Gretchen Helmke

The 2025 Guggenheim Fellow on turning a passion for reading and writing into solving our most vexing political puzzles.

The professor and Bright Line Watch cofounder’s research focuses on the rule of law and democratic erosion in the United States and Latin America.

A post-2022-midterm election poll by Bright Line Watch finds increased trust in the fairness of elections.

Experts in Bright Line Watch poll see a high chance some Republican candidates will be unwilling to concede election losses.

Rochester political scientists discuss what happens when election deniers run for office, and how US democracy may die ‘by a thousand cuts.’

In their latest survey, Rochester political scientists in the Bright Line Watch watchdog group find divisions along partisan lines have notably deepened, and voters’ confidence in next year’s midterm elections has already been affected.

A Rochester team of political scientists introduces the idea of ‘democracy by deterrence’—and shows why it might be weakening in the United States.

The latest Bright Line Watch survey finds that voters support COVID-19 relief spending, but partisan divides remain over the election and impeachment.

A new Bright Line Watch survey finds that fewer than a third of Republican voters have confidence in the national vote count.

The latest Bright Line Watch surveys find experts concerned about multiple risks to the legitimacy of the election, while many Americans believe in the prevalence of voter fraud.