Will votes be safe in the US presidential election?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 10 September 2020
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Trump says opening up November’s election to more postal voting will make it more vulnerable to fraud and election interference. Many more Americans are expected to avoid going in person to polling stations because of the coronavirus pandemic and will rely on postal voting to ensure their voices are heard.
Tanya Beckett examines President Trump’s claims and how the US postal service will cope with millions of ballots.
Producer: Sharon Hemans and Diane Richardson
(A voter drops off a mail-in ballot at a collection box outside Cambridge City Hall, Mass. USA. Credit: Lane Turner / Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the inquiry on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:03.8 | Each week one question for expert witnesses and an answer. |
| 0:17.7 | On the 23rd of June in the New York State Primary, voters went to the polls to choose their candidates for November's election. |
| 0:21.6 | The results in American elections are usually announced that day, but after a day of |
| 0:26.7 | counting there was still no result. After a week still no result, even after a month it wasn't sorted. |
| 0:35.0 | Finally after six weeks the winner was announced. |
| 0:41.0 | The delay had been caused by problems with postal votes. The coronavirus pandemic |
| 0:46.6 | meant that many more voters than usual had chosen to cast their ballot by mail and the system couldn't handle it. But it's not just |
| 0:55.4 | about delays. President Trump has made it clear he thinks postal voting is open to |
| 1:01.0 | fraud and is unsafe. is the postal service properly. It's become one of the most contentious issues in US politics. |
| 1:16.2 | So this week we're asking, will the vote be safe in this year's US presidential election. |
| 1:25.0 | Part 1, The Gold Standard I have dedicated my life here to making this system continue to be safe and accessible and to enfranchise more voters. |
| 1:46.0 | And it is endlessly frustrating when there are baseless accusations that these election workers won't count the ballots right or that it's not safe or that there's fraud. |
| 1:57.0 | Our first expert witness is Audrey Klein. |
| 2:00.0 | She is the National Policy Director at the National Vote at Home Institute, a nonpartisan |
| 2:06.8 | non-profit organization which works to expand access to postal voting across America. Advising election officials is one of its tasks. |
| 2:17.1 | We say that these are the superheroes of democracy. These people work every day to make sure that every vote is counted accurately and to say otherwise is doing voters a disservice. |
| 2:30.0 | Audrey grew up and still lives in Colorado where every voter gets sent a ballot in the |
| 2:36.5 | mail a system that was introduced in the state seven years ago. |
| 2:40.5 | Audrey says her family is an example of why postal voting is important. |
| 2:46.5 | My late mother had Parkinson's disease and would never really know if she was going to have a good day or a bad day on election day. |
| 2:54.4 | So it was always a real comfort to know that she had her ballot at home. |
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