Democracy Decoded

Campaign Legal Center
  • 4.9 (140)
  • GOVERNMENT
  • UPDATED WEEKLY
Democracy Decoded

An essential guide for anyone looking to understand what makes elections work, and the safeguards built into the electoral process. On the eve of the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, we dive deep into the systems in place that ensure our elections are safe, secure and accurate. We embark on a timely and crucial journey to understand how our elections function, the potential threats they face, and the checks and balances in place so voters can rest assured that the election results reflect the will of the people. Through eye-opening interviews with top lawyers, and democracy’s frontline heroes—such as poll workers and civil servants—the series not only informs but also empowers. Listeners will come away equipped with the knowledge needed to recognize misinformation, understand their rights as voters, and more fully participate in our democracy. Because here’s the thing: our electoral system works, and we’re here to help you understand why. Join us as we decode the complexities of democracy, ensuring that every listener is not only a witness to history but an informed participant in ensuring our electoral system is transparent and resilient. Get the insights and tools to help you contribute to a healthier democracy: follow Democracy Decoded on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

  1. The Latest: A Postelection Fight for Democracy

    NOV 12

    The Latest: A Postelection Fight for Democracy

    In the end, the worst of everyone’s election fears — political violence, overt foreign interference or a razor-thin margin between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump leading to a hotly contested legal battle — did not come to pass. Instead, Donald Trump won a plurality of votes for president, and did so decisively. On January 20, 2025, he will once again become the country’s most powerful executive. His victory raises weighty questions for the experts at Campaign Legal Center. Trump ran explicitly on a platform of behaving like an authoritarian, promising to fire U.S. civil servants, threatening opponents with jail, and brandishing military force against would-be dissenters. As his return to power approaches, we grapple with a paradoxical election, in which voters declared their preference for the candidate who repeatedly threatened the American system as we know it. Joining Simone in this episode are Trevor Potter, CLC’s president and founder, and CLC senior vice presidents Paul M. Smith and Bruce Spiva. They offer their forecasts for the uncertain years ahead and explain what this election did (and did not) signify about the health of American democracy.

    31 min
  2. Today’s the Day — Go Vote!

    NOV 5

    Today’s the Day — Go Vote!

    This week’s episode is short, sweet, and to the point: It’s Election Day, and if you haven’t yet cast your vote, let us be your friendly reminder. Like many of her CLC colleagues, Simone will spend the day monitoring elections. Next week she’ll be back with the final episode of the season, with a look at how this most dramatic election is playing out. Until then, it’s up to you. Nationwide nonpartisan Election Protection (EP) hotline: 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683)

    2 min
  3. The Latest: The 2024 Election, in a Nutshell

    OCT 29

    The Latest: The 2024 Election, in a Nutshell

    An incumbent president drops out, mid-race. A former president becomes a party’s nominee for the first time in more than a century. There are multiple occurrences of political violence against a candidate. Newly emergent AI tools spread disinformation. And a Supreme Court that may be called upon to decide the race is perceived by the electorate as increasingly politicized. The 2024 election cycle has already made its share of history. With Election Day now just a week away, we bring you another of this season’s up-to-the-minute episodes. This time we’re speaking with Trevor Potter, president of Campaign Legal Center, who joins Simone to explain how this election has been playing out, and what it all means for you, the voter, as the deadline nears to cast your ballot. Nationwide nonpartisan Election Protection (EP) hotline: 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683)

    32 min
  4. Know Your Rights as a Voter

    OCT 22

    Know Your Rights as a Voter

    Imagine you’re at home when you hear a knock. At your door are people who want you to share, in detail, who you voted for in the last election, months ago. When you ask them who they are and where they’re from, they remain vague and perhaps even aggressive. This was the case for some Americans in the years after the 2020 election, part of a spate of behaviors by election skeptics and deniers that, in some cases, amounted to voter intimidation. The history of voter intimidation in the United States is sordid and violent, especially in the century between the U.S. Civil War and the passage of strong voter protections in the 1960s. But it’s important to remember that voter intimidation is against the law. Whether you’re voting in-person, by mail or via election dropbox, you should never be made to feel unsafe or intimidated while exercising your freedom to vote.. Carly Koppes, the clerk and recorder of Colorado’s enormous Weld County, describes to us the steps she and fellow officials took when they received reports of unwelcome and unofficial vigilante election “auditors” going door to door in 2021. Christina Das of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund walks us through the bleak history of voter intimidation in America. And CLC’s Jonathan Diaz explains how voter intimidation has evolved to become sneakier and more subversive in the digital age — and the steps you can take if you encounter it.

