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Speaker 1: And we are back with another edition of the Federalist

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Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle, senior elections correspondent at the Federalist,

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and your experienced Shirpa on today's quest for Knowledge. As always,

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you can email the show at radio at the Federalist

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dot com, follow us on x at fbr LST, make

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sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcast, and of

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course to the premium version of our website as well.

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Our guest today is Jason Snead, executive director of the

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Honest Elections Project. Here's the question, does election day actually

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mean election day? That is the key issue before the

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US Supreme Court, and the Court of course heard oral

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arguments in the case known as Watson RNC, the legal

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dispute on the challenge to a Mississippi law allowing election

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officials to accept mail in ballots up to five business

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days after election day, so long as they are postmarked

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on or before the day of the contest. And as

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you can imagine, the arguments this week have been very

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interesting on this case. Jason, thank you so much for

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joining us in this edition of the Federalist Radio Hour.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's great to be with you. Thanks for having

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me on the program.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, you covered the oral arguments. Give me your sense

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of what the court is really trying to get at

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here from or at least get some answers to in

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this case.

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Speaker 3: Well, this case, as you very eloquently laid out, really

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comes down to a fairly straightforward question. Does the election

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day mean election day? And when do we actually consider

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a ballot to be cast? Is it when you fill

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out the piece of paper that is the ballot, or

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is it when it is actually received by an election official,

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by somebody that is designated by the state to take

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possession of that ballot, to establish chain of custody, and

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then eventually to count or not count if for some reason,

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you know, you violated the lall for instance, failed to

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comply with the voter I D Stand or something like that.

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For a long time, in fact, for most of the

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nation's history, we have understood and we have gone to

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great pains to establish very clear rules that say that

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ballots must be in the possession of officials by the

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end of election day in order to be counted. And

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it's really only been in some limited circumstances throughout the

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nation's history, typically wartime, and then within the last couple

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of decades that states have begun to stray away from

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that and have established Mississippi style rules that allow ballots

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to be received and then to be counted after election

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day is over. And so what the Court is really

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trying to get to the bottom of is, first of all,

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through the federal laws that have been established to set

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a uniform election day mean in fact that ballots have

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to be received by the end of that day, and

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then what does it mean to actually cast a ballot?

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And a lot of the argument today surrounded what the

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history and practice was throughout the nation's history, beginning really

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in about eighteen forty five when Congress passed the first

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of these uniform election day statutes. It was an interesting argument,

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and I'm sure we're going to get down into the

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nitty gritty of it, but I think it was definitely

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a fascinating two hour debate really about what election day

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actually means.

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Speaker 1: I think that's a great place to start, really the

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history of this, because that's what the Court has to

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look at. How has this really been viewed by the Congress,

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How has this been applied by elections officials. You note

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that this thing goes back what one hundred and eighty years,

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So tell us a little bit about the history where

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this began and now where it has become this extended,

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lengthy election period.

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Speaker 3: Well, this was one of the interesting points that even

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some of the liberal justices were pointing out, quite correctly,

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that the concept of elections have changed quite a bit

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from the beginning of the Republic until now. Of course,

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I don't think that the change is necessarily cut in

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the direction that they very clearly were trying to go

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in their lines of questioning. But if you were going

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to go back to seventeen eighty nine, for instance, voting

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in the US would look markedly, markedly different than it

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does today. And a lot of the things that we

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sort of take for granted are the result of systemic

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changes that have been enacted by Congress or by the

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states over the last couple of hundred years to bring

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some degree of security and predictability and uniformity.

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Speaker 2: To the process.

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Speaker 3: So, at the very beginning of the Republic, we actually elected,

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when we were choosing presidential electors, we had states that

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would hold elections at different times, and so there was

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a thirty four day window across which states would be

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selecting would be voting to select president of the United States,

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and then in eighteen forty five, Congress stepped in and

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established the first of two laws that set a uniform

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date for the election, and they did so because they

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wanted to bring consistency. They wanted to make sure that

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states were voting at the same time to avoid fraud

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or the perception of fraud. That was one of the

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overarching reasons for passing that initial statute, And from really

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that point forward, the default norm has been that when

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we are talking about election day, we are talking about

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election day, and that ballots, in order to be counted,

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need to be in a state's physical possession by the

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end of that election day.

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Speaker 2: And during the argument today, a lot.

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Speaker 3: Was made about practices dating back to the Civil War,

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which is really when you saw what we would consider

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to be absentee voting begin to become an actual practice

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that was used in any kind of widespread scale. Because obviously,

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you had soldiers that were that were deployed throughout the

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entire country. They were nowhere near where they were going

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to be voting, and it was important to make sure

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that the Union soldiers had had access to the ballot.

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But what we saw from Paul Kleman, who was arguing

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for the r n C, And what we've seen in

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the briefing is that even then, states were going to

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great lengths to ensure that when a soldier voted, his

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ballot was taken into physical possession an official that was

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designated by the state to receive that ballot, and then

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that was when it was considered to be cast, not

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that soldiers of putting the ballance in the mail and

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then the mail was taking six or seven weeks to

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get back, and then you're still counting ballots that af

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throughout that entire period. And really that's been the norm

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throughout the majority of the nation's history that we've understood

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that elections are over on election day. It's really only

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been in the last couple of decades and states have

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made one policy choice after another to encourage people to

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vote by mail and then eventually to mandate the people

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vote by mail that they decided to continue pushing the

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envelope of what is an acceptable practice and then push

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it into this late collection. And it's really only gone

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widespread since COVID, when states like Mississippi changed their law

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to allow late ballots to come in and then decided

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to stick with those laws and make them permanent after COVID.

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So out of two hundred and fifty years of national history,

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really only the last five or so has seen the

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kind of widespread sense that it is in fact okay

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to allow ballots to come in days or even weeks

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after the election is over.

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Speaker 1: Well, can you imagine the chaos if you had from

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the Civil War battlefield all kinds of ballots coming in,

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you know, as you mentioned weeks and weeks and weeks.

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You know, I think we can imagine that because we

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have seen that over the last few years, including in

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two thousand and twenty four, which I think maybe the

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most egregious example of that in California, where you have

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this absentee or mail in ballot count basically extending the

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election period a month plus. Not only do you not

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have the clear winner of a congressional race, you still

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have doubt about who what party control Congress. I mean,

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that is absolute bedlam. So how much do you think

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the court is going to take in some of these examples?

