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Public Talk: Operation Ballot: Electronics and Elections

Public Talk: Operation Ballot: Electronics and Elections

This year will be an election year like no other, and with so many ballots being cast away from physical voting booths, we’re unlikely to know the results by election night. Join us at the Sarnoff for a talk about the history of using computers to predict election results.

Two days after the incumbent US president Harry Truman was elected for a second term, he proudly brandished the front page of the Chicago Daily Tribune with its now iconic headline, “Dewey Defeats Truman.” In the era before computers, projecting election trends was difficult, but the electronic computer revolutionized the speed at which election predictions were made. Join the Sarnoff Collection curator for this special, pre-election talk about the history of computer predictions from the 1952 UNIVAC stunt to NBC’s “Operation Ballot.”

October 25, 1:30 pm
This Zoom lecture is free, but pre-registration is required. Click here to register.

 

This event is part of our In Living Color exhibit, and is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Mercer County Division of Culture and Heritage, in partnership with the New Jersey Historical Commission, Division of Cultural Affairs/ Department of State.

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