Transcripts For CSPAN2 Campaign 2020 Discussion On Election

2020 election and the qs of the u. S. Electoral process. We are about the legal challenges brought forward by the Trump Campaign and how the American People perceive the integrity of the results. The center for American Progress is the host, this is about an hour. Subject this year we saw significant strength in our electoral system. Ultimately our system deck demonstrated democracies resilience we saw a higher share of the voting eligible population than any time in the last 120 years. That is a great site of the vibrancy of democracy but at the heavy load for a lecture to biggest ration vertically during the pandemic the conditions around covered for states to adopt quickly to a once in a century pandemic that meant shifting to mailin ballots recruiting new and younger poll workers and confronting prohibition in some states against counting mail ballots prior to election day. Sadly we also saw the effects of disinformation shared by politicians. And amplified over digital platforms and continue to impact monee butter confidence. Our democracy has remained strong because our elected leaders those seeking office and state and local Election Officials appreciated the importance of Public Confidence in our election and did their jobs. Election day was remarkably normal. People voted many before election day to be sure and then votes were counted. Litigation ensued with Election Results. We look both backward and forward asking what went right, what did it, what lessons we should learn what this all means to fortifying our elections. With Election Outcomes for us so pleased to introduce to the panelists that we have here today for this discussion. Im really thrilled to have them. First ben ginsburg counsel to multiple president ial state, local campaigns and is a former cochair of the bipartisan president ial commission on election administration. He also for those have not seen it has a terrifically on points opinion peace in the Washington Post, published i believe just yesterday. And i think a lot of what he had and that we will be talking about today. We welcome jenae nelson associate director general of the naacp education fund. As issues of domestic and partisan laws at rates in criminal justice but is a contributor on various media and work of the president and direct counsel of the lgf to determine and execute lgf Strategic Vision and operations. And we have norm morency resident scholar, American Enterprise Institute Board chair, camping legal. Among many other things norm has previously served as codirector of the ai brookings election reform project and senior counselor to the continuity of government commission. It could all see why im so excited to have all that we have here today, participating with us. And we will have an opportunity for everyone at the end to be able to ask questions. So please in the audience fill free to send in your questions as we go. And i would like to start for all three of our panelists with a question that kind of centers us and the date and time that we are in and that tomorrow, december 8 is known as a safe harbor deadline for states to appoint their elect touro college. Can you briefly discuss, explain to those in her audience the importance of the safe harbor date . And in addition to that whether there any last we should participate with canceling electoral votes which as we note congress to be doing on januar january 6 . So december 8 why does it matte matter . Well, because there is a provision in the old electoral count act of 18778 somewhat arcane law we blissfully never really had to deal with in this election. But that is the date that the states have their slate of electors complete. Which i think all the states do at this point. They are presumptively correct when Congress Goes to count them on january 6. Norm . Vicki said december 8 is the deadline for resolving any election disputes. We know this election has been bombarded with a number of disputes in court that have largely been rejected by the president suggesting there was voter fraud. And vote tampering. In illegitimacy and the election. That has been roundly rebuked. And so the hope is that tomorrow allstate recounts or contest or any other disputes concerning the president ial election will be completed and certification will happen. There are other significant dates that follow tomorrows safe harbor deadline. Including on december 14 where the electors in each state in meat and cast their ballots for president and Vice President those belts are than received by the president of the senate on december 23. And then on january 6 the congress meets in a joint session to count the ballots. It ultimately there should be a peaceful transition of power on january 20 when the president elect becomes the president. So we hope that everything, you know all of the order it has followed for over a hundred years. And that we can rely on a peaceful transition. I think we know there might be something between now and then. Let me just add there are legal consequences here. Part of that electoral count. That has been said it was presumptively clear once states have certified that congress will accept those. There is that normative elements of this as well. We know from the Washington Post reports yesterday, they had 25 reporters canvass every republican in the House Speaker and senate. And barely 12 have acknowledged that joe biden is president elect. One should assume that once it becomes semi official, when these court cases have been either resolved or have moved by this date that it is a point at which members can say alright, this is over. All except the shouting. Although we have no strong reason to believe that will actually be the case. And we know that there are still challenges Going Forward. Even though the november date has been met by all the states. Thanks