Will the US election be free and fair?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 10 September 2020
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Allegations of potential postal voting fraud and voter suppression have raised questions about the fairness of November's US presidential election, but what evidence is there to suggest these fears will be realised and influence the vote?
David Aaronovitch explores the prevalence of electoral fraud in America, and in a year when the polls suggest a tight race in several states, he asks what will happen if the election result is contested?
Contributors:
Anthony Zurcher, BBC North America reporter
Elaine Kamarck, director of the Center for Effective Public Management, Brookings Institution.
Professor Carol Anderson, Emory University, Atlanta
Professor Jamal Greene, Columbia University, New York
Team: Richard Fenton-Smith, Julie Ball and Kirsteen Knight Studio Manager: James Beard Editor: Jasper Corbett
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:09.0 | Knock knock. |
| 0:10.0 | Who's there? |
| 0:11.1 | You are. |
| 0:12.0 | So please step inside the briefing room where we have 28 minutes to get ginned up by the top experts on an issue of moment. |
| 0:19.7 | Before we get into this week's episode, I'd like to thank Deep Hat, Rights of Man, |
| 0:25.2 | Harridge Frinton, Liz McKenzie, Extractal, Tilney 24, Stitch-Face, Jedi Bunny, Colerismo, |
| 0:33.1 | and Rib Carter for your recent five-star reviews of the Briefing Room podcast. |
| 0:37.7 | We're all really grateful here because the more reviews we get, the more magic points we acquire, |
| 0:43.3 | which help other listeners find us in this overpopulated world of podcasts. |
| 0:48.6 | And now, on with the show. |
| 0:58.2 | Music the show. They're going to mail out 80 million ballots. |
| 1:03.3 | Who's mailing them? |
| 1:04.5 | Mostly Democrat states and Democrat governors. |
| 1:08.5 | Well, supposing they don't mail them to Republican neighborhoods. |
| 1:12.2 | President Trump hijacking the news agenda there with an alarming speculation that the |
| 1:17.0 | forthcoming election won't be legitimate. |
| 1:20.1 | And what started as a tweet or two at a press conference ad lib has now become a major theme |
| 1:25.8 | of the president's campaign. |
| 1:31.3 | What they're doing is using COVID to steal an election. They're using COVID to defraud the American people, all of our people, |
| 1:37.3 | of a fair and free election. |
| 1:40.3 | Now you can find senior American commentators speculating about what might happen if no one can agree who has won the election. |
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