{"id":29248,"date":"2020-04-30T11:49:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T15:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stetson.edu\/law\/news\/?p=29248"},"modified":"2020-10-27T16:58:04","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T20:58:04","slug":"stetson-professor-contributes-to-report-on-conducting-fair-elections-during-a-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stetson.edu\/law\/news\/index.php\/2020\/04\/30\/stetson-professor-contributes-to-report-on-conducting-fair-elections-during-a-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Stetson Professor contributes to report on conducting fair elections during a crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Stetson Law Professor Ciara Torres-Spelliscy<\/a> was part of a group of bipartisan and diverse scholars and thinkers in the areas of law, technology, politics, and media that created a new report to offer guidance on how to conduct fair elections during a nationwide crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 45-page report is called Fair Elections During a Crisis: Urgent Recommendations in Law, Media, Politics, and Tech to Advance the Legitimacy of, and the Public\u2019s Confidence in, the November 2020 U.S. Elections<\/em><\/a> and is available online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It contains 14 recommendations for specific actions that key players \u2013 meaning members of the media, civic leaders, social media platforms, and government officials \u2013 should take now<\/em> to minimize the chances of an election meltdown in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the reason for concern?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Even before the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the United States, observers of American democracy questioned the public\u2019s faith and confidence in the results of the upcoming November 2020 U.S. elections. Concerns about peaceful transitions of power were less common a decade ago, but Americans can no longer take for granted that election losers will concede a closely-fought contest after authorities (or courts) have declared a winner. Hyperpolarization, misinformation on social media, election administration errors, foreign interference, and increasingly incendiary rhetoric around the fairness of American elections have caused public confidence in the fairness and accuracy of American elections to plummet. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated these concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recognizing the need for multifaceted solutions to the issue of the legitimacy and acceptance of fair election results in the United States, Richard L. Hasen, Chancellor\u2019s Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), convened a committee to tackle this issue from an interdisciplinary perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe American election system is under tremendous stress, and if nothing is done, we face a potential political crisis on top of the health and economic crises brought on by COVID-19,\u201d Hasen said in a press release. \u201cI am confident that the report\u2019s specific, actionable recommendations \u2014 carefully crafted by scholars and leaders from across disciplines and the political spectrum \u2014 can advance both the actual fairness of the 2020 U.S. elections and the public\u2019s confidence in them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the proposed solutions?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A key recommendation is that the media educate the public about how election counts may take longer than past years and vote margins may change during the count as election officials process large numbers of mail ballots, especially in key battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan. The committee also offers a number of recommendations to ensure both election integrity and voter access during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n