norm. Let me turn back if i might to get your perspective from an election lawyer who has counseled multiple president ial camp pains and you have a unique view into what has happened this year. What would you say in terms of how would you describe the most important stress point that you have seen. What steps you think are needed to make sure we improve Going Forward. Lets wrap into that what norm had said how concerned are you about what may yet happen between now and january 6 . Fair enough. I agree with your framing this was a unique election. Donald trump and his rhetoric attacking the very foundations of the system was solely unique. No president ial candidate from a major party has done it the way that President Trump did. Of course the pandemic played a role in that as well. The very polarized nature of the country as a whole, also plays a role in what we saw and what the stress was. And interestingly enough in that polarized time, we also had recordbreaking turnout. So those are all, as a combustible mixture at there. At the e right now, the country came through pretty well. There are certainly trauma for four weeks. But at this point all the states have certified the results. There are certainly procedural steps that members of the House Speaker and the senate can take on january 6. But it is a little hard to imagine them going. So what we saw in terms of stress points was a number of laws that could use some improvement. The auditory account at is one the way we handle absentee ballots is another. There are a number of points are laid out and not from yesterday that could be performed. I think one thing that we saw about our system is that while we are a country of laws, it was remarkable how our officials did the right thing and an incredibly stressful element. That is a human element. Im especially proud of the republican officials that stood up to the onslaught of the president. And stood up way their states were supposed to work. And the tools they used to do that, which we will discuss in a little bit is really important. I think there are some interesting lessons to be learned from this. From a republican perspective, they do just hot fine and the high turnout election. Its true the lost presidency but in theyre down ballot races republicans did just fine and that high turnout election. The other thing and i suspect it will be talking about this more if i say it. The democrats showed they can win and tight states where there are voter identification in place. Georgia, wisconsin, arizona is in the strictest laws in the country. Democrats one. Some stood up to the president to point to the voter identification rules to give them a basis on which to say the president is wrong, we ran good elections. I think each party needs to reexamine some of the basic premises its used in these issues. Sure enough go ahead. I just want to add a couple of things to what ben said. The first is i think we can all offer kudos to the Election Officials around the country of democrats and republicans. Ive been watching elections just about as long as ben which is a long time. [laughter] i have never seen an election that was run this smoothly. We always have glitches, it is the nature of the process. You will have issues that arise. There were fewer of them with this amazingly high turnout election that i can remember. Everybody stepped up to the plate including thousands of people who devoted a lot of time to making this happen. But in particular secretaries of state in key states, the governors that been mentioned. And now weve seen judges from across the board step up. The president and his allies have filed a huge number four cases. One and 48. Judges have look at the evidence such as it is. And made judgments. That is the good news. The bad nose especially is more on the informal fronts. It starts with the president and what he has been saying about this. But it extends further down. Probably saw last night the secretary of state in michigan , estate that was not closed by any standard. With joe biden by over 150,000 votes. She was with her 4yearold doing Christmas Decorations when a group of heavily armed thugs gathered outside the house in the dark, chanting and shouting obscenities of bullhorns. That is all a part of what is a broader misinformation and disinformation is being spread by a lot of people, including people who should know better, Newt Gingrich the former speaker of the house among them saying on fox this morning that ballots were counted in Foreign Countries and shifted all over the place. Well we need to do the terrific things ben suggested, we have to try and change the norms in the system or we will lose the confidence in our election process. Even when it is run really, really wellpaid thanks ben. Jenae i would be interested in your reaction to ben and norms comments. But also in addition to that this may be implicit in what they said, seems to me with efforts to disenfranchise voters in large urban areas for exampl example. Can you discuss that as well as any reaction you may have with they said . Not sure. I agree with the kudos letter over almost 9000 Election Officials of the country deserve and ensuring our ballots were largely counted without any interruptions about the pressures of the sadness ration to do otherwise. I do have to provide a contrarian view in terms of how smoothly the election ran pretty did not run smoothly for everyone in the country. Im not smoothly just on election day but months leading up to the election with the crisis of the pandemic, providing that are already there often marginalized and excluded from the electorate. We are now months out from election day that assessment reveals a very persistent of permanent disparities to casting a ballot the real defense fund is a nonpartisan organization, for the past 20 years we have engaged in nonpartisan Election Protection efforts. We