Myself in agreement that for many of the best find a way to muddle through. And then to argue in the New York Times on sunday and then someone we just quote what he said meanwhile the scenario with reputable publications where trump induces the legislatures to the clear outcome o with the biden victory. And the granting by the chief executive and black conviction the faith of the american storyma and then to buy of cannot and should not be taken and for granted and those that have been taken place from the greater crisis and uncertainty not to mention the mailin ballots b in that pandemic to the Global Health t19 1818 and the economic recession that has economist scratching their heads of those problems and challenges in the economy polarization and civil unrest and political divisions and from the post office and the president who has already said he will abide by the election. Democracy it seems ironic i have my republican friends senator mike lee saying were not a democracy and thats the most important thing it wasnt that crazy of a thought but the fact of the matter is it really goes to the heart is survives if you wanted to. And that quote from doctor king which is so salient and important right now that we will become our own and when return and i two things that matter what this grand american experiment when we decide and no longer cares about the things that matter election matters the outcome election matters to a lot of americans but even more important is the various institutions that have safeguarded our life and liberties to the legislative branches and executive leaders and county executives they all have played a role to secure the promise that is laid off and went on they are the foundinghi documents while the those ideas have been flawed and problematic the underlying word still matter the in order to form a more Perfect Union clinton to say that we were we are constantly striving in this republicat to create a voice and give the power to the people so they look at this election that is paramount and why i stand in opposition to my own party because i feel they walked away from those ideas and those values the rantings of one man and washington proved that this country was not just about one person or one individual donald trump unfortunately is trying to prove him wrong. And in reliance and we see where we are and what this means their families into the future of thisur country that they will step into the power granted to them in those founding words, with paper. The core challenges that we face right now, to have a legitimate election, is how we show up the institutions of those writings of individuals in this matters more than ever before the ability to coalesce and facts and information to inform the citizenry not just about what is at stake but the underlying truth that has supported both at stake with an open and free and Fair Election will receive litigation in places like texas where the governor said theres only one drop off box in the county of 5 Million People and is not Voter Suppression at all. And that is suppression so being informed and engaged andun understanding what this is what you are hearing in my conversations like this im just a guy have to get elected and politics but i rely on my secretary of state and political scientists, the warriors and those who try to deal with the machinations of these things from a legal and societal standpoint so we all understand exactly what is atat stake. The prospects over the next few weeks is certainly between the election and the inauguration itself does matter. So on Election Night, folk night, folks, just get a tall glass of your favorite beverage and said black the back and stay calm and the reason you can be calm is because of the hard work and information to help me understand what it to extend my to expand the president says he wants to support they just cant show up to be a poll watcher where a specific regulated position in every county in this country the county parties and the state parties to identify ahead of time rightparenthesis watchers are i just cannot show up at my neighborhood and start injecting myself into that process. So understanding what can be done away cant down and the consequences of violations that may occur does matter is my conversations like this is i am so glad to be a part of that. Will turn it over so smarter people cann turn it over. Repetition on petition has preceded you and to set enthusiasm and that you describe it is necessary and critically important to clearly is not sufficient and then to be involved in that part of thee conversation that is extremely important. Thank you again now for two. I find michael reassuring as is experience to very close attention to what is happening now im looking at things with perspective. Nonethelesson i am somewhat more concerned about the aspect of election are getting through intact at the far end. This is not going to be a normal election. Railroad he asked that whatevernthe president who has more hard to do a legitimate to advance they cannot trust that the vote count will be accurate. Theres almost nothing that occurred undermine the electoral process more than that and to have an Authority Figure y telling you that the one mechanism that we have to decide whoo is us and generally gating political power to is broken and is ranked. Trump has said explicitly in his prepared remarks not offthecuff as he accepted the nomination on august 24th , the only way we can lose the election so he is that the possibility that democratically by our own mission will remove them from power and in any other country if said that we would be very concerned. He also has given several versions of the refusal to guarantee that he would honor the results of the election and enable the peaceful transfer of power the most alarming to me is heroes have to be careful about too much, parents on what comes out of it now but answering the question peaceful transfer ofl, power we have a very big problem of ballot fraud andth mailin ballots if they fix that then there is peaceful and then he switched