Background Briefing: November 13, 2018
How to Run Free and Fair Elections
We begin with the growing use of mail-in or absentee ballots in elections across the country and how in spite of late-into–the-election night media coverage which feeds the need for instant gratification, the volume coming in before and after election day tends to slow down the official results which don’t come until every vote is counted and the results certified. Amber McReynolds the Executive Director of the National Vote at Home Institute and Coalition who was previously the Director of Elections in Denver, Colorado, joins us to discuss President Trump’s sinister claim about the Florida recounts that “An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!” We analyze Trump’s absurd and illegal notion of going with the preliminary election night count since ballots are still coming into Florida from U.S. military personnel and citizens abroad along with provisional ballots which were an outcome of the Help America Vote Act following the 2000 Florida election debacle.
Trump’s Strategy in Demonizing the Florida Recount
Then we examine the apparent strategy on the part of President Trump and Governor Scott to demonize the routine count of election results in Florida to rile up their supporters who are demonstrating at the election headquarters in Broward County intimidating the staff who are counting the outstanding ballots and conducting the legally-mandated recount underway of the U.S. Senate race with a razor-thin margin of votes which could end up either way. Steven Huefner, a Professor of Law and Judicial Administration and Senior Fellow of Election Law at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University and co-author of “From Registration to Recounts: The Election Ecosystems of Five Midwestern States”, joins us. We assess whether Trump is undermining the legitimacy of a possible win for the Democrat should the recount hand Senator Nelson a narrow victory.