I don't think the GP is asking whether it is possible to objectively assess the fairness of voting schemes. (Though of course that would be an interesting quest

I don't think the GP is asking whether it is possible to objectively assess the fairness of voting schemes. (Though of course that would be an interesting question) He is implying that their testimony would most likely be very biased politically. I think that is probably true, and you can see that by skimming through their Twitter accounts [1][2][3]. However, this does not justify the university intimidating them with legally dubious means. [4] [1]: https://nitter.fdn.fr/electionsmith https://nitter.fdn.fr/electionsmith [2]: https://nitter.fdn.fr/ElectProject https://nitter.fdn.fr/ElectProject [3]: https://nitter.fdn.fr/SharonFLUMC https://nitter.fdn.fr/SharonFLUMC [4]: I am tempted to say that the correct course of action would be to defund all social science departments (except perhaps economics), but that's politically unfeasible.