    27 min
  5. Navigating Election Facts in the AI Era

    OCT 15

    Navigating Election Facts in the AI Era

    When New Hampshire voters picked up the phone earlier this year and heard what sounded like the voice of President Joe Biden asking them not to vote in that state’s primary election, the stage was set for an unprecedented election year. The call was a deepfake — and the first major instance of artificial intelligence being used in the 2024 election. With the rise of AI tools that can credibly synthesize voices, images and videos, how are voters supposed to determine what they can trust as they prepare to cast their votes? To find out how lawmakers and civil society are pushing back against harmful false narratives and content, we talked with experts engaging the problem on several fronts. Stephen Richer, an elected Republican in Phoenix, posts on X (formerly Twitter) to engage misinformation head-on to protect Arizona voters. Adav Noti, the executive director of CLC, explains how good-governance advocates are hurrying to catch up with a profusion of new digital tools that make the age-old practices of misinformation and disinformation faster and cheaper than ever. And Mia Hoffman, a researcher who looks at the effects of AI on democracies, reminds voters not to panic — that bad information and malicious messaging don’t always have the power to reach their audience, let alone sway people’s opinions or actions.

    33 min
  6. The Latest: The Fights Over Election Certification

    OCT 8

    The Latest: The Fights Over Election Certification

    Election certification has traditionally been a mostly symbolic process in the United States. You vote, your vote gets counted, your precinct and others get tallied together (“canvassed” is the term of art) and, within a few days, everyone looks at the counts and agrees on a winner. But lately, this banal, bland procedure has become a political flashpoint, as people who question the election process impose unrealistic requirements on certification — and, in some cases, outright refuse to certify elections, even when state law requires them to do so. In another of this season’s up-to-the-minute episodes, we are speaking with Jonathan Diaz, a litigator and voting rights advocate at CLC, who joins Simone to explain how election certification is supposed to work, how it’s being taken advantage of by bad actors and what CLC and other good-government advocates are doing to push back and see that election laws are carried out.

    30 min
  7. Safeguarding America’s Electoral Process

    OCT 1

    Safeguarding America’s Electoral Process

    The peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of American democracy that sets the United States apart — the so-called north star of our electoral system. Yet the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 challenged that tradition profoundly. In the lead-up to this November, we answer the question that is on the minds of many voters: Will the months after this presidential election look like the aftermath of the last one? Fortunately, lawmakers who were caught in the eye of that storm seized the opportunity to make updates to our election laws that were, by some accounts, about 150 years overdue. In 2021, Congress passed the bipartisan Electoral Count Reform Act, or ECRA, in an effort to curtail the tactics that bad actors could use to exploit the Electoral College and to define and streamline the procedures by which states count and certify election results. Catie Kelley of CLC joins us to explain how an otherwise deeply divided Congress pulled together to pass this important law, and why the passage of this new law will help ensure that this presidential election goes much more smoothly than the last one.

    26 min
  8. The Latest: Attacks on Voter Registration

    SEP 24

    The Latest: Attacks on Voter Registration

    Voter registration is the number one obstacle to voting in the United States. It should be easy, accessible and secure, but too often, states are moving backwards; making voter registration more difficult and less equitable. Here, we introduce a new type of episode: an up-to-the-minute interview with an expert to help you better understand some of the most important issues affecting elections. Danielle Lang, a voting rights attorney at CLC, joins Simone to explain why major actions in Arizona and Texas involve what should be a straightforward component of elections: voter registration. Danielle explains voter purges, mass challenges to voter registrations, and their effects on voters. And she lays out actions that states and individuals alike can take to ensure registering to vote is safe and secure ahead of Election Day.

    31 min
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About

An essential guide for anyone looking to understand what makes elections work, and the safeguards built into the electoral process. On the eve of the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, we dive deep into the systems in place that ensure our elections are safe, secure and accurate. We embark on a timely and crucial journey to understand how our elections function, the potential threats they face, and the checks and balances in place so voters can rest assured that the election results reflect the will of the people. Through eye-opening interviews with top lawyers, and democracy’s frontline heroes—such as poll workers and civil servants—the series not only informs but also empowers. Listeners will come away equipped with the knowledge needed to recognize misinformation, understand their rights as voters, and more fully participate in our democracy. Because here’s the thing: our electoral system works, and we’re here to help you understand why. Join us as we decode the complexities of democracy, ensuring that every listener is not only a witness to history but an informed participant in ensuring our electoral system is transparent and resilient. Get the insights and tools to help you contribute to a healthier democracy: follow Democracy Decoded on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

Information

  • Creator
    Campaign Legal Center
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2024
  • Episodes
    36
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2022 Campaign Legal Center
  • Show Website
    Democracy Decoded

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