The United States Elections Project is a political research group that gathers information on demographic trends, election laws, and other aspects of the U.S. electoral system with the intent of showing the American public how the national electoral system may be “improved” based on left-of-center policies. The project is a project of the University of Florida (UF) and is housed on its campus. 1 The US Elections Project has been described as UF professor Michael McDonald’s “personal website.” 2
As of 2025, the US Elections Project was listed as an official affiliate of the MIT Election Data and Science Lab (MEDSL), an election and polling statistics center that tends to favor a left-leaning narrative of election reform in its research and reports. 3 4 The US Elections Project is known for its DistrictBuilder software, a data harvesting model dedicated to making the redistricting process “transparent.” 5
Background
The United States Elections Project is a political research group that gathers information on trends, election laws, and other aspects of the U.S. electoral system with the intent of showing the American public how the system may be “improved.” The group is a project of the University of Florida and is housed on its campus. 1
The US Elections Project has been described as UF professor Michael McDonald’s “personal website.” 2
Activities
The United States Elections Project created “United States Voter Turnout,” a data project that gathers statistics on the voter turnout rates for the voting-eligible population. The data excludes noncitizens and felons from the population and then charts what proportion of the voting-eligible population has voted in each election since 1789. As of 2025, the chart was populated with figures up to and including the 2024 presidential election. The US Elections Project transferred ownership of the data and its charts to the University of Florida’s Election Lab. 2
The US Elections Project has a Substack newsletter that analyzes voter turnout records. In a December 2024 post, US Elections Project director Michael McDonald argued that Donald Trump’s victory in North Carolina in the 2024 presidential election was partially due to Democratic voter abstention. 6 7
US Elections Project founder Michael McDonald collaborated with Micah Altman, a social and information scientist at MIT’s Center for Research on Equitable and Open Scholarship, and software company Azavea in developing DistrictBuilder. DistrictBuilder is an open-source, web-based software application that gathers information on voting districts throughout the United States to be used in states’ redistricting processes. It champions so-called transparency alongside its companion group, the Public Mapping Project, which uses DistrictBuilder data to recommend redistricting strategies to state legislatures. 8 5
DistrictBuilder has received funding from the Sloan Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, Amazon in Education, and the Judy Ford Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University. In 2013, it won the Tides Foundation Pizzigati Prize for “Software in the Public Interest” and was recognized by Politico as one of the “Top Ten Political Innovations in 2011.” 5
Affiliations
As of 2025, the US Elections Project was listed as an official affiliate of the MIT Election Data and Science Lab (MEDSL), an election and polling statistics center housed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The MEDSL purports to apply “scientific principles” to the study of how elections are administered in the United States and aims to “improve the democratic experience” for American voters. The MEDSL’s research areas tend to favor a left-leaning narrative of election administration, focusing on subjects such as “mail-in balloting,” “same-day registration,” and redistricting. 3 4
Leadership
The US Election Project was founded and is managed by University of Florida professor Michael McDonald. 2 6
References
- “US Elections Project.” United States Election Project. Accessed October 20, 2025. https://www.electproject.org/.
- “United States Voter Turnout.” Election Lab – University of Florida. Accessed October 20, 2025. https://election.lab.ufl.edu/voter-turnout/.
- “About.” MIT Election Data and Science Lab. Accessed October 20, 2025. https://electionlab.mit.edu/about.
- “Research.” MIT Election Data and Science Lab. Accessed October 20, 2025. https://electionlab.mit.edu/research#explainers.
- “Redistricting.” US Elections Project. Accessed October 20, 2025. https://www.electproject.org/redistricting.
- “Archive – Michael McDonald.” Substack. Accessed October 20, 2025. https://michaelmcdonald.substack.com/.
- “North Carolina Party Registration Turnout 2020 to 2024.” US Elections Project – Substack, December 16, 2024. Accessed October 20, 2025. https://michaelmcdonald.substack.com/p/north-carolina-party-registration.
- “Micah Altman, Information Scientist.” MichalAltman.com. Accessed October 20, 2025. https://micahaltman.com.