September 28, 2020
New Podcast Series: “Neither Free Nor Fair?” Election Security and the Fate of Democracy in the 21st Century
“Neither Free Nor Fair?” Election Security and the Fate of Democracy in the 21st Century
A new podcast series sponsored by the Political Economy Forum and Hosted by James D. Long, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington and co-founder of the Forum.
At the dawn of the 21st century, the Supreme Court’s unprecedented decision in Bush v. Gore effectively declared the winner of the 2000 election. In the 20 years since, America has experienced ever growing and evolving threats to electoral integrity, from Russian hacking to the weaponization of information on social media; from voter suppression to counting mail-in ballots in the age of Covid; and from protracted legal struggles to legislative wranglings that determine who wins.
Despite these challenges, protecting electoral integrity has become deeply politicized and polarizing in the US, and now, more than 200 years after its first presidential election, Americans are heading into November more uncertain about the security of their vote than ever before.
Yet few Americans understand the panoply and contours of the administrative, political, and legal mechanics for conducting a free and fair vote; or that the methods now used to undermine American elections have appeared in other time periods and have been perfected recently in many developing countries, ranging from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
In a new podcast series, “Neither Free Nor Fair?” we will try to make sense of the evolving threats to election security and democracy in the US and around the world. The series is produced by the Political Economy Forum at the University of Washington and hosted by me, James Long, Associate Professor of Political Science and co-founder of the Forum. I research and teach on elections, corruption, and democracy in a global context, and for more than a decade, have observed elections in Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East.
Each episode, global experts from academia, advocacy, policymaking, and the tech industry will join me to discuss how we can apply lessons from around the world to understand threats to elections in the US, and how these lessons inform the conversation around the fate of global democracy in the 21st century.
We hope you’ll join us.
Episode #1: “Democratic Backsliding in the International Environment”
The “Neither Free Nor Fair?” podcast is produced Nicolas Wittstock and Morgan Wack. Please check out the Forum’s entire list of podcasts here.
