On the eve of the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, we dive deep into the systems in place that ensure our elections are safe, secure and accurate. This season, Host Simone Leeper will investigate the ways in which Congress took action after the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol to update an outmoded election law. She’ll also meet election workers who persevered through the thorny 2020 election, help you better understand your rights as a voter, learn how AI is impacting our democracy, and so much more.
1. Democracy’s Frontline Workers
In this episode, we talk with Kristina and Steve Reisinger — a wife and husband in eastern Pennsylvania who found a community in their local polling place and were inspired to volunteer. And we also speak with Kelsey Rogers, CLC's senior manager for state advocacy, about the threats being faced by election workers in recent years and the steps some states are taking to protect them.
2. The Latest: Attacks on Voter Registration
Voter registration is the number one obstacle to voting in the United States. It should be easy, accessible and secure, but too often, states are moving backwards; making voter registration more difficult and less equitable. Here, we introduce a new type of episode: an up-to-the-minute interview with an expert to help you better understand some of the most important issues affecting elections. Danielle Lang, a voting rights attorney at CLC, joins Simone to explain why major actions in Arizona and Texas involve what should be a straightforward component of elections: voter registration.
3. Safeguarding America’s Electoral Process
The peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of American democracy that sets the United States apart — the so-called north star of our electoral system. Yet the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 challenged that tradition profoundly. In the lead-up to this November, we answer the question that is on the minds of many voters: Will the months after this presidential election look like the aftermath of the last one?
4. The Latest: The Fights Over Election Certification
Election certification has traditionally been a mostly symbolic process in the United States. In another of this season’s up-to-the-minute episodes, we are speaking with Jonathan Diaz, a litigator and voting rights advocate at CLC, who joins Simone to explain how election certification is supposed to work, how it’s being taken advantage of by bad actors and what CLC and other good-government advocates are doing to push back and see that election laws are carried out.
5. Navigating Election Facts in the AI Era
With the rise of AI tools that can credibly synthesize voices, images and videos, how are voters supposed to determine what they can trust as they prepare to cast their votes? Stephen Richer, an elected Republican in Phoenix, posts on X (formerly Twitter) to engage misinformation head-on to protect Arizona voters. Adav Noti, the executive director of CLC, explains how good-governance advocates are hurrying to catch up with a profusion of new digital tools that make the age-old practices of misinformation and disinformation faster and cheaper than ever. And Mia Hoffman, a researcher who looks at the effects of AI on democracies, reminds voters not to panic — that bad information and malicious messaging don’t always have the power to reach their audience, let alone sway people’s opinions or actions.
6. Know Your Rights as a Voter
Carly Koppes, the clerk and recorder of Colorado’s enormous Weld County, describes the steps she and fellow officials took when they received reports of unwelcome and unofficial vigilante election “auditors” going door to door in 2021. Christina Das of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund walks us through the bleak history of voter intimidation in America. And CLC’s Jonathan Diaz explains how voter intimidation has evolved to become sneakier and more subversive in the digital age — and the steps you can take if you encounter it.
7. The Latest: The 2024 Election, in a Nutshell
The 2024 election cycle has already made its share of history. With Election Day now just a week away, we bring you another of this season’s up-to-the-minute episodes. This time we’re speaking with Trevor Potter, president of Campaign Legal Center, who joins Simone to explain how this election has been playing out, and what it all means for you, the voter, as the deadline nears to cast your ballot.
8. The Latest: A Postelection Fight for Democracy
Donald Trump won a plurality of votes for president, and did so decisively. However, he ran explicitly on a platform of behaving like an authoritarian, promising to fire U.S. civil servants, threatening opponents with jail, and brandishing military force against would-be dissenters. As his return to power approaches, we grapple with a paradoxical election, in which voters declared their preference for the candidate who repeatedly threatened the American system as we know it.