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Wednesday, December 25, 2024

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Trump vows to pursue executions after Biden commutes most of the federal death row; Mississippi group working in 71 counties to end homelessness in Mississippi; Farmers no longer feeling Farm Bill anguish, but relief might be fleeting; Addressing Montana's expanding 'news deserts.'

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Voting vulnerabilities spotlighted in UW course on 'How to Steal an Election'

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Monday, October 28, 2024   

A timely course at the University of Washington explores the vulnerabilities of U.S. elections.

The course is called "How to Steal an Election" - although Political Science Professor James Long, who is teaching the class, noted that the subtitle is "A Warning, Not a How-To Guide."

Long said he believes Americans may have overlooked the vulnerabilities in the country's elections until 2016, when misinformation and Russian interference campaigns exposed weaknesses in voting systems.

"While that is all true, it's also true that a lot of other countries have faced these issues and the U.S. has faced these issues historically," said Long. "And so the class is really about trying to remind Americans that we're not always alone in the world and we're not always alone in the issues that we face."

Long said the name of the course was inspired by a book called "How to Rig an Election," which is about election fraud around the world - and the so-called Stop the Steal movement after the 2020 election, which led supporters of former President Donald Trump to storm the U.S. Capitol Building to try and stop Congress from counting electoral college votes.

Long said the 2020 election has hopefully proved to be a lesson for Americans.

However he noted that this year the U.S. could be in for a destabilizing period between election day and inauguration day, especially as threats have ramped-up against election workers, legislators, and judges.

"The intimidation and the violence that has been targeted previously and has been threatened against them in the future - that is a real worry of mine," said Long. "And so I think it's incumbent upon everybody to sort of relax and not to let that anxiety lead to violence and things like that."

However, Long noted that while 2020 may have been a low point, he's noticed less cynicism from students about the 2024 election.

He said he hopes there's been a course correction in the way people feel about the democratic process.

"Where I start with the class is the reason we talk about stealing an election is we have to talk about why they're worth stealing," said Long. "The reason they're worth stealing is that democracy is a good thing and democracy is not always perfect - it's rarely perfect and it's not always a good thing for all people at the same level - but it's better than any alternative."

Support for this reporting was provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.




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