Psychedelics. They Should Let Science Lead.
President Trump and pharmaceutical companies are betting big on psychedelics. But hype isn't the same as scientific proof, and urgency must be coupled with caution.
🏀 Y! Sports AM: Alone at the top
The Lynx are head and shoulders above the rest of the WNBA as the league hits pause for the All-Star break.
NFL insider offers optimistic update on health of Giants owner John Mara
A long-time NFL reporter recently sat down with New York Giants co-owner John Mara and shared an optimistic update on his health.
Microsoft launches new in-house AI models it says cut costs up to 89% versus OpenAI
Microsoft launched MAI-Image-2.5-Pro and MAI-Voice-2-Flash, new in-house AI models designed to cut GPU costs, power Bing, Excel, Copilot and Dynamics, and reduce reliance on OpenAI.
Secret Service agent on JD Vance's detail investigated for allegedly leaking operational security info
A Secret Service agent on JD Vance's protective division faces an administrative and potential criminal inquiry over compromising operational security.
Add a month at sea and $2.5 million - what it costs oil tankers to flee Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb
With two of its key oil export routes - the Hormuz and Bab el- Mandeb straits - disrupted by Iran and Iran-allied Houthi militants, Saudi Arabia has to resort to exporting oil via Egypt's Suez Canal.
Agentic coding goes hands free as OpenAI brings GPT-Live's full duplex voice control to Codex and ChatGPT on the desktop
This architecture creates a pair-programming dynamic where developers talk through problems conversationally while agents execute tasks asynchronously.
Member of Vance's Secret Service detail being investigated over suspected leak
An agency spokesperson said the member faces an internal investigation over allegations that they compromised "operational and information security"
New poll complicates Vance’s status as Trump’s likely 2028 heir apparent
Marco Rubio surged from 7% to 26% in New Hampshire's latest GOP primary poll, dramatically closing the gap with JD Vance in the hypothetical 2028 presidential nomination race.
Mosquitoes – Always a Nuisance and Sometimes Dangerous
Mosquitoes – Always a Nuisance and Sometimes Dangerous
"Behind the Lens" at the 2026 World Cup
Getty Images captured over 2.6 million images at the 2026 World Cup. We got the backstory on some of our favorites.
Harnessing Abundant Electricity From the Sun—and Other CU Boulder Science Tapped for Genesis Mission
Three CU Boulder-led projects and three collaborative projects selected through the U.S. Department of Energy's Genesis Mission. Research will advance artificial intelligence for fusion energy, quantum computing, particle physics and water prediction. Awards recognize CU Boulder's leadership in applying AI to some of the nation's most complex scientific challenges.
UK PM Burnham cuts business rates bills for pubs, clubs and music venues
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham is slashing business rates bills for pubs, clubs and live music venues, Downing Street said on Thursday.
Senate Health Committee Votes on CDC, HHS, and Labor Nominations
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee meets in executive session to vote on Erica Schwartz to be director of the CDC, Sean Kaufman to be Health and Human Services assistant secretary, and Keith Sonderling to be secretary of Labor.
Weekly Entertainment Report: Live music and lively arts, July 23-26
Fun Fact: "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" is a great song from the Sound of Music soundtrack, a word that most of us can say, but not spell.
Secret Service agent on Vance’s detail suspected of leaking information is put on leave amid internal review
A Secret Service agent on Vice President JD Vance’s security detail is under internal review and has been put on administrative leave after being suspected of leaking information for a news story that included details about Vance’s travel, a source familiar with the matter said.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez jumps to front of NH 2028 Dem primary field
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY,, now leads the 2028 Democratic primary field in New Hampshire, while Marco Rubio closes in on JD Vance.
The Mountain West Bowl Situation Becomes More Complicated
Back in June, we discussed how the bowl situation would be more complicated for mid-major conferences, especially the Mountain West and Pac-12, going forward. Now, it appears that the Mountain West will face more obstacles for its bowl teams. When the Poinsetta Bowl announced its return, the original reports were that it would take the […]
Dolphins sign NFL tackling leader to extension amid rebuild
Jordyn Brooks and the Dolphins have agreed to a three-year, $51.3 million extension.