along with the other Civil Rights Organization we have had the hotline folks may have heard about it were we field calls on election day from election day loan the hotline received 32000 calls reporting various incidents in various obstacles that we had to run down his during the early voting. This was the line and milwaukee during early voting in largely African Americans were standing up for hours to get access to ballots. We also know there are a number of efforts to malign africanamerican voters who live in predominately black cities like philly, like detroit, like atlanta for the president suggested theres widespread voter fraud and urge Election Officials not to count and certify those ballots. So i have to push back that this election ran smoothly. Because in all aspects it did not. There is a peace pushing back on this very idea. Because it simply was not the lived experience of many black voters buried or the organizations that are devoted to protecting their votes. The truth is that there was a torrent of obstacles to keep black voters from exercising the right to vote. I can give me just a few examples in addition to the hotline matters that we saw there were documented reports of armed people showing up at the polls similar to what norm mentioned concerning the secretary of state. They were voters who face similar threats and they went to cast their ballots. Individuals were black lives matter shirts which took away from voting in tennessee and georgia per b also received complaints about old state flag bearing a confederate emblem this flying outside a bank pulling site in mississippi. One of our poll monitor volunteers in alabama was threatened with arrest as she tried to monitor polls nonpartisan poll watching experts. Were set on fire there were robo calls gnomic to voters in michigan threatening them if they voted against the presiden president. Theres also voter intimidation calls and mail in detroit, new york, ohio, illinois and pennsylvania. That is just a slice of some of the challenges that we face. We had to do order to have access to voters in louisiana alabama and mississippi in light of the pandemic. And the owners of witness signature requirements that were so placed upon them despite this health crisis. And then finally, i will just say we are still in litigation and two areas. Hopefully i can get into more detail about those. One is involved in the sts. Including ballots including up to the election selection that goes smoothly it went went as well as you have to take into consideration the vast those are put into making sure the democracy. Describe what you think is most important Going Forward to again acknowledging, understand the perspective that is lots of room for improvement but some things work. What you think we knew to fortify Going Forward . To avoid the negative aspects . s neck there are two important bills before congress right now but do an enormous amount of work to alleviate some of these pressures on voters in our election system. One is hr1, for the people act which bring Voter Administration across the country. It would also allow for named a registration. And it would provide early voting opportunities for two weeks leading up to the election for everyone at a minimum in the country. A minimum of two weeks of early voting. Including weekends and evenings. That alone could take a number of the stresses off of our election system. Open the franchise to voters and provide a more inclusive electorate. I know would be remiss if i did not note many of the deficiencies in discrimination in our election system were exacerbated by the roles of clinical protection Voting Rights acts of the 2013 this is it Shelby County. There was a bill the voters rights advancement act that could be passed that would not only restore some of the protections of section five that were struck down, but actually make preclearance. Which is a method of embedding laws related to voting before they go into practice to make sure they do not put minority voters particular in a worse position. We capacity Voting Rights advancement act in a short many of the obstacles erected in this election would not be passed on Election Officials would be deterred from trying to pursue them. Thanks. We intend this as a followup for much of this conversation. But to any, all of you, given the nearly constant concerns, rhetoric, on widespread voter fraud with this election we now face a situation where fewer americans have faith and accuracy in the election. How do we counteract the damages is untried democracy . And maybe from that legislation there other things you can, should be doing. I seems like for a variety of reasons. And maybe in some parts of the political faction more than others. In terms of competency election. This is a huge problem. There are some things that we can do legally and structurally. A number of them are mentioned and bends oped. A series of things to make voting easier. But also to provide protection against the kind of voter discrimination that has been in the history in this country. Those protections stripped in a decision in Shelby County was predicated by chief Justice Roberts in saying that well we dont see this discrimination anymore because of course the created the barriers against that discrimination. The day after Shelby County was decided in Shelby County there putting back those discriminations. But that is only one part of it. And unless we can move away from a group of pernicious actors who basically say if we lose, it was fraudulent, who are now able to social media and amplify spiritually theories an andfalsehoods. Things have been completely debunked and he knows better. This is not a dumb guy repeating them is going to basically be like its own virus in the political system, creating this level of distrust. All we can just push back against that you hope we can continue to get co