ASU's Mechanics of Democracy Laboratory is a partisan inclusive initiative that works to improve U.S. election resilience and transparency. Founded in 2024, it aims to advance modernization and trust through expertise and technology.
MODL's AI + Elections Clinic, founded in March 2025, explores how AI can be efficiently applied to election systems. The program intends to train election officials on AI and to research how AI can be used to build "more secure, efficient and trustworthy elections," according to its website.
Bill Gates, the director of MODL and a professor of the School of Public Affairs, served as a member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in 2016 and again in 2020 after being re-elected.
Gates emphasized that AI has created more misinformation in recent years, creating challenges regarding election management.
Maricopa County tends to be a focus for misinformation, as it's the fourth-largest county in the country and within a swing state, meaning high levels of national attention are drawn to the state during elections, Gates said.
"We saw the misinformation before, but it's spreading quicker," Gates said. "So the challenge of misinformation has multiplied because of AI."
AI can also be used to battle misinformation by helping predict the publication of false information and then using AI to debunk it, Gates said.
"AI can help you with this, too," Gates said. "Anticipate what the misinformation is going to be, and then pre-bunk it."
Allison Lester, the director of curriculum development for MODL's AI + Elections Clinic, said ASU's innovative culture has supported the initiative. According to MODL's website, the clinic is a first-of-its-kind approach.
"There's this electricity to make and innovate and collaborate and improve communities in our world," Lester said. "We just have so much that we invest and do in the communities, and that is the intention and the purpose of a good university, to really bridge the university with the community."
As part of their student initiatives, MODL provides Sun Devils with fellowships. It additionally hosts hackathons throughout the year.
These sometimes all-day events have students gather in groups to discuss real-world challenges to elections.
Students work with elections officials from across the state to address the problems. By working with AI, the students create feasible and realistic solutions.
The groups are judged by a panel of election experts, which includes election officials, ASU faculty and previous MODL members. The top teams can even win a cash prize.
READ MORE: AI meets Democracy at ASU Hackathon
Last Tuesday, MODL held a hackathon, which focused on the challenges faced in the upcoming midterm elections.
The winners were a group composed of four students, including Cordero Holmes, a graduate student studying public administration and criminology and criminal justice, and Beka Namachanja, a junior studying neuroscience.
Holmes said it was a good way to expand on the knowledge he had on the election cycle by working with his peers. Similarly, Namachanja said this was a good opportunity for her to stay up to date on the inner workings of the election field.
"At the end of the day, AI is a tool, a companion; it's not a replacement feature and that's kind of what we were able to engage it as," Namachanja said.
Lester said MODL encourages its students to express their worries and hesitancy toward AI, as it fosters an inclusive and open-minded environment.
"They're actually deeply aware and care about their community, about society, about the environment and they have concerns that are important to raise," Lester said. "Democracy is inviting voices and disagreements and challenging one another."
Edited by Senna James, Alan Deutschendorf III and Kate Gore.
Reach the reporters at lnatiell@asu.edu.
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Leticia Natiello is a politics reporter at The State Press. She is a second-year journalism student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. This is her first semester with The State Press.