Will data center backlash decide the midterms?
Democrats, Republicans both divided over AI concerns
A Massive Flow of Rock and Mud Tumbled Down Mount Rainier Centuries Ago. Scientists Pinpointed Its Date to Better Understand the Volcano's Complex Threats
In a recent study, researchers dated a historic lahar called the Electron Mudflow to the summer of 1507, establishing a way to determine when past geologic events around the Puget Sound occurred
Popular actress defends giving up full custody of her daughter: ‘Most gut-wrenching experience’
Her daughter has lived with her father in Europe since 2018.
What can fans expect from Steelers' 2026 NFL Draft class?
Here's a look at what fans can expect from the Pittsburgh Steelers' 2026 NFL Draft class.
Mysterious 'little red dots' at the beginning time may finally have an explanation, thanks to newfound 'little blue companions'
Astronomers may have found an unexpected origin for the mysterious "little red dots" that appear to be so common in James Webb Space Telescope surveys of the early universe.
Gut check: What the digestive system means for our overall health
In a Q&A, gastroenterologist Rosemarie Fisher explains common digestive health issues — and the best ways to improve gut health.
Shaky political "science": breakdown of the peer review process
[This article is the latest in our “Shaky Political Science” series. In our 38 page report, “Shaky political ‘science’ misses mark on ranked choice voting,” released in December 2025, we examined over 40 studies focused on ranked choice voting (RCV). Many of these studies suffered from puzzling research methodologies, poorly constructed surveys, unrealistic simulated elections, cherry picked data and faulty analyses that often were contradicted by results from real-world elections (a link to our full paper is here). Here are links to the first four articles in our series: the first one summarizing the overall results of our report; the second one analyzed a study co-authored by University of Minnesota academic Larry Jacobs, which was one of the most error-prone of all the research we reviewed in our report; a third article showing an admirable example of two political scientists holding two other political scientists accountable for their flawed, sloppy research; and a fourth article that analyzed seven studies sponsored by New America’s political reform program that deployed flawed methodology based on “simulated” elections instead of real-world elections, which when combined with some basic misunderstandings of RCV, produced odd and misleading results]. In this fifth article in our “Shaky Political Science” series, we examine two flawed studies on the impact of RCV on voter turnout authored by San Francisco State University professor Jason McDaniel. McDaniel’s research in these two papers stands out for its puzzling methodology, inadequate and cherry-picked data, and faulty analyses that not only misunderstands ranked choice voting but reflects a basic misunderstanding of politics in general. The first of the McDaniel studies actually passed through a peer review process and then was subsequently published by the Journal of Urban Affairs, despite its obvious errors. It is perplexing that a jury of peer political scientists did not catch the errors and send it back to McDaniel for a rewrite or outright rejection. This calls into question the credibility of the peer review process itself. The peer review process is supposed to represent the intellectual pinnacle of the profession – a way for academics to certify the quality of each other’s work, and to act as a check against sloppy research. In the case of the McDaniel study, the peer review process failed. Yet his flawed study has been cited dozens of times by other political scientists in their own flawed works — an unvirtuous circle of academic research. Here is the first Jason McDaniel study that we analyzed: “Writing the Rules to Rank the Candidates: Examining the Impact of Instant-Runoff Voting on Racial Group Turnout in San Francisco Mayoral Elections,” by Jason McDaniel, 2016, Journal of Urban Affairs. This study covered San Francisco’s use of ranked choice voting (RCV) in mayoral elections, purporting to show that RCV reduces voter turnout overall, increases voter errors, and has a negative impact on “marginal populations,” i.e. racial minorities, mainly as the result of the alleged complexity of RCV asking voters to rank candidates and having to be familiar with multiple candidates and related dynamics. McDaniel reached these conclusions by examining five San Francisco mayoral elections taking place in odd years (i.e. where there are no federal or state races on the ballot) from 1995 to 2011, comparing three earlier non-RCV races (in 1995, 1999 and 2003) with the later two RCV races (in 2007 and 2011). Only two RCV races were studied, and as McDaniel acknowledged, only the contest in 2011 was “competitive” (that contest in 2007 was the first mayoral election using RCV, and incumbent mayor Gavin Newsom won easily in the first