This Election Season Is Shaping Up To Be The Most Litigated Ever
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 17 September 2020
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
Before that final Supreme Court decision, there was a five-week battle over the ballots, the rules, the laws and the courts. The amount of litigation and lawyers involved has been called "unprecedented." But what was unprecedented two decades ago looks quaint in 2020.
This year campaigns and political parties have staffed up their legal war rooms, making this election season one of the most litigated ever. A lot of the on-going lawsuits are due to coronavirus-related election issues, with at least 248 nationwide.
Three of the lawyers preparing for this election season take us from where they were on election night in 2000 to the work they're doing now.
In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It took 36 days and a Supreme Court decision before George W. Bush became the 43rd president |
| 0:05.7 | of the United States, a saga that started election night in November 2000. |
| 0:10.1 | Oh boy. Uh, yes, I remember it quite vividly. |
| 0:14.0 | Justin Riemer was a junior in college in Florida. |
| 0:17.0 | In my fraternity house with one Republican roommate and one very Democrat roommate and just |
| 0:23.2 | watching it play out, you know, being pretty enthralled by it. |
| 0:27.1 | I remember getting out of a play on election night in Manhattan. |
| 0:32.4 | Dale Ho was a little bit older, not yet in law school. |
| 0:36.0 | Hearing friends shouting results from various states over their cell phones, |
| 0:40.8 | and I remember going home that night and watching until the networks called it for Bush, |
| 0:47.1 | and then staying up another half hour and being perplexed by what happened next. |
| 0:52.9 | And Mark Elias was a young associate attorney, |
| 0:55.9 | dashing through the airport to another recount, one that would get a lot less attention. |
| 1:00.5 | It was for a Senate race in Washington state. |
| 1:02.8 | So I may be the only recount lawyer in America on the Democrats, so you can say, |
| 1:07.1 | they won their recount in 2000. |
| 1:11.6 | Fast forward 20 years and each one of these people are part of a swirling army of lawyers |
| 1:16.3 | working towards election night 2020. Consider this. The lesson from 2000s contested election |
| 1:23.0 | wasn't never again. It was lawyer up. And thanks to the pandemic, this election season is already |
| 1:28.8 | one of the most litigated ever. |
| 1:33.9 | From NPR, I'm Audie Cornish. It's Thursday, September 17th. |
| 1:41.5 | This message comes from NPR sponsor, Unfinished Short Creek, the latest investigative true crime |
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