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I think of Nevada in twenty twenty two, Adam Laxalt,

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who was clearly leading in that Senate contest and then

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all of a sudden days later, the vote changes because

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they allow all kinds of votes to come in after

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election day.

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Speaker 3: Well, I think this is going to be a point

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that most of the justices on the Court are going

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to take seriously. I think that the three liberal justices,

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very much like most progressives in the voting space these days,

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pretty solidly discount the problem of fraud or public perception

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surrounding late ballots and elections flipping after election day and

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so forth. But the majority on the Court has long

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understood that states have an obligation to deliver elections that

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are well run and that are secure, and have understood

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that public perception of fraud and fraud itself are essentially

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one and the same. In fact, you heard in oral

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argument today, you heard that exact point raised, that perception

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essentially is reality. So I certainly think that they're going

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to look at some of these instances, some of these

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examples in recent memory where ballots were coming in and

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election results were flipping in the post election context, when

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voting was supposed to be over, and yet ballots are

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continuing to trickle in days or weeks late, oftentimes with

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a postmark, oftentimes without that that was also something that

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we heard the justices really wrestling with was the fact

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that not all of the states that have these late

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ballot laws even require that they have a postmark demonstrating

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that they were mailed before the election. And it is

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absolutely damaging to public confident. It's in the voting process,

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not only if you are watching election results change potentially

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dramatically after the voting period is supposed to be over

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and all ballots are supposed to be received, but then

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also if they're counting ballots that don't even have any

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indication that they were voted before the election was over,

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that is a recipe for public skepticism. And so I

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do think that they're going to take that seriously. And

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even when when when Paul Clement was being pressed about

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one of the briefs that took some positions that were

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counter to the r n c's, you know, the point

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was made that even though this particular brief was arguing

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that in fact, federal law does not and and really

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can't be read to line up with the R and

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c's position, they were saying that the court if there

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if there was going to be a tiebreaker, was how

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he put it. But the tiebreaker would be that the

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Court should consider what ruling is going to be the

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best defense against fraud and public concern and surrounding it.

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And here I think that there's really only one rule

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and one outcome that does that, and that is to

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say that late balloting is illegal, it violates federal law,

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and it should be ended in all fifty states, and

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we should go back to the bright line standard, which

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again is the standard that most people have lived with

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and voted with throughout the majority of American history, that

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ballots must be received by the end of election day

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to be counted.

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Speaker 1: I want to get to the fraud question just a moment,

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but I thought this was a very interesting point and

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extremely salient point that Justice Alito made during oral arguments today.

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By the way, a plug for Federal Editor in Chief

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Molly Hemingway. She's got a great book coming out about

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Justice Alito coming up next month, so stay tuned. We

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will have more details on that. Around the corner, the

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Justice Alito said today, we have lots of phrases that

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involve two words, the second of which is day, labor Day,

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Memorial Day, George Washington's birthday, Independence Day, birthday, and election day.

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They are all particular days. So if we start with that,

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I have nothing more to look at.

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Speaker 4: Well, maybe these maybe it's inevitable that some sort of

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line drawing decisions like these have to be made. Unless

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the rule is anything goes. You know, states can do

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anything they want in this area. We don't have a

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whole lot to go on here. We have the phrase

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election day, and we have history. If we looked just

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at the phrase election day, what would we take from that?

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I think you've been saying, we're and we're moving in

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the direction we don't have election day anymore. We have

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election month, or we have election months. I mean, the

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early voting can start a month before the election, the

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ballots can be received a month after the election.

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Speaker 1: Do you think Justice Alito's mind is set on this matter?

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And what do you think about the points he raises

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about these particular day days that really are just a day,

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not days and days and days.

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Speaker 3: Well, I suppose that if there's a polymarket bet out

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there about which way Justice Alito is going to come

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down in this case, I'm not sure that I would

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be betting that he's going to be on the side

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of Mississippi. Based on statements and questions like that that

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he really peppered both the Mississippi Solicter General with and

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then the US Lister General on the RNC.

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Speaker 2: You know, I think that his statement is right on.

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Speaker 3: You know, we have this very common sense understanding when

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we're talking about a particular day, that we mean a

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particular day, and you know, we can, for instance, I

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know lots of people that love birthdays so much that

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they want to celebrate them for.

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Speaker 2: Longer than one day. But even then, you.

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Speaker 3: Know, they'll say colloquially, right, you know, oh, well, it's

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my birth month, you know, it's my birth week, right,

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And they're not trying to argue that your birthday is

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actually a seven day period that begins on your birthday

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and stretches for seven days afterwards. Right, even the twelve

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days of Christmas, right, we aren't literally saying that Christmas

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Day itself is twelve days long.

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Speaker 2: It is one finite period of time.

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Speaker 3: And I think that I think that this argument that

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election day really doesn't mean election day falls into a

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very common trap for left wing voting policies. They're just

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over complicating things so much so that they're using facts

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and arguments to obscure a very basic truth, and that

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is that we have this thing called election day.

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Speaker 2: We know that elections are.

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Speaker 3: Supposed to be over on election day, and when we

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are continuing to bring in ballots, not just count the

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ballots that we've already received, but when we are continuing

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to bring in ballots, and results are continuing to shift

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in meaningful ways, dramatic ways. And again, not just the

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ballots that we're counting that we're received before the election

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was over, and so vote totals for particular candidates are changing,

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but the overall number of votes in the election is

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changing as well and continuing to go up. Most people

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would say the election isn't over. And I think that

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when we have reached that point, we are state laws

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are encouraging people to hold on to their ballots late,

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to get them in the mail late, believing they will

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be counted, and then they continue to come in late.

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Speaker 2: We really have extended voting.

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Speaker 3: Beyond the day that is set by federal law called

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election day. That's a very common sense, very very easy

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to understand explanation for what this debate really is. And

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you can try to obscure that fact with legal arguments

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and with policy arguments and with arguments that people need

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extended periods to get their ballots in, none of which

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are true or accurate. But you're really just trying to

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distract from a very common sense understanding that most people

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have that an election is over when the ballots stop

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coming in and when you stop counting those new ballots,

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and that's really what we're arguing about in this case.

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Speaker 1: Well, Jason, that's just Jim Crow two point zero talk.