round of counting, earning 74% of first choices and far ahead of the second place candidate who had just 6.3% of first choices). Yet even the allegedly competitive contest in 2011was won by an incumbent with a landslide margin of nearly 20 points. No other elections were studied by McDaniel, even though San Francisco elects 17 other offices besides mayor with RCV, including the 11 seats on the Board of Supervisors (the name for the city council) in even years, and six other citywide offices in odd years. Previous academic research has found that competitive elections can stimulate greater voter involvement and higher turnout. For unexplained reasons, this study ignored at least 34 other RCV races between the years 2004 to 2011, many of which were very competitive and had high voter turnout. Instead, McDaniel’s analysis based its conclusions on data from only a single, marginally-competitive mayor’s race using RCV. These 2007 and 2011 mayoral elections were the only two RCV elections that McDaniel used as the sole basis for his small data set to determine the impact of RCV on voter turnout. Despite having no meaningful data to inform his study, McDaniel nonetheless concluded that RCV lowered turnout when compared to the previous three mayoral non-RCV elections using two-round runoffs. Then, using the same inadequate database of San Francisco elections, McDaniel also found that “Instant-runoff voting is associated with a significant decline in Black voter turnout and White voter turnout…On average, Black voter turnout decreases by 18 points and White voter turnout decreases by 16 points …” But how could he credibly arrive at that conclusion when his study was based on voter turnout in two RCV contests that were not even remotely competitive? Beyond that, McDaniel tacitly admits that the key determining factor driving Black voter turnout was not RCV vs non-RCV elections, but the presence of a viable Black candidate. McDaniel wrote, “Black voter turnout was about 17 percentage points higher for the two elections that featured an African American candidate compared to the three elections that did not” — but one of those three elections did not use RCV. The same dynamic was present for White voter turnout, in which higher turnout was not correlated with RCV vs non-RCV elections, but the presence of a viable White candidate. Beyond that, McDaniel’s voter turnout results, whether correlated with the race of the candidates or RCV vs non-RCV elections, showed no clear patterns. In his Figure 1, he shows low Asian voter turnout in the non-RCV elections in 1999 and 2003 when there was no viable Asian candidate running, but in the 2007 mayoral election using RCV, there is still no viable Asian candidate, yet Asian turnout increases dramatically. For Latinos, voter turnout is virtually the same in 1999 (no viable Latino candidate, non-RCV elections), 2003 (leading Latino candidate, non-RCV elections), 2007 (no viable Latino candidate, RCV elections) and 2011 (leading Latino candidate, RCV elections). Meanwhile White voter turnout increased dramatically from a low in the 2007 mayoral election, in which the leading candidate was a white incumbent, to the 2011 election in which there were no leading white candidates that finished any higher than sixth place with 5.6% of the vote. Clearly other factors were determining voter turnout than either the race of the candidates or RCV vs non-RCV elections. Despite these inconsistent findings, McDaniel boldly marches forth to render conclusions about the impact of RCV on different groups of racial voters, even though his conclusions are not remotely supported by his data. This looks like the worst kind of “data cherry picking” to cover up a puzzling conclusion based on a poor data set involving only two RCV elections, neither of which were remotely competitive. McDaniel’s cherry picking didn’t stop there. In calculating voter turnout for the three non-RCV mayoral elections in 1995, 1999 and 2003, he failed to mention that in each of these years there was a two-round runoff election, with a first round election in November in which no candidate garnered a winning majority of the vote, followed by the decisive runoff in December. So there were two non-RCV elections in each election year. But McDaniel only decided to include one of the two elections in his data set, apparently the December runoff in each year (which had higher turnout in two out of the three mayor’s races, and lower turnout in the third). So he ignored the November 1995 election, the November 1999 election when turnout was only 45 percent, and the November 2003 election when turnout was only 45.7 percent. This is flawed methodology based on blatant cherry picking, since McDaniel simply omitted three elections worth of data that did not fit within his frame. His study should never have made it through a peer review process, and it is an embarrassment to political science that not only was it approved for publication, but it has been uncritically cited by dozens of other political