Just signed up for this online Election law webinar....starting in a few minutes

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:Election Law at Ohio State
@electionlawOSU
Please join us on Thursday!

Nationally-recognized election law scholars will assess the election-related lawsuits, the certification of results, and the next steps in the Electoral College process.

For more information and registration: https://u.osu.edu/electionlaw/events/presidential-election-debrief-a-conversation-among-election-law-scholars/…
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7:15 PM · Nov 17, 2020

[SharonClark]

1. Please post a recap, if you can.

[LeftInTX]

2. Thanks..I'm in!

[Nevilledog]

5. What did you think?

[LeftInTX]

8. Pretty good...try to stay calm..LOL

Concerned about future elections because these cases are being thrown out for lack of merit and in the future, it only takes a craftier lawyer.....

[Nevilledog]

11. I was glad I got to listen in.

Got a real sense that the participants were universally dismayed about what was going on. I hope they do more sessions.

[Cheezoholic]

3. Thanx

[marybourg]

4. Thanx! I'm in too.

[Nevilledog]

6. What did you think?

[marybourg]

7. They were just as flabbergasted and puzzled by tRump's

outlandish behavior as the rest of us. They have some thoughts about what could be done around the margins to make things better, but given our current media environment, our general lack of sophistication in the area of civics, our federal system of laws and regulation, I don’t think they had any answers.

Did you hear anything different? I was a little late in.

[Nevilledog]

9. That's a good summary.

I really thought the fact that what's going on is not normal was important. Also, that more people need to be stressing this. I also, unfortunately, agreed with the guy who said that it's unlikely that anything could be done to change the thought process of Trump supporters at this point.

[marybourg]

10. Yep.

[Cheezoholic]

12. Pildes's "lessons in futility" comments

Cast a bit of a shadow on my constant internal glass half full/empty battle of all things lol. I thought it was great discussion and hit on the issues that this country needs to address moving forward concerning the electoral process. I found very interesting what, was it Persily?, said about the potential of the USPS perhaps becoming a defacto national elections commission with the rise of vote by mail.
I personally do believe that there is a way without violating the Constitution, of the Federal Government issue guidelines to make election procedures (counting, recount, postmark and recieve dates etc) more consistent across states specifically for federal elected positions. These are the things most litigation after the fact are about and most of those cases are based on unequal weight of 1 voters vote over anothers. Constitutionally all votes carry equal weight so I would argue, at least in federal elected positions, that consistent guidelines across states protect the equal weight of each vote. Nothing over reaching but basically procedural consistencies nationwide. I think a lot of the discussion was along those lines. Especially when they were discussing the existing "norms" vs enforceable/unenforceable "law" aspects and how those vary widely from state to state.

Btw, I'm a big fan of Mr. Foley and if anyone's never read his "Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States" give it a read, great book.

[Nevilledog]

13. I'm so glad you got to listen in!

Too many states are invested in voter suppressing regulations to think they'll change. It would be interesting for the feds to try.

When they mentioned the USPS my first thought was we need to fix it first.

[Cheezoholic]

14. Agree, at least at a minimum

start by getting it back to where it was before DeFoil ripped it apart. If it were to go that route and with some vigorous postal reforms (mostly quit forcing 5B a year to be put away for retirees in 2075) in place I can't think of a better institution in this country to provide, protect and to some extent enforce fairness in our national elections than the largest most diverse and arguably most dedicated independent workforce in this country. After all they are an "independent" self funding non-partisan government entity that "technically" has some protections under the Constitution. A third of their employees are Vets who've already performed service in securing our country and continue that service at the USPS. They're the only entity in the country that has the ability to physically touch every listed address in the country, 95% of those daily. And they, at least until recently, do it so well they're taken for granted. I've been a proponent of it for many years and it would be encouraging to see this idea gain traction and strengthen the Postal Act of 1792, especially if we can wrestle control from the wealthy right. Quick links if interested...

https://facts.usps.com/top-facts/
https://www.thoughtco.com/postal-service-losses-by-year-3321043