Thanks to Rick Hasen for alerting us to an upcoming hearing, scheduled on June 27th, on the “Rutgers Study” of voter ID and the Voter Fraud study.

There are some interesting, and pointed, questions about statistical methodology, research oversight, and relations with the contractors. It looks like Wang and Serebrov will have their time on the Hill.

My insight into these matters is based primarily on conversations with scholars at a few recent conferences, but I can say that I think it’s unfortunate that these two issues are being bundled together.

At least according to one very methodologically savvy colleague (perhaps Mike can get him to guest blog here), the Rutgers study is badly flawed, and there is really no basis to make any causal claims about voter ID and turnout. I wonder is Feinstein and Durbin are going to be able to make sense of the methodological issues.

The situation with the fraud study seems more fraught with political peril for the EAC. It’s possible that this may even link up to the Justice Department / Attorney’s scandal.