A few reasons this matters:
- It wrongly hurts our credibility to condemn abuses abroad, as per the quote above
- It wrongly suggests that the best use of resources (government or nonprofit) is to focus on electoral abuses in NC, rather than places like North Korea
- (most important to me) It’s a reminder that academics often publish conclusions with sketchy methodology, and that even mainstream, credible media outlets will uncritically accept them if the conclusions fit their broader narrative. To me, this is equally (if not more) dangerous as (or maybe than) the fake news phenomenon. It’s also just indicative of a trend in American politics, particularly among the elite (on both left and right) to replace dialogue with one-line soundbites from studies that they didn’t read