Category Archives: ELB Podcast

ELB Podcast Episode 4:6: Jake Grumbach: Laboratories Against Democracy

New ELB Podcast:

Does our decentralized system of government create conditions to strengthen or weaken democratic institutions?

Why have red and blue states adopted different sets of election rules, with some Republican states adopting restrictive registration and voting laws?

Would more a more national election process in the United States protect against the risk of election subversion?

On Season 4, Episode 6 of the ELB Podcast we speak with University of Washington Professor Jake Grumbach, author of the book “Laboratories Against Democracy.”

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ELB Podcast Episode 4:5: Rachel Maddow: What “Ultra” Can Teach Us About Threats to Democracy Today

New ELB Podcast:

Can an attempt an election subversion in the 1940s teach us how to handle current threats to American democracy?

Do failed attempts to hold Nazi sympathizers in the American government accountable through criminal litigation show the limits of the law in protecting democracy?

What role can and should journalists play in safeguarding free and fair elections today?

On Season 4, Episode 5 of the ELB Podcast, we speak with journalist Rachel Maddow, producer and narrator of the new podcast series, “Ultra.”

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ELB Podcast Episode 4:4: Lynn Vavreck & Chris Tausanovitch: Lessons for Democracy from the 2022 Midterm Elections

New ELB Podcast:

Did the 2022 U.S. midterm elections demonstrate that we have moved beyond risks to American democracy?

What explains continued, persistent divisions across the American public along party lines?

Does there remain a potential for violence associated with future U.S. elections?

On Season 4, Episode 4 of the ELB Podcast, we speak with Lynn Vavreck and Chris Tausanovitch of UCLA’s political science department.

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ELB Podcast Episode 4:3: Maggie Haberman: Trump, Trumpism, and the Threats to American Democracy

New ELB Podcast:

Does former president Donald Trump know—and does he care—that the statements he has made undermining the integrity of the 2020 electionrun the risk of undermining the core of American democracy?

Is election denialism bigger than Trump’s hold over the GOP?

What should the Republicans, Democrats, the Press, and others do to counter concerns about threats to free elections in the United States?

On Season 4 episode 3 of the ELB Podcast, we speak with New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, author of the new book, Confidence Man.

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ELB Podcast, Season 4, Episode 2: Moore v. Harper and Potential Threats to American Democracy

New ELB Podcast:

What is the “independent state legislature theory,” and does a potential Supreme Court embrace threaten American democracy?

Will use of the doctrine raise the risk of election subversion or stolen elections?

How far could the theory go in insulating legislative voting rules from state constitutional review?

On Season 4, Episode 2 of the ELB Podcast, we hear a recent conversation that I moderated with Vik Amar, Derek Muller, Rick Pildes, Carolyn Shapiro, and Franita Tolson.

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ELB Podcast, Season 4, Episode 1: Fixing the Electoral Count Act to Stop Future Stolen Elections

New ELB Podcast:

Will Congress pass bipartisan legislation to fix the Electoral Count Act, that Donald Trump tried to exploit in 2020?

Is the new Electoral Count Reform Act the right way to go to stop election subversion?

Are there ways of improving the act before Congress may pass it as soon as this fall?

On Season 4, Episode 1 of the ELB Podcast, we hear a recent conversation that I moderated with Norm Eisen, Ned Foley, Rebecca Green, J. Michael Luttig and Janai Nelson.

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ELB Podcast Episode 3:8: Wendy Weiser: Assessing the State of American Elections and Democracy

New ELB Podcast:

Why has it gotten harder rather than easier to vote in the United States over the past decade?

What can be done about the risk of stolen elections in the United States?

How have the Supreme Court’s decisions on redistricting, voting rights, and gerrymandering affected the quality of American democracy?

On season 3, Episode 8 of the ELB podcast, we speak with Wendy Weiser, Vice President for the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School.

[This the final episode of Season 3 of the podcast.]

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ELB Podcast Episode 3:7: Mike Haas: The Mess with Wisconsin’s Elections

New ELB Podcast:

How did Wisconsin go from the gold standard for election administration in the United States to its laughing stock?

What does the partisan investigation into the 2020 election say about how to once again achieve bipartisan cooperation in running elections?

What is the future of free and fair elections in Wisconsin and beyond?

On season 3, Episode 7 of the ELB podcast, we speak with longtime Wisconsin election administrator and attorney Michael Haas.

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ELB Podcast Episode 3:6: Deuel Ross: Everything You Wanted to Know About the Alabama Voting Rights Redistricting Case But Were Too Confused to Ask

New ELB Podcast:

ELB Podcast Episode 3:6: Deuel Ross: Everything You Wanted to Know About the Alabama Voting Rights Redistricting Case But Were Too Confused to Ask

Why did the Supreme Court put on hold a federal district court order requiring the state of Alabama to draw another Black majority congressional district?

What does the stay order in Merrill v. Milligan mean for the future of the Voting Rights Act?

Are minority voting rights under threat by new arguments to weaken the Voting Rights Act?

On season 3, Episode 6 of the ELB podcast, we speak with NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund’s Senior Counsel and Director of Development, Deuel Ross.

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ELB Podcast Episode 3:5: Bart Gellman, Jessica Huseman, and Margaret Sullivan: What Can (and Should) Journalists Do to Prevent Election Subversion and Another January 6?

On Season 3, Episode 5 of the ELB Podcast:

How can journalists best report on stories about the risks to election integrity in the United States?
Should journalists be taking sides between the forces of those supporting and opposing free and fair elections in the United States?
How should one tell local stories of election problems with national implications?

On season 3, Episode 5 of the ELB podcast, we speak with The Atlantic’s Bart Gellman, Votebeat’s Jessica Huseman, and the Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan.

(This episode is a recording of a January 21, 2022 panel held by the Fair Elections and Free Speech Center at UCI Law).

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ELB Podcast Episode 3:3: Guy Charles: Race and Election Law in Today’s United States

On Season 3, Episode 3 of the ELB Podcast:

Is the Voting Rights Act effectively dead as a superstatute? Is the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act the best way to protect minority voters in the United States? Are the dangers of election subversion and voter suppression more closely linked than some have said?

On Season 3, Episode 3 of the ELB Podcast, we talk to Guy Charles, the Charles Ogletree, Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and faculty director of HLS’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice.

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ELB Podcast, Season 3, Episode 2: “Brad Raffensperger and Isabel Longoria: The Risk of Election Subversion”

On Season 3, Episode 2 of the ELB Podcast:

Is the United States at risk of election subversion and stolen elections?


Is the key to secure American elections having people of integrity running them?


What role can law play in protecting the rule of law and elections?

On Season 3, Episode 2 of the ELB Podcast, we speak with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Harris County, Texas Election Administrator Isabel Longoria.

(This episode is an excerpt from a recording of a September 24, 2021 conference on the risks of election subversion convened by the Fair Elections and Free Speech Center at UCI Law.)

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“Big Picture: Professor Says Insiders Win”

Bloomberg Government:

Since redistricting this time around has a shorter timeline because of the Census delays, Stanford Law professor Nate Persily says the edge goes to “insiders over outsiders” and “those who are adept at the redistricting process over those who are not organized.”

Persily, who crafted the current court-enacted Pennsylvania congressional lines, said on Rick Hasen’s ELB Podcast that he wouldn’t be surprised to see gerrymandered maps thrown out by state courts….

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