Not long after publicizing the work, she and her colleagues became the target of what she calls a “multi-pronged” strategy to discredit it. She has since been a defendant in several high-profile lawsuits, appeared for interviews at congressional hearings and has defended accusations that she colluded with the government to censor free speech in the United States. She has also been deluged with public-information requests, sued for not responding to those requests promptly enough, and bombarded with disingenuous questions from hostile media outlets.

Researchers such as Starbird, who study how elections are run and what factors influence their outcomes, are often lightning rods for an increasingly divided and dissatisfied public. Political polarization has intensified in recent years in countries including the United States, Turkey, India, Poland and Brazil.

Close to half of the world’s population lives in countries holding elections in 2024. Two of the biggest contests are in India, where results were declared earlier this month, and in the United States, which is due to vote in November. In both countries there are suggestions that democratic processes — including free and fair elections — are eroding. Nature spoke to scientists from around the world whose work has flung them into both the public and political limelight, sometimes with drastic consequences for their personal and professional lives. Many have found that the situation can quickly become untenable, particularly in places where support for researchers is lacking. “Institutional support is paramount,” says Starbird.

U.S. — Despite a significant majority of the nation now believing President Biden mentally unfit for office, the Democratic Party has decided to stay with Biden as its nominee as it would be a huge pain to reprint the tens of thousands of ballots they already filled out.

"On one hand, the nation now knows Biden is incapable of thinking and is a clear and present danger to himself and the country," said DNC chair Jaime Harrison. "On the other hand, it would be SUCH a pain to have to reprint all those ballots when we already filled them all out. It's so tedious! Aw, screw it... let's just stick with Biden."

The Democratic Party considered replacing Biden after the Presidential debate revealed his inability to walk or speak, but the amount of ballots already prepared for harvesting dissuaded them. "Obviously, Biden can't operate a frialator, much less run a country," said White House chief of staff Jeff Zeints. "To have him continue to be the corpse-like mouthpiece of the Party is nothing short of elder abuse, and everyone knows it. Still, do you know how long it takes to fill out two hundred thousand ballots? Ugh, it is so much work! Forget it."

At publishing time, annoyed Democrats had begun preparing another hundred thousand ballots for harvesting after seeing how bad the post-debate poll numbers looked.