scientists. Share A “study” without wider context or credible data Lacking a data set that included even a single competitive RCV mayoral race, McDaniel declared that RCV lowered voter turnout in 2011, when turnout was 42.5 percent. But he also ignored -- or did not realize -- that voter turnout in mayoral elections during 2011 had sharply declined in all big cities, including far more steeply in nearby Los Angeles and other cities. In fact, San Francisco’s election in 2011 had the second highest turnout of any mayoral election in the nation’s 22 largest cities from 2008-2011. Was 2011 just a particularly low turnout year all across the country, perhaps because the country was still reeling from the aftermath of the housing market collapse in 2008-2010? McDaniel ignored this factor and did not search for alternative explanations beyond his flawed thesis. Furthermore, while McDaniel suggested that RCV leads to more “overvotes” – which is an invalidated ballot in which a voter, in either a non-RCV or RCV race, makes a mistake and selects two candidates for a single choice – he failed to address that in the June 2012 US Senate primary contest, which used the typical “one-choice” plurality method and did not use RCV, there was more than five times as many overvotes in San Francisco and Oakland than in the RCV mayoral elections in those cities. Additionally, turnout had been significantly higher and more representative in RCV elections for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors races -- that McDaniel didn’t even bother to study -- as compared to previous “delayed two-round runoffs” for those offices, often higher by as much as 40% in the RCV races. Perhaps the most surprising irony was that an earlier study co-authored by McDaniel (Overvoting and the Equality of Voice under Instant-Runoff Voting in San Francisco by Francis Neely and Jason McDaniel, 2015, California Journal of Politics and Policy) found that overvotes are often more common in lower-income precincts, but that the pattern of overvoting is similar in both RCV and non-RCV contests. Wrote Neely and McDaniel: “[Overvote] errors appear to be a function of complexity in general and not IRV per se…. the pattern of overvoting is similar in both IRV and non-IRV contests…Even among votes cast in a top-of-the-ticket race like U.S. Senate, overvoting occurs in an uneven fashion” (IRV, or ‘instant runoff voting,’ is another name for ranked choice voting in single-winner contests). So McDaniel not only contradicted his own conclusion in his earlier study with Neely, but the earlier study had been an important corrective for one of the most frequently made mistakes made by anti-RCV political scientists – a continual failure to provide crucial context by pairing a comparative analysis of real world RCV elections with an analysis of real world plurality or other electoral methods. Unfortunately McDaniel’s earlier study does not get cited much by other researchers, and McDaniel did not even cite it in his own flawed study analyzed above. Incredibly, McDaniel cherrypicked McDaniel, even as his flawed study has been cited dozens of times. Despite being a textbook example of poor political “science,” featuring both inadequate as well as cherrypicked data, the shelf life of McDaniel’s study has been extended endlessly by other political scientists and media outlets who have cited it uncritically. Equally troubling, the Journal of Urban Affairs put this paper through its peer review process and published it despite its numerous flaws. McDaniel gets it wrong, Part II Not content with producing one shoddy, confused paper, McDaniel produced another one a few years later, here is the link: Electoral Rules and Voter Turnout in Mayoral Elections: An Analysis of Ranked-Choice Voting by Jason McDaniel. San Francisco State Univ. (McDaniel, 2019). In this paper, McDaniel extended his previous flawed research focused on San Francisco, about voter turnout and voter impact, to multiple RCV cities through the 2018 elections. In his data set he included San Francisco, Minneapolis, St Paul, Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro and Santa Fe. He then compared their turnout in mayoral elections to non-RCV cities, and to mayoral elections in those cities held before first RCV usage, and concluded “a significant decrease in voter turnout of approximately 3–5 percentage points in RCV cities after the implementation of RCV.” But he replicated many of the same mistakes as his first study presented above. While in this study McDaniel attempted to distinguish between various factors, such as odd year vs. even year elections, competitive races vs. noncompetitive, contests with open seats and other factors, the analysis is superficial and inadequate. He attempts to incorporate so many often-conflicting variables that his conclusions are once again unsupported by the actual data, and ultimately unconvincing (this second study never underwent a peer review process). For example, McDaniel declared that for RCV cities “in elections that are