A recent poll from POLITICO found that 70 percent of Republicans surveyed don’t believe the 2020 election was free and fair, with distrust particularly in the results from swing states like Wisconsin.
Election experts, though, celebrate the 2020 election as a great success and the most secure in U.S. history. Election administrators quickly adapted to the challenges of COVID-19 and a major increase in absentee and mail voting, along with tight budgets, state lawsuits, and public scrutiny.
Today on the show, we learn about the process of election administration and get answers to the most common concerns with Barry Burden from the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and James Young, a former elections administrator in Kentucky who recently went viral on Twitter for speaking out against allegations of voter fraud and highlighting the work of election officials.
Barry Burden is a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and director of the Elections Research Center.
James Young is a regional sales manager at Inclusion Solutions, which provides accessibility resources for business and government, including election officials. Previously, he served as director of elections in Louisville, Kentucky.
Photo credit: “A California poll worker sanitizes a voting booth following its use at a Voter Assistance Center in Davis, CA during the 2020 General Election” by Owen Yancher, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0
