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11 07 24 CU Election Law Professor Doug Spencer talks about the election outcome
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I think I'll start with those bomb threats that we saw. Russia being blamed for them at polling sites across five swing states. They were deemed not credible. However, will we see anything come out of this, or is this story really just said and closed? Hi. Good morning. It's good to talk to you again. I think this story is ultimately closed. The response from local election administrators I think was very solid. We've seen people take action. I took these threats very seriously in places where voting was disrupted. There was a petition made to local judges, which is very common. The judges then permitted those polling places to stay open for an extra 45 minutes or an hour to accommodate any interruptions that may have happened, which is a very common occurrence that happened last night. The votes were counted, and then delivered from those, and then with all bomb threats, the local district attorneys will pursue any threats if they're able to find an individual who's done so and pursue them according to the law. But it looks like, ultimately, these stories have come and gone. On that notion, Douglas, do some of these challenges that may remain, or we talked about yesterday? Do they actually go away based on the results of an election, the winner? No, they don't. The problem is that none of these electiony challenges that are still in the courts have any impact on the outcome. So they'll disappear from our radar, but in the court system, the court's still going to evaluate the legal merits of these cases, whether or not certain ballots should be counted or not, because even though the race has been called for President Trump, the ballots will still be counted. We still don't know the exact number. The networks last night and the people watching the races can tell us that whatever that number is going to be in the states that matter, President Trump earned more than Vice President Harris. But we don't know the exact number, and so these lawsuits will matter on the margins. Are we going to count these 200 ballots from this township in Michigan, given the questions about the signatures and those issues, those remain? They don't become moot because we still do need a final tally and certification of an exact number of votes, which will happen later this month, maybe into December. Going off of that, your overall reaction yesterday when we had you on, you talked about, well, those days of having election night watch parties are long gone, which a lot of people agreed with. We did not think we would be getting results as quick as we did, and I guess if you stayed up late for your election night watch party, you did receive those results. The timeline of this was it surprising? It really was surprising. And a part of it is just how large the margin of victory was, and part of the expectation is that the ballots would take some time to count, and ballot counting is still ongoing. And if the race were closer, you know, within the margin that the political polls had suggested that might be, then we'd still be waiting to make sure we could get that certified total that one candidate was ahead of the other. But it really was surprising, you know, President Trump came on TV about 1 a.m. local time, 1230 local time, and even he had admitted, you know, "I didn't prepare speech. All of my advisors said we're going to take a day or two to wait for this to settle out." And so even on the side that the numbers were in favor of, there was not an expectation that the victory would be this large and this decisive. It's still too early, not for the results, but until everything is done and processed with the election, but I am curious with every election Douglas, are there things that we learn from that process for doing it better more efficiently the next time? And on top of that, what is your biggest takeaway thus far about this election and the voting process? I think we learned important lessons, and we saw those lessons in play last night. So 2020, which wasn't an election during a pandemic, so that needs to be taken into account. But it took a lot longer to count ballots, and some of these states, even that had told us to be patient, like Pennsylvania, said, "Look, we don't start processing our mail ballots until election day, and yet they had put into a place a system where they were trying their very best, and it worked. We got a Pennsylvania result five, six days faster than we did in 2020." Again, this is in part due to the fact that President Trump is going to end up winning that state. It looks like by five points, maybe, or six points, and there was a dead heat going in, according to the poll. So it looks like the election administrators really have found a way to process their ballots quickly. There's obviously going to be a look at how and why the political public opinion polling missed the mark, again, by such a large margin. And there will be lessons there, too, about whether they're capturing the people who are going to turn out to vote, which is always one of the big challenges. Legal expert and election laws and voting rights from the University of Colorado's Law School. It's Douglas Spencer. Douglas, thank you so much for your time again this morning. There's only one feeling like knowing your banker personally. Like growing up with a bank you can count on. Like being sure what you've earned is safe, secure, and local. There's only one feeling like knowing you're supporting your community. You deserve more from a bank. You deserve an institution that stood strong for generations. Bank of Colorado. There's only one. Your FDIC. You can follow and listen to post reports wherever you get your podcasts. It'll be a match, I promise. Light up your holidays with Visio's 65-inch Quantum Smart TV, now just $448 at Walmart. Immerse yourself in a world of over a billion vibrant colors with Quantum dot technology. Plus, wide viewing angle ensures that everyone gets the perfect view of your holiday favorites. No matter where they sit, experience incredible gaming with 120 FPS at 1080p and stream your favorite festive playlist with the built-in iHeart Radio app. Give the gift of entertainment. Get your Visio's 65-inch Quantum Smart TV for just $448 at Walmart today.