Date published: 2024-09-16 14:00:00
A person casts their vote into a ballot box.
Photo: LightFieldStudios
From a young age, Yasmin Dawood was fascinated with power and politics. It was an interest deeply rooted in generations of family members who were forced to leave their home countries due to political upheavals.
“My mother and her family were refugees, and I grew up hearing stories about dislocation and what happens when things go wrong in a country,” says Dawood, now an internationally recognized scholar of election law, a law professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, and the Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Democracy, Constitutionalism and Electoral Law.
“At a young age, when I learned more about horrors like the Holocaust, I realized how precarious freedom is. It made me understand the importance of law, power, elections and democracy,” she adds.
2024: The year of the election
As one of Canada’s, and the world’s, foremost experts on election law, Dawood’s innovative research raises pressing questions: How can we ensure free and fair elections amidst widespread structural transformations? How should laws be designed to safeguard free and fair elections? What steps can be taken to remedy the erosion of trust in electoral processes?
“There is no easy answer. We’re entering a troubling new era of fake news and foreign interference,” warns Dawood, citing the hearings into foreign election interference in Canada, and the political unease in the United States as Americans prepare to head to the polls in November. “It was once taken for granted in countries like Canada and the US that the election process was basically fair. Now it’s less about if the process is fair, but does the voter actually believe the process is fair? That is a much more dangerous place to be.”
A “Vote here” sign at a polling station.
Photo: Dora Doltan
Dawood says Elections Canada has tough laws that crack down on basic election process distortions like disinformation around where to vote or what identification you need to cast a ballot. But she adds more needs to be done to improve media literacy to help citizens decipher whether what they’re reading or hearing is accurate.
As well, she says rules are needed to govern internet platforms in a way that strikes a balance between ensuring free speech and responding to disinformation.
“Democratic institutions worldwide are grappling with the rise of social media, misinformation and disinformation, the erosion of political institutions, intensifying economic inequality, democratic decline, populist politics and increasing authoritarianism,” she says. “That all creates profound challenges for electoral fairness.”
Dawood’s research couldn’t come at a more important time. The year 2024 is a historic one globally, with 70 countries—nearly half of the world’s population—heading to the polls.
“It’s a remarkable year, and one that may have a profound impact globally,” says Dawood. “Elections are often the entryway for authoritarian regimes to take over. Once voted into office, these regimes use their power to change the constitutional rules and get rid of all the checks and balances, eventually making it harder for future challengers to win. It’s the start of democratic decline.”
Research influencing policy and impacting Canadians
Dawood’s research is interdisciplinary and comparative, drawing on examples from countries including Canada, the US, Australia, India and South Africa. Her expertise on campaign finance reform and election law has been sought numerous times in the US and Australia.
In Canada, her research is shaping policy. In 2014, Dawood, alongside four other professors, led a national debate and participated in Charter challenges around the proposed Fair Elections Act on electoral fairness and voting rights. In 2016, her testimony before the parliamentary Special Committee on Electoral Reform and her research study The Process of Electoral Reform in Canada: Democratic and Constitutional Constraints helped shape the policy framework around what processes Canada should follow for electoral reform.
“It’s very important to me to use my research to make a difference on the ground and impact citizens whenever possible,” says Dawood. “The nitty-gritty of election laws can be complicated and hard to decipher. It’s important to have researchers, like myself, to dissect these issues and ensure our democracy remains robust and transparent.”
A vision for democracy
Dawood is consolidating her findings through her CRC program. While she concedes there is no one quick fix to the challenges facing democracies around the world, she does believe the best solution may lie in how we view elections as a whole.
“Instead of looking at elections as a single event that takes place on election day, we must look at it as an entire electoral ecosystem,” says Dawood. “Under an ‘electoral ecosystem approach’, the democratic system is viewed as an interconnected network of institutions and actors—from governments, political parties and supporters, to courts, voters, citizens and online platforms—all players that have the potential to influence an election. If we can identify that, and have coordinated laws in place, then we can ensure electoral legitimacy.”
At a time when misinformation and disinformation blur the electoral process, Dawood hopes her research will be the clarity Canadians and the rest of the world need to build strong and healthy democratic systems.
“Democracy isn’t perfect and elections aren’t perfect,” she says, “but they are the best thing we’ve got going to protect our freedom.”