Public Media for Central Pennsylvania
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Democracy Works: Free And Fair Elections During A Pandemic

Charles Stewart III
MIT

As COVID-19 intensifies, questions about the future of the remaining primary elections and the general election in November are beginning to surface. The last thing you want is large groups of people standing in line near each other for long periods of time. At a time when seemingly everything in life has gone remote, states are starting to think about what a remote election would look like, too. Our guest this week is one of the people helping them figure it all out.

Charles Stewart III is the Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science at MIT and a contributor to the Election Updates blog, a partnership between MIT and the California University of Technology. He's spoken with election officials across the country and about how to implement voting by mail and change processes to make in-person voting safe.

Voting by mail does not come without its problems in terms of election security and electoral integrity. We explore those with Charles and discuss how planning now can help mitigate those risks in the fall. 

Jenna Spinelle is the Communications Specialist for the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State. She is responsible for shaping all of the institute's external communication, including website content, social media, multimedia, and media outreach.