more competitive than average (margin of victory less than 20%), there is no significant RCV effect on voter turnout.” Yet McDaniel is a professor in a city, San Francisco, in which the 2018 special election using RCV to fill a mayoral vacancy was exceedingly close, decided by a margin of only one percentage point, and resulted in the second highest turnout in San Francisco history for a mayoral election. Illustrating the complexity involved in assessing the critical factors in turnout, that special election was held on the same election day as federal and state offices, which tends to boost turnout. Yet more voters participated in that RCV mayoral election than voted on the same day in the non-RCV primary for governor in which former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom was running. Even more puzzling, in this study McDaniel inaccurately cited his own previous study from 2015 with Neely. McDaniel wrote, “Neely and McDaniel (2015) examine individual ballot image files within a natural experiment, and find higher rates of ballot errors in RCV elections compared to non-RCV elections” (emphasis added). However, we quoted from that 2015 study several paragraphs above, and in actual fact Neely and McDaniel actually concluded the opposite -- that the pattern of overvoting – which is the most common form of ballot error – is similar in both RCV and non-RCV contests. McDaniel also ignored the fact that in Bay Area RCV elections held in even years – at the same time as federal and state elections, when turnout is highest -- the “undervote” (that is, the dropoff in ballots cast for governor or mayor) has declined, which contradicts his thesis that the act of ranking ballots in RCV elections is too complex and presents a barrier for certain demographics of voters. To his credit, McDaniel actually acknowledged another contradiction in his own paper, which found a negative RCV turnout effect in some odd-year elections but not others, admitting that “may present a challenge to the theory that increased complexity [from RCV] will have a marginal negative effect on voter turnout.” But he tried to wallpaper over that contradiction by blaming it on an unlikely source -- bad election administration. McDaniels wrote, “This would suggest that the negative impact of RCV on voter participation may be alleviated by high quality election administration,” without presenting any data or even anecdotes to support such an unfounded theory. While competent election administration of any election, whether RCV or non-RCV, is crucially important, there is no credible research that supports the far-fetched notion that the quality of election administration has much of an impact on voter turnout in US elections, whether using RCV or otherwise. Upgrade to a $5 subscription The unvirtuous circle of academic research It is puzzling how McDaniel’s first study could have survived the peer review process for the Journal of Urban Affairs. The mistakes in McDaniel’s first study above should have been obvious to anyone with a basic understanding of ranked choice voting as well as elections in general, and elections in San Francisco specifically. It undermines faith in the credibility of the peer review process to think that a jury of peer political scientists did not catch the egregious errors and reject McDaniel’s sloppy research and paper. And it remains a black mark on political science that this thoroughly discredited study has been cited dozens of times by other researchers. Indeed, in our research paper it became apparent that many political scientists cite each other’s flawed research to pad their list of citations and to legitimize their own flawed research, creating an unvirtuous circle of political science. More broadly, McDaniel’s voter turnout studies, like other studies evaluating RCV’s impact on turnout, lacked a recognition that no credible opinion or research can claim that RCV increases voter turnout merely because so many voters are excited to vote for their favorite candidates instead of “lesser evil” candidates without worrying about spoilers. Instead, with respect to turnout, the advantage of RCV has always been that, in most places where it has been used, it has eliminated a pre-November primary or post-November runoff, which usually saw about half the turnout of the November general election. This is especially true during even years when there are state and federal elections on the ballot which substantially drive turnout more than local contests. Any study that does not adequately account for this non-November primary/runoff vs November general election dynamic, or odd year vs even year election factors, is simply not credible. Both of McDaniel’s studies largely failed on those grounds. Steven Hill and Paul Haughey Share Upgrade to a $5 subscription Thanks for reading DemocracySOS…your digital portal for the pro-democracy movement. Subscribe for only $5 per month to receive full benefits and to support our work. Subscribe
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