Alejandro Gonzalez Ruiz

Biography

Alejandro is a fourth-year PhD student in Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, specializing in election administration, electoral justice, electoral integrity, contested elections, and democratic backsliding. Alejandro seeks to implement a mixed-methods approach to analyze how Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) respond to threats to democracy, especially in the context of contested presidential elections. By examining legal cases, EMB decisions and sanctions, and the political dynamics surrounding these conflicts, he aims to better understand the role of law and institutions in shaping democratic outcomes. Through his research at Notre Dame, Alejandro hopes to provide evidence-based recommendations for safeguarding democratic processes.

Alejandro has experience working in the Mexican government and in multilateral organizations such as the OAS. He has managed technical electoral cooperation projects in several Latin American countries, coordinated the OAS Electoral Observation Mission (EOM) in the state of Georgia during the 2020 U.S. general election, and served as an Electoral Organization expert for the 2023 Brazilian municipal elections. Alejandro holds a J.D., graduating with highest honors from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), and a Master’s in Policy Management (MPM) from Georgetown University. He is proficient in Spanish, English, and Portuguese, and regularly writes for El Universal, one of Mexico’s leading newspapers. He has served as a teaching assistant for courses on Research Methods, Introduction to Comparative Politics, and United Nations Politics. He is part of the Electoral Integrity Project network and has been a fellow of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), as well as a recipient of the Notre Dame Democracy Catalyst Grant. He is originally from Puebla, Mexico.

Areas of Interest

Democracy, electoral integrity, democratic backsliding, Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs), contested elections, international electoral observation, OAS and the Inter-American System, Latin America, Brazilian politics