Caroline Tolbert is professor of political science at the University of Iowa. Her work is driven by an interest in strengthening American democracy and fostering inclusive economic and political participation. Her research and teaching weave together a concern with opportunity and inequality, elections and representation, technology policy and subnational politics, and data analytics. She is the coauthor of Accessible Elections: How the States Can Help Americans Vote. With Karen Mossberger and colleagues she is coauthor of four books on the Internet and society: “Choosing the Future: Technology and Opportunity in Communities” (forthcoming); Digital Cities: The Internet and the Geography of Opportunity; Digital Citizenship: The Internet, Society, and Participation; and Virtual Inequality: Beyond the Digital Divide. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and numerous private foundations.
Her project, “Nationalizing Accessible Elections: What Happens When the Mailbox Becomes the Ballot Box?,” uses data-driven scientific analysis to determine how to update and modernize the U.S. election system, posing the question: Should the U.S. adopt a National Accessible Election law, including mail voting, in-person early voting, same-day registration, AVR (automatic voter registration), and quality election administration?
