A Giant Test for Election Law (podcast)

(transcript)

S1: There are a lot of superlatives you could throw at the 2020 election, you could call it the most expensive campaign so far. Some are predicting the highest turnout in generations. But for Rick Hasen, election law expert, he’s focused on the fact that 2020 is on track to be the most litigated election he’s ever seen. So there have been hundreds of lawsuits this election cycle, but how many are still active do you even know?

S2: I don’t know. But, you know, active is a kind of a misleading term because there are lots of suits that are filed just in case something pops up.

S3: One of these just in case lawsuits looks to ban curbside voting. Others look to create tighter deadlines for mail in ballots. Rick says right now, the way to think about these lawsuits is as an elaborate pregame hedge on the Republican’s part. If the election’s close, you’re going to be hearing a lot more about them.

S4: But if Biden wins by six percent, some of the polls say he’s going to, then I think a lot of these lawsuits go away. It’s not it’s not as though they’re going to be revived. And suddenly in a not close election, there’s going to be the courts overturning it.

S3: It’s funny, I hadn’t thought about it as that kind of belt and suspenders approach of like, well, I’ve got to get a lawsuit on the docket for that so that we can you know, if it’s close there, we we have something to lean on.