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You're offering. That's what we hear over and over again

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from Democrats in the left in another important election law issue,

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which we'll get into in just a bit, but this

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is particular to you. You have been studying this whole

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issue for a very long time before you got to

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the Honest Elections Project. You're with a Heritage Foundation working

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in the former Attorney General ed mess office, and you

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did a good deal of work, I know, with the

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Heritage database that tracked fraud in elections. And I want

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to ask you this straightforward. Do you think these extended

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election days have led two fraudulent votes and what do

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you think the ultimate impact is?

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Speaker 3: Well, I think that the impact from a fraud and

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from a security perspective is real, and I think that

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it unquestionably has led to fraudulent or illegal ballots being counted.

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There's really a couple of different ways that this can

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play out, you know. One is the hypothetical that if

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you wake up the day after the election and you

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see that your preferred candidate is losing, and you realize, shoot,

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I forgot to get my ballot in the mail, you

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might just be tempted to slip it into the mail,

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hoping that it's not going to get postmarked and it's

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going to be received within the window, and then it's

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going to be counted. Because what evidence at that point

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would there be that you did anything illegal, even if

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it is postmarked after the election, especially with this new

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US Postal Service rule that says that postmarking is likely

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to be delayed, meaning that it's not going to be

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postmarked the day that it gets into their possession, but

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potentially one or two days late. There's still no evidence

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that you tried to commit any kind of fraud there,

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So why wouldn't you. Boat traffickers might be inclined to

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do the same thing, to go around door to door

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to the folks they know have mail ballots, but they

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can see with their absentee ballot tracking that they didn't

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turn them in, so they go around and they start

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collecting those ballots. There's definitely that possibility. And if you're

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in a state, which these are mostly blue states that

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have these late ballot laws, and you don't even have

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a postmark rule, there's absolutely no disincentive to try that.

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The other way that this could go down, of course,

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is that courts could decide to read out any of

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these very basic safeguards. You know, take again the question

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of postmarket. Right now that you have this this this

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rule that has effectively delayed when postmarks are going to

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be put on ballots, you can easily see somebody like

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Mark Olias, the leading Democratic election lawyer, go into court

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and argue, you know, look, the state legislature said that

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it needed to be postmarked by election day, but now

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we know a ballot can be put in the mail

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on election day and it might be postmarked a day

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or too late. So you know, you, judge, need to

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rewrite the law and allow ballots to come in without

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postmarks or with late postmarks to be counted, because we

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want every vote to count. So in that case, you

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have you know, potentially illegal ballots being being counted, and

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you know, we sat we heard several of the hypotheticals

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of the judge to suppose about the way that these

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ballots can potentially swing the outcome, right, they can be

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outcome determinative, and that the loss of public confidence that ensues,

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particularly if you are or are operating under a state

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law that says to count you know what otherwise might

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be any illegal vote. So there's a real there's a

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real possibility here of fraudulent balance getting into the system.

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And I'm almost certain that illegal votes have been counted

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in these races. You know, one of the things that

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really jumped out at me when I was doing this

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work at Heritage back in the day on fraud was

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that any time you were talking about fraud that affected

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more than one or two votes, it was almost always

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in the mail voting context. That's where the fraud happens

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because voting is taking place away from election offices, away

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from election officials and poll observers, and it is extraordinarily

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difficult to prevent fraud in those contexts. So that's where

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if you're going to do something like a widespread fraud scandal,

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that's where it's going to be, and that's another reason

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why you need to have these very basic, for a

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common sense rules like balance in by election day. That's

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a bright line that avoids any possibility of these kinds

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of fraudulent ballots being slipped in after the election is over,

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hoping to swing outcomes. And I think that, you know,

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there's certainly some of the argument that we heard today,

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so I think it shows that the justices are thinking

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about some of those concerns as well.

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Speaker 5: Twelve point seven percent of US credit card balances are

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how late. Watched on On Wall Street podcast with Chris

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00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:42,079
Markowski every day, Chris helps unpack the connection between politics

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00:22:42,079 --> 00:22:44,759
and the economy and how it affects your wallet. Americans

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credit card balances are experiencing late fees to the highest

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level since twenty eleven. More and more people are falling

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behind as people are over ninety days late, not a

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good sign. Whether it's happening in DC or down on

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Wall Street, it's affecting you financially.

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Speaker 2: Be informed.

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Speaker 5: Check out the Watch Wall Street podcast with Christmercowski on Apple, Spotify,

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or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Speaker 1: Our guest today is Jason Sneath, Executive director of the

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Honest Elections Project. Now you said two things that I

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find extremely interesting curious even you said that in some cases,

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I guess judges try to legislate from the bench. I

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can't believe that that's not in the constitution. That seems

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like a separation of power issue. Jason. Of course, I

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say that all tongue in cheek, because what have we

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seen but just a long line of activist judges, particularly

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on election law, over the last several years in this country.

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The other question is, if you can't trust the US

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Postal Service, well who can you trust?

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Speaker 2: Jason? Those are both excellent points.

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Speaker 3: Yes, we certainly have a perfect postal service, and we

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certainly have never heard of an activist judge.

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Speaker 2: Those would be the day, you know.

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Speaker 3: I'll respond to both of those points, and I guess

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I'll take them in order. You know, first, we have

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seen time and time again activist judges that will enjoin

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common sense election laws essentially the moment that.

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Speaker 2: They are are pasted.

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Speaker 3: Right. There are particular judges on the left, and what

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you'll see is when there are lawsuits filed, as they

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inevitably are against state laws, there will be a degree

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of what we call form shopping that is, they'll bring

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their challenges in front of those particular judges. Whether we're

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talking about groups like the ACLU, or whether we're talking

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about the Democratic Party itself or any of the other

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folks in that orbit, they will go in front of

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particular judges pretty confident that they will get a district

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court ruling in their favor if they're going to federal court.

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And that's a real problem, right, and that's especially a

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problem in blue states that aren't interested, particularly in defending

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their existing.

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Speaker 2: Election integrity laws.

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Speaker 3: So back in twenty twenty, one of the things that

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we saw was hundreds of lawsuits being filed using COVID

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as an excuse to justify an attempt to rewrite all

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of these state laws through the judiciary. Right when a

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state legislature refused to buy what the left was selling

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in terms of leveling down on election security, they just

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ran to a court and said, Aha, now you have

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to do what we want, because actually COVID is so

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bad that the Constitution requires states to get rid of

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all of their election integrity laws.

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Speaker 2: And a lot of judges went along with that.