directions and said there will not be a transfer there will be a continuation. He says that the only way that is acceptable toto be reelected. So i think we can safely say based on his record and his words that under no circumstances will trump concede say in the selection and that turns out to be a very big deal because concession is the way we havent elections and in this country for well over 100 years if that moment of concession that tells you the fight is over is a political scientist would say that the authority of the incoming president. That more than any other single factor because we haveus no on fire. This is a game where we dont have someone who keeps track of the score for the time to blow the whistle to say you won or lost it doesnt matter how much the players or the coaches delegate that is the result. Its over everybody understands that has been achieved. Sometimes people talk about the risk with trump or the concerned even though it sounds fantasticalound he may le the room at one lose the election refused to leave but then they know how to respond to that he would be escorted out. You have up with his luggage and the office would be ready for the next occupant. That is not the concern the concern is that trump the things that power of his office and his control for his followers to prevent where devices result to be obtained. We have never had a president who has said that there is fraud happening the vote is rigged before our eyes and its unclear how we will respond to that especially with the power of his office with an alternative official interview not just tos twitter account in the words that come out with the microphone but actions of the government itself so that the Justice Department announces a fraud in progress and immediate investigation compounded as evidence and postal inspectors find irregularities with the mail voteser and suspend delivery of the mail ballots. Oh two decide to process everything to make sure the postmark has been applied thats not the case that they require or by regulation of the stamp on every letter. Sometimes they are not but election laws in some states require a postmark of the postal inspector says lets make sure we process all of these there is a level one eligible smokable doing so it takes the past of the deadline he has power ultimately that could be abused might even be found to be im off eventually afterthefact we dont get it over. Also what happens on election dayel itself this is the first election and four years that has taken place without the oversight of federal courts over republican ballot security measures average is another word for Voter Suppression those attacks against guarding against voter fraud that is almost entirely a fictional concept it is vanishingly rare. There was a study done of 1 billion votes cast between 2014 of which, the one were identified as fraudulent. This is the scale of the problem. Certainly has no problem to affect the results of the election. But on the grounds fortified this pretext republicans used to do things like offduty police and sheriffs and former military carrying guns and carrying armbands confronting voters to review their credentials to vote if they are not eligible the wrong precinct and to generally intimidate people of color and trump has called out philadelphia which is a large democratic stronghold in a swing state he must went to be president. He may be behind in the polls in pennsylvania you can shave a couple of points off by intimidating voters by a causing mailnot to be counted , then who knows where that goes on between election day and the swearingin there are milestoneses that they are a mere formality even a wellinformed for you would be forgiven and that january 6th when Congress Formally counts the votes that have been kept by the Electoral College and there are many opportunities and those that have influence over members of his body to one to interfere with normal functioning and if you take him seriously and who is prepared to reach all norms and boundaries then the question is how far the American Public will allow them to go and ask the average republican senator of m the house and the state legislator whether they will allow the president to steer the election to use his power to keep control notwithstanding the votes of the people in the world mean that. But they are committed already to a narrative ofnd god that is not that i have been outputted but it has been present not as confident i how they will respond and that is the concern we have to guard against and why every citizen needs to think about his or her whether the job had anything to do with securing theon election the men to interfere with the actual results of thetu election. I got up to press this morning and then to lay in the load and with this presentation and it is reflected in your piece so that leads the task of navigating and is able to do let me turn it over to you. This is quite a group to follow i will fall in between the incredible optimism and pessimism working on democracies and corruption and violence so this is good for me and it is happening right now theres only been 6 million votes a cast there are long lines in georgia and openingday challenges but we are muddling through however that doesnt mean we will continue to muddle through and those numbers are not looking great to what they are with those against polarization around the world that 71 percent are worried about Political Violence that is an enormous number and a group of scientistolitical is were doing the pulling on American Attitudes for years were so concerned about the findingsey that actually pulled all the numbers together and came out with a piece about weeks ago the numbers are on the high side but they are pretty alarming one out of three democrats and republicans the numbers are similar on both sides and it is somewhat justified to advance their goals and one out of five say it is a great deal with their side loses so how did we get to this . We all wanted to high rope right now so those that have local lockdowns in content rises by 21 Percent