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This week on CounterSpin: You and I may know that the 2020 election was not stolen from Donald Trump through various mysterious sorts of skullduggery. That does not mean that we can whistle past the fact that many people who vote do believe that. Many of those people are activated in a way that goes beyond easily ignorable segments on OAN, and has meaning for November. Steven Rosenfeld reports on transparency, among other electoral issues, for Voting Booth. We’ll hear from him about kinds of election interference we ignore at our peril.
Transcript: ‘The Best We Can Hope for Is To Nip Disinformation Rumors in the Bud’
Also on the show: You and I may believe that democracy means, at its core, something like “one person, one vote.” That doesn’t mean we can whistle past the fact that many voting people do not believe that. Indeed, some elite media–designated smart people have determined: “Citizens United, what? It’s folks who give ten bucks to a candidate that are really messing up the system.” We’ll explore that notion with Ian Vandewalker, senior counsel for the Elections & Government Program at the Brennan Center for Justice.
Transcript: ‘There’s a Uniquely American Way of Running Politics With Private Donors’
Our electoral system deserves quite a lot of criticism and probably needs some reform but I tend to think the actual administration of ballot counting is pretty sound. I was not so sure of this following the Florida election of George W. Bush, but I suspect that the attention the vote-counting received in reaction to that event has probably made the system more secure.
But as for the mantra of “one man, one vote” I have to raise an objection (in fact I have, at https://www.opednews.com/articles/One-Man-One-Vote-by-Paul-Cohen-Argument_Thinking_Voter-History_Voter-Revolt-180307-139.html ). That was a suitable chant for voter liberalization several centuries ago when only men could vote and at that, only men with titles or property could vote, but it is a chant that misleads today. If we want ever to end the undemocratic two-party duopoly, we need to get away from any notions that only men can vote, but also that they can vote only for one candidate. A much more expressive voting system is needed.
https://www.opednews.com/articles/Illusions-of-Ending-the-Tw-Duopoly_Two-party-System_Voting-240225-112.html
I listened with great interest to your interview with Steven Rosenfeld who offered a wealth of insight on the types of potential disruptions to our electoral processes, and the need to arm reporters and others with basic facts about these processes to strengthen the credibility of their reporting and better counter the false narratives that no doubt will arise by those not accepting an election outcome they don’t like. I’d like to hear more from Mr. Rosenfeld as I’ve not heard this kind of analysis elsewhere. Thanks for the great discussion.