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Speaker 3: And in blue states where you had left wing ags,

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left wing secretaries of state they would sometimes even just

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enter into collusive consent agreements with the Democratic Party, with

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its lawyers whatever, and they would just agree to rewrite

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state laws right then and there. So this is a

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this is a real problem, and it can lead to

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situations where if you look at what your law is

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on paper, you think you're actually pretty good. But then

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if you look at what the law actually is in

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practice because of court rulings and regulations and things like that,

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it's a vastly different, vastly different dynamic. And then on

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the other point about the postal service, this is something

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that every state has to grapple with because every state

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allows absentee voting to some degree.

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Speaker 2: The question is who is going to be voting by mail?

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Speaker 3: And for those states that say everybody should be voting

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by mail, they really have to come to terms with

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the fact that they are outsourcing a critical piece of

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the democratic process, the handling of ballots, to an agency

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that they do not control, that they cannot regulate, and

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that thinks that if they lose only five percent of

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the mail pieces in their possession on any given day,

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that's actually a really good day, right, And so this

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is a real price. And states that are pushing mail voting,

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never want to talk about the flaws with that system.

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They don't want to talk certainly not about the fraud

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concerns surrounding mail voting.

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Speaker 2: But then they don't want to talk.

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Speaker 3: About the real risks that ballots are going to get

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lost in the postal services possession, they'll never get received

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or even with.

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Speaker 2: And this is the dirty secret of these late ballot laws.

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Even with a.

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Speaker 3: Ballot receipt deadline that pushes the receipt deadline out by

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five days, ten days, twenty one days in the case

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of Washington State, a ballot still might get so heavily

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delayed that it doesn't count. So this is a real

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problem also, and it's one more reason I don't think

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the Supreme Court is going to rule on these particular

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policy grounds. But it's one more reason why states could

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be getting rid of these late ballot deadlines and encouraging

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people if they are going to vote by mail, to

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vote early. And that's also why I think we've seen

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so many states do exactly that, for within the last year,

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have got rid of their late ballot deadlines. I think

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there's just a degree of common sense that is finally

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beginning to seep into into folks thinking on some of

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these late balloted lines.

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Speaker 1: I think anybody who is a Seinfeld fan and has

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seen the episode where Jerry tries to help mailman Newman

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finish up his route so he can Newman can get

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his sought after Hawaiian route. It was a failure because

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Jerry had I think, gotten the mail to something like

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sixty percent of the people on Newman's route, and they

485
00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:36,440
were suspicious because that was too high of a mark

486
00:28:36,519 --> 00:28:43,319
to hit for the average mail carrier. In all seriousness,

487
00:28:43,359 --> 00:28:46,680
I mean, that is a huge question. It's been a

488
00:28:46,759 --> 00:28:50,640
huge question for a long time, the security of our

489
00:28:50,759 --> 00:28:54,720
mail system. So the question is if we have questions

490
00:28:54,759 --> 00:28:59,160
about the security of our US male system, that's a

491
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:03,079
real issue you for the security of our election system

492
00:29:03,119 --> 00:29:07,039
and those ballots that go in. Now, as to the judges,

493
00:29:07,279 --> 00:29:14,720
the forum shopping right, what say the three liberal justices

494
00:29:14,839 --> 00:29:19,920
on the court, the Katanji, Brown, Jackson's, the Kagans, So

495
00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:24,119
to my ores, what kind of arguments are they making

496
00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:29,640
or what kind of questions suggest to you that they

497
00:29:29,720 --> 00:29:34,920
might not be in the line of thinking that says

498
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:38,839
election day should be just election day.

499
00:29:39,039 --> 00:29:43,000
Speaker 3: Well, I think if you listen to the way that

500
00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:49,200
particularly justices so do my Orange Jackson were to a

501
00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:52,440
great degree carrying water for Mississippi. I think it's I

502
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:56,160
think it's very clear that they were in favor of

503
00:29:56,400 --> 00:29:59,920
a ruling for Mississippi. And you know, really for these

504
00:30:00,079 --> 00:30:02,680
late ballot laws, that's really what they're they're trying to

505
00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:06,599
preserve is is the widespread mail voting and the ability

506
00:30:06,599 --> 00:30:09,480
of these left wing states to extend these ballot deadlines.

507
00:30:09,839 --> 00:30:15,480
And so they were they were were taking uh, the U. S.

508
00:30:15,519 --> 00:30:17,039
Speaker 2: Solstitor General to task, and.

509
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:20,839
Speaker 3: They were taking Paul Clement to task on a number

510
00:30:20,839 --> 00:30:25,039
of different issues, everything down to the the history and

511
00:30:25,039 --> 00:30:28,920
and the practices which very clearly show that we we

512
00:30:29,039 --> 00:30:32,599
have long understood ballots to to be to need to

513
00:30:32,599 --> 00:30:35,599
be received by election day. They were really trying to

514
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:40,119
uh to undermine that very basic position. And and and

515
00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:42,839
like I said, carrying a lot of water for from

516
00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:47,359
from Mississippi, defending some of these terrible practices. And when

517
00:30:47,359 --> 00:30:51,720
other judge, when other justices were raising hypotheticals about you know,

518
00:30:51,839 --> 00:30:55,160
just who could actually count as an official to receive

519
00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:58,200
this you know, could my neighbor count as as somebody

520
00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:01,400
that we give this to They were very defensive even

521
00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:06,240
of that right. So they were basically trying to say

522
00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:10,200
that unless Congress has very specifically passed a law saying

523
00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:12,440
balanced you know, put in the mail must be received

524
00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:15,319
by the close of polls on election day, then there's

525
00:31:15,319 --> 00:31:18,440
nothing that is illegal about what states are doing.

526
00:31:18,759 --> 00:31:22,599
Speaker 2: And Justice Jackson even at the end raised a.

527
00:31:24,079 --> 00:31:27,200
Speaker 3: Bill that is currently being debated in Congress, felled the

528
00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:31,319
Mega Act Make Elections Great Again, trying to imply that

529
00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:34,839
suggested that Congress didn't think that it had already made

530
00:31:34,839 --> 00:31:39,000
this illegal, which I think is a pretty absurd allocation.

531
00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:43,720
Speaker 1: Yes, it is, so, I think I think Congressman Brian's Style,

532
00:31:43,799 --> 00:31:48,559
who who brought this forward on the the House Administration Committee,

533
00:31:48,559 --> 00:31:52,160
would think that's an absurd argument because the Mega Act

534
00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:57,119
does exactly what the RNC is talking about. It it

535
00:31:57,319 --> 00:32:00,160
confines election day to election day. So how does you

536
00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:00,920
make that square?

