Walter R. Mebane, Jr.

Walter R. Mebane, Jr. is a Professor of Political Science and Statistics at the University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. He holds a Ph.D. from Yale University (Political Science), an M.A. from Yale, and a B.A. from Harvard University (Government). His research focuses on election forensics, statistical methodology, and voting systems, with a particular emphasis on detecting electoral fraud and analyzing voting technologies. Mebane has developed the eforensics R package for election fraud analysis and contributed to tools like RGENOUD for optimization. He teaches advanced courses on multivariate analysis, survey sampling, and election forensics.

His work spans global elections, including analyses of anomalies in Kenya, Turkey, Venezuela, and the U.S. He integrates computational methods (e.g., neural networks, agent-based models) with traditional statistical techniques. Mebane’s research also addresses issues like voting machine accuracy, strategic voting, and the application of Benford’s Law. His contributions bridge political theory, statistical rigor, and practical election monitoring.