People dont do well when they are socially cut off and isolated and seeking normal life and that is whats going on the other part is the immense Political Polarization across every area of identityria l. So we have an extraordinary president and not in a great way who is i mean people for fraud and close to three out of four americans feel the longer we have to wait for results the more likely it is fraudulent election and that the government is committed to keeping the election secure and thats an important point because there are things to build on it will go to the happy part but building on local and state governments where people believe they can do much more to affect the process to democracy so to answer how bad this can get a lot of my time is spent living in the nightmareha scenarios that america has had a civil war and complete Political Violence and president ial assassinations and to walk every one of those nightmares. My greatest concern is during process just after the elections are closed there is some intense evidence that looking at the swing states they cannot even start counting absentee ballot one ballots with unprecedented numbersn balance more than half might be absentee ballots you cant even start counting the people who are counting are depending on state law have to sit on those metal chairs they are older, 60 or 70 yearold ladies working the polls with they have been many years with 18 hour days starting after the polls close and in michigan it has to be the same person they cannot work in a shift its a set up for people making mistakes and getting tired. There is no political for just because they are human beings in michigan and they gave them an extra day that is there a big changehey they can have one extra day to count his absentee vote so we can expect there will beon problems and one is absentee voting will be extremely lopsided it should not have been i wrote a series of articles in the summer with republican who happens to be my brother about the importance to recognize republicans can win an absentee voting and they havent for the others no reason to think of this as a partisan issue but nevertheless the proclamation that they are voting in person at far higher rates than the absentee ballots have much higher rates especially in the swing states. So you are likely to see is a shifter about mirage wherelo members that look very red on election i slowly turned over time. A lot of people will see that and be primed for fraud and say this is evidence things are going wrong meanwhile this is 200 lawsuitse, the that theye not smart because is not first class mail will also so lawsuits that could be determinative in key states and then to see those lawsuits so people turn to violence when they feel they dont have a political voice and when politics is closed and with that democracy along the norms of forbearance that we just dont steal elections that we have a history of stealing elections going back to the reconstruction. And those that have history of Political Violence were more a risk of future Political Violence and that are those that were attend right after the reconstruction. And they were great compromisesny everyone who tries to read the laws can have a. And there is a lot of room for interpretation. Those are in the democracy young democracy and with the africanamerican vote in the mid sixties that was the last big moment and then we turn to keep the flowo down again and now it can be suppressed more openly it might be so we met in a way thats not the best from our democracy to represent all the people and where the stakes are quite high for those who feel they are losing their legacy of their privilege. I will end with the upbeats part that if you have a vote thats very decisive we should not get to these nightmare scenarios and you should go early by absentee or in person if you can do that when the vote gets down to the line and then that also give some perspective violence is incredibly low right now. And violence tracks criminal violence very tightly related because they are tightly related to government and the fellow people. So with those levels of violence and even without a protest this summer, all the mayhem the summer tnhe d, natiol guard coming in and the troops we have very little violence this summer and that is worth keeping in mind is nothing like when i was growing up in the early eighties and nineties, we can speak to her inside the violence problem is a problem on both sides to normalize violent sample sides are much more crediblee b about the gigantic body of research that might make you feel good. It doesnt work for what anyone is trying to achieve and those are just to find that it is extremely lopsided and here republicans need to speak to its own side and Republican Leaders need to say it is not an acceptable way to win an election there is going to be a Non Democratic Party and we will see what happens when a Non Democratic Party is not good and the last thing is we have to take a deep with my favorite adult beverage drinking straight whiskey also probably Strong Enough for that night that we need to wait it will not be and Election Night but election week maybe two weeks now frank and months before he was seated in his race that is notbl unusual. Taking a breath at that point it doesnt mean anybody is stealing anything it just means how the process is supposed to work we would go a long way to stall violence afterwards. Navigating between the two my first question, how to avoid and election season . Go versus bush two days before the Electoral College on decembh the Supreme Court will those institutional guidelines , looking back over the last several years quickl quickly, how well do you think the executive branch is constrained . How is the media or congress or the courts or public opinionin done in and to restrain the adjudicators . In this. In the guidance of the constitution to have nothing to fall back on with these graham scenarios playy out. With those institutional guardrails. Class half empty and halffull and thats where im at any given day that americ