537
00:32:01,799 --> 00:32:05,480
Speaker 3: Well, that combined with the fact that when you know,

538
00:32:05,519 --> 00:32:08,000
when when you know Republican members of the House have

539
00:32:08,039 --> 00:32:11,880
been discussing election integrity law is like the MEGA Act,

540
00:32:12,359 --> 00:32:13,000
they've been.

541
00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:15,680
Speaker 2: Very clear that you know, it is already illegal.

542
00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:20,039
Speaker 3: This is a reaffirmation, This is a recodification you know,

543
00:32:20,119 --> 00:32:24,240
making explicit what has long been understood. It's you know,

544
00:32:24,279 --> 00:32:28,759
it's really quite I think it's really quite telling. But

545
00:32:28,839 --> 00:32:31,319
we see this in a lot of other contexts too.

546
00:32:31,519 --> 00:32:35,480
The basic argument that that undermines a lot of what

547
00:32:35,519 --> 00:32:38,599
the left tries to do when it comes to changing

548
00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:42,799
voting policies. Whether it's you know, going into a state

549
00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:44,799
like Georgia in twenty twenty and saying, you know what,

550
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:47,400
you guys need dropboxes, and you need them everywhere on

551
00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:50,079
every street corner. Do it right now, whether it's going

552
00:32:50,079 --> 00:32:53,119
into or Texas, excuse me, and saying you know what

553
00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:56,519
you should do twenty four hour drive through voting, or

554
00:32:56,559 --> 00:32:59,519
now with this late ballot law that that Catangi Brown

555
00:32:59,559 --> 00:33:04,319
Jackson is saying, there's no explicit text in federal law

556
00:33:04,319 --> 00:33:07,160
that says you can't receive balance after election day. They're

557
00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:11,279
always saying, you know, the law says that elections shall

558
00:33:11,319 --> 00:33:13,480
be run according to X, but they don't say why,

559
00:33:13,519 --> 00:33:14,920
and therefore you can do why.

560
00:33:15,079 --> 00:33:17,319
Speaker 2: And that's a pretty absurd way to read the law.

561
00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:20,920
Speaker 3: Right If the law says a polling place in Texas

562
00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:23,759
should be open from seven am to seven pm, and

563
00:33:23,799 --> 00:33:25,200
I don't know if those are the numbers right off

564
00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:25,880
the top of my head.

565
00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:27,799
Speaker 2: But for the point of argument, let's assume it is.

566
00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:31,160
Speaker 3: To then say, well, it doesn't say that it can't

567
00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:33,440
be open outside of those hours. It just says they're

568
00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:35,960
going to be open during those hours. So therefore that

569
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:37,880
means you could do twenty four hour voting. That's the

570
00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:40,039
line of argument that that we're really kind of picking

571
00:33:40,119 --> 00:33:42,759
up on there. And it doesn't fly. It doesn't pass

572
00:33:42,799 --> 00:33:45,759
the smell tests. And to argue that, you know, Congress

573
00:33:45,759 --> 00:33:50,599
proposing a piece of legislation somehow implies that it isn't

574
00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:55,599
already illegal is a pretty absurd is a pretty absurd argument,

575
00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:58,079
especially when the authors of that bill have made clearly.

576
00:33:57,880 --> 00:33:58,400
Speaker 2: Think it is.

577
00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:01,720
Speaker 3: So you know, I think that I think there's I

578
00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:06,000
think there's nothing really there, And I think to a

579
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:11,000
certain extent, they are trying to carry water form Mississippi

580
00:34:11,079 --> 00:34:14,599
and are grasping its straws. If they're reaching for bills

581
00:34:14,679 --> 00:34:17,599
in Congress right now, is proof that Congress hasn't made

582
00:34:17,679 --> 00:34:19,199
this illegal.

583
00:34:19,599 --> 00:34:23,360
Speaker 1: Well, again, the argument from the left for a long

584
00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:26,679
time has been and I think the argument in part

585
00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:32,559
from the representatives of Mississippi election offices in this case

586
00:34:33,280 --> 00:34:40,000
is that if you do not allow this expanded voting period,

587
00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:44,760
just like if you do X, you do. There are many,

588
00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:47,440
many different examples. One we're going to get to in

589
00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:51,599
just a moment. If you put in a law that

590
00:34:52,119 --> 00:34:58,519
requires the voter to show a photo identification at the polls,

591
00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:05,159
you are dis enfranchising voters. You are suppressing voters, and

592
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:10,159
that is a violation of civil rights. They have used

593
00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:18,320
that and those terms without exhaustion. It's been exhausting, but

594
00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:23,559
without exhaustion for a long time. This is the latest

595
00:35:23,679 --> 00:35:29,119
or just another under this huge umbrella. How but most

596
00:35:29,159 --> 00:35:31,440
people just don't see it that way. I mean, you

597
00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:38,840
have eighty percent support for this election integrity legislation. How

598
00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:42,360
do they continue to make these arguments and how do

599
00:35:42,519 --> 00:35:44,480
courts allow them to get away with it?

600
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:49,119
Speaker 3: Well, I think that you actually saw in the oral

601
00:35:49,239 --> 00:35:54,239
argument today, Justice I believe it was Justice Kavanaugh who

602
00:35:54,320 --> 00:35:57,239
asked the question of Mississippi, you know what a state

603
00:35:58,159 --> 00:36:01,679
setting an election day deadline be guilty of voter suppression

604
00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:07,800
essentially where they be disenfranchising anybody? And Mississippi said, absolutely not,

605
00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:12,199
this is not disenfranchisment. Your reasonable deadlines not disenfranchised voters.

606
00:36:12,599 --> 00:36:15,920
So they're defending Mississippi's law, but they're not willing to,

607
00:36:16,119 --> 00:36:20,320
I think, be held out as a case study for

608
00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:24,239
the left and why any state that does require election

609
00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:27,880
date deadlines is somehow guilty of Jim Crow two point zero.

610
00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:31,800
So I will give them that for certain, But you know,

611
00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:34,639
the reality is that when you actually look at the

612
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:39,119
data right about these late ballot deadlines, which are always

613
00:36:39,119 --> 00:36:44,079
held out as a necessary policy choice that states must

614
00:36:44,159 --> 00:36:46,320
make in order to make sure that, you know, as

615
00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:48,840
they call it, every vote counts, right, when you.

