Avoiding Election Disaster with Edward Foley

Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

MS NOW, Chris Hayes

Msnbc, The Chris Hayes Podcast, Government, Politics, Chris Hayes, Why Is This Happening?, Withpod, Versant, Ms Now, News, Society & Culture, Versant Media

4.6 • 9.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2020

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We are just weeks away from an unprecedented election day. In order to vote safely during the pandemic, more people than ever are voting by mail or early in person, and early numbers point to a strong likelihood of record turnout. There are hundreds of lawsuits across the country centered on access to polling places, ballot drop boxes, and deadlines for ballots. And on top of all of that, we have a President whose rhetoric is directly aimed at undermining the legitimacy of the election if he doesn’t win. This week, election law professor, Edward Foley, sits down to give an under-the-hood look at our election administration and the current logistical concerns, and walks through the worst-case legal scenarios of a contested election result. Presidential Elections and Majority Rule: The Rise, Demise and Potential Restoration of the Jeffersonian Electoral College Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States

Transcript

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0:00.0	I think the greater risk to self-government, government of the people, by the people for
0:06.0	the people is the fact that our politicians, some of them anyway, don't really believe
0:11.6	or seem to believe in that notion that elections are to be held for the sake of the voters.
0:17.6	Democracy belongs to the people as a whole.
0:21.3	We don't hold elections for the sake of the politicians.
0:24.8	The people are supposed to decide.
0:26.8	Hello, and welcome to Wise.
0:31.6	It's happening with me, your host Chris Hayes.
0:39.0	We are, as I speak to you now, less than four weeks until the election.
0:43.7	People are already voting in many states.
0:45.8	In fact, early voting is already breaking early records.
0:50.5	We expected that because there's two things happening.
0:53.7	The pandemic means way, way, way more people are going to vote in alternative means absentee,
1:01.4	mail-in voting, and early in person, or some combination of the two, or people get their
1:05.8	absentee ballots early and they drop them off at drop boxes.
1:10.1	We always knew that because of the pandemic, because of people's safety concerns about
1:13.6	being in crowded polling places, this election was going to look different than any other
1:17.4	election.
1:18.4	Also, I think the stakes of the election, the level of political engagement, and projections
1:23.6	based on polling about turnout suggest it will also possibly be the highest turnout presidential
1:28.9	election ever.
1:29.9	I think that's almost certainly going to be the case.
	...

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