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Podcast: The people who choose the president

Podcast: The people who choose the president

Podcast playlist: The people who choose the president

Three weeks ago the Supreme Court decided what had once seemed like an obscure corner of constitutional law, but which might have huge ramifications for this year's presidential election and beyond: The court ruled unanimously that states could punish or remove members of the Electoral College who refuse to vote for the candidate they were pledged to support.

The "faithless elector" decision is the topic of the latest installment of our podcast partnership with The Democracy Group, a podcast network at Penn State University, to share thought-provoking discussions about efforts to fix the American political system.


In this episode, Democracy Works podcast host and producer Jenna Spinelle leads a discussion with:

  • Lawrence Lessig, Harvard law professor and prominent democracy reform advocate who argued before the court that electors should be free to vote as they please.
  • Meredith McGehee, executive director of Issue One, one of the advocacy groups that filed briefs in the case arguing the states should have the power to punish electors who go rogue.
  • Michael Baranowski, a political scientist at Northern Kentucky University who is focused on the practical implications of the court's decision.
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Voting rights groups hail SCOTUS decision on ballot grace period

California sends mail-in ballots to all registered voters unless they opt out.

(Adobe Stock)

Voting rights groups hail SCOTUS decision on ballot grace period

Voting rights experts are praising a U.S. Supreme Court decision Monday, which upheld a state’s right to set a grace period for counting mail-in ballots arriving after Election Day, as long as they were postmarked on time.

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As the United States approaches its 250th year, we are returning to a ritual as old as the republic itself: the work of taking stock — of measuring the country we have inherited against the country we were promised.

Some look at America today and see a nation in decline, divided by politics, frayed by distrust, unsettled by economic anxiety. Others see its enduring strengths — its genius for invention, its long habit of self-correction, its singular capacity to begin again. Both are describing the same country. For America has never been a finished thing. It has been, from the start, an argument we are still having with ourselves about who belongs.

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