616
00:36:48,800 --> 00:36:52,519
Speaker 2: Actually look at states that extend their balid deadlines, they

617
00:36:52,599 --> 00:36:56,599
often wind up disenfranchising, to use their language, essentially the

618
00:36:56,639 --> 00:36:59,440
same number of people. You know, Massachusetts had an election

619
00:36:59,559 --> 00:37:03,320
date deadlin line up through the twenty sixteen presidential election,

620
00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:06,079
and then it changed to a three day grace period.

621
00:37:06,480 --> 00:37:09,639
And if you look at the ballots that we're rejected

622
00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:13,320
for lateness under the old rule in twenty sixteen versus

623
00:37:13,360 --> 00:37:17,159
the new one in twenty twenty four, they're rejecting almost

624
00:37:17,199 --> 00:37:21,360
exactly the same number of ballots the number of ballots

625
00:37:21,360 --> 00:37:24,679
in Nevada. When Nevada moved from an election day deadline

626
00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:29,400
to a grace period. They are rejecting more ballots.

627
00:37:29,599 --> 00:37:33,320
Speaker 3: Right, So, there are policy choices that states are making

628
00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:36,480
to encourage people to vote by mail and then through

629
00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:40,119
these late ballot deadlines, encouraging people to hold on to

630
00:37:40,320 --> 00:37:44,239
their ballots longer on the belief that they will be counted.

631
00:37:44,320 --> 00:37:46,320
They're essentially saying, it's okay to put it in the

632
00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:48,679
mail late, We'll still count it.

633
00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:51,960
Speaker 2: But that's absolutely not the case. That's not a guarantee.

634
00:37:52,239 --> 00:37:55,440
Speaker 3: Conversely, if you look at at states that have rolled

635
00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:59,119
these deadlines back, you know, Ohio, for instance, moved from

636
00:37:59,159 --> 00:38:01,679
a ten day grade period to a four day grace

637
00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:05,360
period across that same time period, and they rejected half

638
00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:08,119
as many ballots for lateness in twenty twenty four as

639
00:38:08,159 --> 00:38:10,000
they did in twenty sixteen.

640
00:38:10,440 --> 00:38:11,960
Speaker 2: So there's no truth.

641
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:14,119
Speaker 3: Once again, just like with voter ID and you know,

642
00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:16,639
voter list maintenance and everything else, the left is always

643
00:38:16,639 --> 00:38:18,800
saying this is Jim Crow voter suppression.

644
00:38:19,079 --> 00:38:20,639
Speaker 2: There is no data to.

645
00:38:20,559 --> 00:38:25,159
Speaker 3: Sustain this, this claim that these ballot deadlines are either

646
00:38:25,239 --> 00:38:30,039
a essential or B they actually do ensure that every

647
00:38:30,119 --> 00:38:32,840
vote counts. Really, they just set voters up for failure

648
00:38:33,199 --> 00:38:37,719
and they leave them one postal delay, one bad postmark

649
00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:41,519
away from having their vote rejected and being disenfranchised.

650
00:38:42,199 --> 00:38:47,800
Speaker 1: Democrats have been doing it forever, Liberals in particular, but

651
00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:53,440
you know, screaming racist or racism every time they don't

652
00:38:53,480 --> 00:39:01,320
agree with policy. Just because you want to have common

653
00:39:01,519 --> 00:39:07,639
sense markers on when election, the voting process begins and ends,

654
00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:11,519
it doesn't mean that it is racist. It doesn't certainly

655
00:39:12,119 --> 00:39:19,599
suggests that that's disenfranchising. But what is disenfranchising, quite frankly, Jason,

656
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:24,159
is what is not talked about, certainly by Democrats, and

657
00:39:24,280 --> 00:39:27,440
unfortunately it's not talked about enough by those on the right.

658
00:39:28,280 --> 00:39:34,320
But what is disenfranchising is when you allow someone to

659
00:39:35,159 --> 00:39:39,960
cast a fraudulent ballot or you open up the opportunity

660
00:39:40,639 --> 00:39:46,480
for that. And so I'm curious how this issue in

661
00:39:46,559 --> 00:39:50,679
Watson relates to what is going on in the Senate

662
00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:55,039
when it comes to the Save America Act and of

663
00:39:55,079 --> 00:40:00,679
course the you know, the idea of basic voter gurification

664
00:40:01,679 --> 00:40:08,760
and the notion that we do have non citizens and

665
00:40:09,039 --> 00:40:11,840
a lot of them, quite frankly, on our voter rolls,

666
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:14,960
and non citizens, whether the left likes to acknowledge it

667
00:40:15,079 --> 00:40:18,519
or not, have voted illegally in our elections.

668
00:40:20,119 --> 00:40:20,880
Speaker 2: Well, that's right.

669
00:40:21,039 --> 00:40:23,679
Speaker 3: And I think that this gets back to the fundamental

670
00:40:23,679 --> 00:40:26,800
divide between the far left and the rest of the

671
00:40:26,840 --> 00:40:31,400
country about whether we should actually be securing and protecting elections.

672
00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:34,079
And you know, many of the people on the left

673
00:40:34,480 --> 00:40:37,000
that are and this is one of the big ironies here,

674
00:40:37,039 --> 00:40:39,840
many of the people on the left that are the

675
00:40:39,960 --> 00:40:42,760
loudest about how much they care about democracy, that will

676
00:40:42,800 --> 00:40:46,280
wrap themselves in the flag of democracy at every opportunity

677
00:40:46,679 --> 00:40:50,000
and will argue that if you aren't, you know, electing

678
00:40:50,039 --> 00:40:54,239
their politicians, your anti democracy right are the ones who

679
00:40:54,320 --> 00:40:57,719
also say that, however much they cherish democracy, it must

680
00:40:57,760 --> 00:40:59,920
not be safeguarded, It must not be secured.

681
00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:02,159
Speaker 2: We must not ask for voter I D.

682
00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:05,840
Speaker 3: We must not ask for for basic verifications about citizenship.

683
00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:08,639
We must not go through and clean up the voter roles,

684
00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:11,920
you know, we must not set, as it relates to

685
00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:15,679
this case, very common sense routine deadlines like ballots in

686
00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:19,039
by election day. So that really sort of puts the

687
00:41:19,079 --> 00:41:23,679
line to the whole claim that they really care about democracy. Now,

688
00:41:24,519 --> 00:41:27,880
I'm not necessarily trying to say that.

689
00:41:27,119 --> 00:41:28,800
Speaker 2: That that that.

690
00:41:28,320 --> 00:41:30,679
Speaker 3: That these these folks want to see democracy ended or

691
00:41:30,719 --> 00:41:33,280
anything like that, but they are very clearly they're they're

692
00:41:33,360 --> 00:41:37,920
very clearly playing artisan politics with the democratic process, and

693
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:41,039
I think that that this really puts the lie to

694
00:41:41,119 --> 00:41:44,639
that and to your point about a lot of the

695
00:41:45,039 --> 00:41:48,159
rhetoric that we hear coming from the left. Not wanting

696
00:41:48,199 --> 00:41:51,559
to have a debate on the policy of voter id

697
00:41:51,920 --> 00:41:54,800
or have a debate on the policy about proof of citizenship,

698
00:41:54,920 --> 00:41:57,440
or on the policy about late ballot deadlines or what

699
00:41:57,480 --> 00:41:59,559
the law says. They just want to call it voter

700
00:41:59,639 --> 00:42:03,960
surprise and kind of pound to the table. It's because

701
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:06,440
they know they're out of step. They know they are

702
00:42:06,519 --> 00:42:08,800
not in line with where the average American is. And

703
00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:11,960
that's why at the beginning of this question, I said,

704
00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:14,239
it's really about the far left versus the rest of us,

705
00:42:14,280 --> 00:42:18,480
because voter i D always polls eighty five ninety percent

706
00:42:18,559 --> 00:42:19,320
public support.

707
00:42:19,360 --> 00:42:21,199
Speaker 2: Proof of citizenship is the same thing.

708
00:42:21,599 --> 00:42:25,320
Speaker 3: We did a bowl as it relates to this Supreme

709
00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:29,199
Court case, and we found eighty three percent public support

710
00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:32,840
for the idea that all ballots should be received by

711
00:42:33,039 --> 00:42:37,559
election day. And that's overwhelming by artisan support. That's overwhelming

712
00:42:37,559 --> 00:42:40,440
support from Democrats, from independence, from Republicans. It really doesn't

713
00:42:40,440 --> 00:42:43,079
matter what demographic group or what party you are in.

714
00:42:43,920 --> 00:42:45,639
You just think the ballot should be in by election

715
00:42:45,719 --> 00:42:49,159
day because it's election day. So you know, this really

716
00:42:49,199 --> 00:42:54,559
is yet another front in this debate where the Left

717
00:42:54,960 --> 00:42:59,519
is trying to argue for policies that level down on

718
00:42:59,599 --> 00:43:03,239
security that are not supported by the average everyday American.

719
00:43:03,719 --> 00:43:06,000
And really it's all just about rigging the rules of

720
00:43:06,039 --> 00:43:10,239
the system to the left's advantage, and they are desperate

721
00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:12,599
not to have a debate about the actual impact of

722
00:43:12,599 --> 00:43:15,000
their policies. They are desperate not to have a debate

723
00:43:15,039 --> 00:43:17,159
on the substance of their policies. They just want to

724
00:43:17,199 --> 00:43:20,199
call it names and sneer anybody that raises questions and

725
00:43:20,360 --> 00:43:24,039
hope that they can make enough noise to avoid the debate.

726
00:43:24,039 --> 00:43:27,440
It's sort of like the old clip about lawyers. You know,

727
00:43:27,480 --> 00:43:29,760
when you have the law on your side, you pound

728
00:43:29,840 --> 00:43:31,800
the law. When you have the facts on your side,

729
00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:33,960
pound the facts. And when you have neither, you pound

730
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:36,679
the table. And that's really where the left is these days.

731
00:43:36,719 --> 00:43:38,679
They just pound the table. They make a lot of

732
00:43:38,719 --> 00:43:41,559
noise because they know that they don't have the public,

733
00:43:41,599 --> 00:43:43,719
they don't have the law, they don't have the facts

734
00:43:43,760 --> 00:43:44,519
on their side.

735
00:43:44,840 --> 00:43:50,039
Speaker 1: Now, the Democratic Party that's own members support voter verification

736
00:43:50,119 --> 00:43:53,559
and these these election integrity policies by a clip of

737
00:43:53,639 --> 00:43:56,679
sixty to seventy percent. So they're not only going against

738
00:43:57,039 --> 00:44:00,599
you know, the concern what they call the election denys.

739
00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:05,639
I like to define these folks as election integrity deniers.

740
00:44:05,920 --> 00:44:11,159
They're going up against the vast majority of their own members.

741
00:44:11,719 --> 00:44:15,559
And so that has to tell you something about what

742
00:44:15,679 --> 00:44:19,639
is wrong in that line of thinking these days. At

743
00:44:19,679 --> 00:44:22,960
least it does to me. Final question for you, given

744
00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:26,960
what you have seen today, Uh, and this has obviously

745
00:44:27,000 --> 00:44:30,559
been a major issue for the last several years in

746
00:44:30,599 --> 00:44:32,400
this country. Where do you think this court has had

747
00:44:32,440 --> 00:44:33,920
it well?

748
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:37,599
Speaker 3: I'm certainly going to to to be the optimist today

749
00:44:37,920 --> 00:44:41,920
and and and hope for a good ruling before the

750
00:44:41,920 --> 00:44:45,840
midterm elections that will put an end to too late

751
00:44:45,880 --> 00:44:48,400
ballots nationwide once and for all. I think, if you,

752
00:44:49,079 --> 00:44:52,760
if you, if you listen to the arguments, where where

753
00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:55,920
some of the justices were trying to decide, if we

754
00:44:56,039 --> 00:44:58,360
if we rule for Mississippi, if we say these laws

755
00:44:58,360 --> 00:45:00,320
are valid, where's the where's the end?

756
00:45:00,360 --> 00:45:01,559
Speaker 2: Where's the limiting principle?

757
00:45:01,599 --> 00:45:04,239
Speaker 3: When when do states need to cut off their receipt

758
00:45:04,320 --> 00:45:05,719
of these of these ballots.

759
00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:08,599
Speaker 2: There was no limit really, I mean, it's.

760
00:45:10,039 --> 00:45:13,119
Speaker 3: It basically looks like they could be receiving ballots up

761
00:45:13,199 --> 00:45:17,119
until the next Congress is seated, you know, maybe even beyond.

762
00:45:17,280 --> 00:45:20,079
You never know, right, So there's really no there's really

763
00:45:20,119 --> 00:45:24,119
no limiting principle that that Mississippi was able to establish here.

764
00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:27,239
They weren't able to address any of the fraud concerns

765
00:45:27,280 --> 00:45:30,920
really really meaningfully, you know, they other than to say

766
00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:34,239
that Mississippi does it better than most of the other

767
00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:36,599
states have had these late ballot laws and takes the

768
00:45:36,599 --> 00:45:38,760
election fraud a little bit more seriously than some of

769
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:41,679
the others do. But that's not really a good defense, because,

770
00:45:41,800 --> 00:45:44,760
of course, any ruling that we get here today is

771
00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:48,280
going to be either an endorsement or an end to

772
00:45:48,559 --> 00:45:52,039
late ballot laws nationwide. And you know, when you're in

773
00:45:52,079 --> 00:45:54,960
the in the company of states like California, it's really

774
00:45:55,039 --> 00:45:58,440
hard to argue that Mississippi doing it better than California

775
00:45:58,480 --> 00:46:01,039
means that California can keep doing it very poorly. Right.

776
00:46:02,199 --> 00:46:04,840
Speaker 2: The Blue states always love to level down on this.

777
00:46:05,239 --> 00:46:08,239
Speaker 3: It's sort of like Minnesota arguing that they don't need

778
00:46:08,320 --> 00:46:11,480
voter ID because they have this fantastic thing called vouching,

779
00:46:11,639 --> 00:46:14,239
and anybody can just walk into a polling place with

780
00:46:14,280 --> 00:46:18,000
eight friends, vouch for their identity, sign an AFFI David,

781
00:46:18,039 --> 00:46:20,039
and then they can all vote. Because nobody in the

782
00:46:20,039 --> 00:46:23,280
state of Minnesota has ever committed fraud of any kind before, right,

783
00:46:24,440 --> 00:46:28,079
And so I think that when you look at that,

784
00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:31,920
and then you combine it with the long voting history

785
00:46:32,039 --> 00:46:34,440
and the traditions in this country of how we have

786
00:46:34,519 --> 00:46:39,039
actually conducted elections and what the understanding has been about

787
00:46:39,079 --> 00:46:41,559
the idea of ballots coming in after election day and

788
00:46:41,880 --> 00:46:46,880
those not being considered to be accountable up until very recently,

789
00:46:47,280 --> 00:46:50,239
I think there's a good case to make that the

790
00:46:50,280 --> 00:46:52,320
Court will come down to the right side of this issue,

791
00:46:52,400 --> 00:46:55,559
and I certainly hope that they do. And one point

792
00:46:55,559 --> 00:46:59,360
that we haven't addressed but is a very important one

793
00:46:59,400 --> 00:47:02,159
as it relates to the midterms is this question of

794
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:04,559
for sell, which really came up at the very end

795
00:47:04,599 --> 00:47:08,920
of oral argument the iman Justice Kavanaugh asked about it,

796
00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:15,119
and you know, we heard a very quick but but

797
00:47:15,320 --> 00:47:19,840
precisely on point argument from Paul Clement that if we

798
00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:22,239
get a ruling from the Court in sort of the

799
00:47:22,280 --> 00:47:24,960
normal course around the midpoint of this year. That is

800
00:47:25,039 --> 00:47:29,239
plenty of time for the states that have these laws

801
00:47:29,480 --> 00:47:32,599
to adapt to the new ruling and to begin educating

802
00:47:32,639 --> 00:47:36,039
the public and to change their forms and to change

803
00:47:36,119 --> 00:47:39,760
the materials on their ballots and to come into compliance. Now,

804
00:47:39,760 --> 00:47:42,280
I would argue that the responsible thing to do would

805
00:47:42,320 --> 00:47:44,920
be for those state legislators to repeal those laws today

806
00:47:45,199 --> 00:47:47,840
so they have even more time, you know, But that's

807
00:47:47,880 --> 00:47:51,199
not going to obviously happen. So election officials in these

808
00:47:51,239 --> 00:47:53,639
in these states with these late laws, they need to

809
00:47:53,679 --> 00:47:58,440
be putting in place an action plan right now. Of Course,

810
00:47:58,480 --> 00:48:01,400
my fear is that they'll wait until they get the ruling.

811
00:48:02,039 --> 00:48:04,079
Then they will throw up their hands and they'll they'll

812
00:48:04,079 --> 00:48:05,760
say it's too late to do anything. This is going

813
00:48:05,840 --> 00:48:08,000
to be chaotic, and then they will try to score

814
00:48:08,039 --> 00:48:10,440
points off of the chaos that they allowed to happen.

815
00:48:11,280 --> 00:48:15,000
But nevertheless, I'm confident that we'll get a good ruling

816
00:48:15,039 --> 00:48:17,800
out of the court and that if it's applied in

817
00:48:17,840 --> 00:48:20,639
the midterms, it need not lead to chaos, but it

818
00:48:20,679 --> 00:48:24,920
will lead to a major gain for election integrity nationwide,

819
00:48:25,119 --> 00:48:28,119
and it'll bring some sanity back to the voting process

820
00:48:28,199 --> 00:48:30,119
before the midterm elections.

821
00:48:30,199 --> 00:48:35,079
Speaker 1: Will bring confidence back as well, which has been absolutely

822
00:48:35,159 --> 00:48:41,039
battered because of policies, because of laws like what we've

823
00:48:41,079 --> 00:48:45,239
seen in Mississippi and California and Nevada, and you can

824
00:48:45,280 --> 00:48:48,880
go down the list. You've been listening to another edition

825
00:48:48,920 --> 00:48:52,199
of the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle, Senior Elections

826
00:48:52,199 --> 00:48:58,119
correspondent at the Federalist. Our guest today Jason Snead, executive

827
00:48:58,119 --> 00:49:02,679
director of the Honest Elections Project. Again, you've been listening

828
00:49:02,719 --> 00:49:05,599
to another edition of the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle,

829
00:49:05,679 --> 00:49:09,159
Senior Elections correspondent at the Federalist. We'll be back soon

830
00:49:09,239 --> 00:49:13,559
with more. Until then, stay lovers of freedom and anxious

831
00:49:13,559 --> 00:49:30,119
for the fray