This is why election security and the women's vote matters
What to expect if you vote in person on Nov. 3, what could happen to abortion rights, how votes are counted in Connecticut, and how politics can end friendships.
In this week’s Crash Course, we looked at preparations around election security and preventing voter intimidation at the polls. We also examined the importance of the women’s vote and explained how the Supreme Court’s conservative majority could limit abortion rights.
Keep reading to find out the latest polling numbers in the presidential race, how votes will be counted in Connecticut, and a conversation starter about the strain political polarization has put on friendships.
Election Day fears include voter intimidation, election integrity
Allison O’Donnell writes: The 2020 election was already set to be a contentious event — happening amid a global pandemic and months of social unrest. President Donald Trump has also generated distrust by repeatedly questioning the legitimacy of mail-in ballots.
A local absentee ballot return envelope. Photo by Marie K. Shanahan
Though the FBI found no evidence of fraud schemes with mail-in ballots this year, investigators did uncover Russian and Iranian disinformation campaigns intended to influence U.S. voters. Election Day fears have now shifted to the possibility of voter intimidation at the polls on Nov. 3.
Connecticut has taken steps to strengthen the state’s cyber defense systems ensuring election integrity amid reports of foreign interference, WFSB reported. Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said Connecticut has multiple checks and balances in place to stop voter fraud.
Merrill also warned against voter intimidation at the polls, saying it is illegal and violators will be prosecuted. New Haven, Stamford and Fairfield police say they are prepared to address voter intimidation.
Similar preparations are happening nationwide, according to NPR. Military officials don't anticipate violence at the polls, but they do say unrest could occur after the election, regardless of who wins. If violence erupts and local police need help, governors can activate National Guard units, just as Minnesota did during protests following the death of George Floyd.
What happens if the election is contested?
The Constitution dictates the president's term ends at noon on January 20, explained UConn Associate Political Science Professor Ronald Schurin. He added that it is “hard to see how [the election] would not be completed by the inauguration.”
Also stated in the Constitution is voters don’t actually elect the president — they choose the electoral college.
If the validity of the election is called into question, a more probable scenario is that the decision would fall to the U.S. Supreme Court. Read more »
Why the women’s vote matters
Ashley Anglisano writes: It’s clear that the women’s vote in any election is important. In the last two presidential elections, women have outvoted men by about 10 million ballots, according to The Atlantic.
With just days left in the 2020 election season, President Trump has been campaigning to try and win over women’s votes. At a Pennsylvania campaign rally on Oct. 13, he asked, “Suburban women, will you please like me?”
“We’re getting your husband's back to work,” Trump said at a Michigan campaign rally on Tuesday. “And everybody wants it.”
That remark led many women to speak out on social media against the outdated idea that women rely on a husband to support themselves or their families. In the past year, women have been hit by unemployment at higher rates than men. Nearly 6 million women have lost their jobs since the coronavirus pandemic began, the Washington Post reported.
Women and men have different lived experiences, which shape women’s awareness of problems and their preferences for solving them, explained Jennifer M. Piscopo in Smithsonian Magazine. Women are interested in a wide range of issues when casting their vote.
Grace McFadden, a UConn sophomore majoring in English, and Gladi Suero, a programming coordinator at the UConn Women’s Center, said immigrant rights, healthcare, and reproductive rights were among the issues that mattered most to them.
“I think I am in a difficult place right now because I don’t think either of the two major candidates represent the values that I care deeply about.” said Suero, adding concerns about student loan forgiveness and racial inequality. “Though there aren’t any legal barriers for people who hold certain identities to vote, voter suppression is still very real and it is affecting so many marginalized people today.”
“Probably the most pressing [issue] is how the government will deal with coronavirus. Beyond that, any number of issues affect how I cast my vote,” McFadden said. “I’d love to see some actual movement in terms of climate change so we don’t all die.”
McFadden sees protests like the Women’s March as just one way women can use their voice.
“I’m a leftist, and we use the phrase ‘read theory, do praxis’ a lot,” McFadden said. “Essentially, the philosophy of educating yourself and then applying that education. Educating others is also very, very important.” Read more »
How the Supreme Court could limit abortion rights
Fiona Brady writes: Justice Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the Supreme Court this week in a narrow 52-48 Senate vote. Her confirmation came just 30 days after being nominated by President Trump to fill the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Her appointment cements the court’s conservative majority at 6-3.
Barrett, 48, is the youngest justice and only the fifth woman to serve on the high court. As a staunch conservative and devout Catholic, Barrett could be the deciding vote in upcoming cases dealing with abortion rights, potentially overturning the landmark decision of Roe v. Wade.
When pressed on the topic of abortion rights during her confirmation hearing, Barrett declined to say whether she would vote to strike down Roe. She said she would “stick to the rule of law and decide cases as they come.”
In Connecticut, legal access to abortion would remain unchanged if Roe were overturned, as the decision legalizing abortion has been codified into state law. Connecticut has one of the strongest laws protecting abortion rights. There is no parental consent requirement for minors and no mandatory counseling or delays. There are also no limitations on abortions paid with public funds.
Abortion would likely become illegal in 22 states in the absence of Roe, closing the nearest abortion clinic for 41% of women of childbearing age, according to New York Times.
We spoke with Liz Gustafson, state director of NARAL Pro-Choice Connecticut, and Laura Echevarria of the National Right to Life Committee, Inc. about the future of abortion rights in America.
Where does access to abortion currently stand in the U.S. and what do you hope for it to be in the future?
Gustafson: Where people can go to actually get their care varies widely across the country. When you think about people who have to take time off work, people who have to get child care, people who need transportation, those are very significant barriers and those are barriers that disproportionally impact people of color, people living with low incomes, people who are undocumented, young people, people with disabilities and those living in rural areas.
If Roe were overturned, it would not only threaten access but threaten the quality of care. People are always going to have abortions. People had abortions before Roe, and they are going to continue to have abortions. We have to do everything we can as a state to make it as accessible as possible for not only our own residents but also folks who might potentially need to travel.
Echevarria: We as a society have done a disservice to women. The vast majority of women who seek an abortion do so primarily because of a lack of support at home.
We cheat young women by not telling them that there are resources, that there are answers, that their only way out of this is to have an abortion, that they can’t have a career and a baby. We cheat them repeatedly. We should be celebrating what makes us different and what makes us unique, and we should be helping young women achieve their goals and be able to have their baby. Read more »
What political scientists and pro-life advocates had to say about Justice Barrett’s confirmation
“Amy Coney Barrett is going to be on the Court for a long time — long after Donald Trump, Joseph Biden, Mitch McConnell and many others have left the political scene. It will be interesting to see how the issues that come before the court change; and it is possible that she reacts to those new issues in completely unexpected ways. Abortion rights, for example, wasn't even an issue when Harry Blackmun was appointed in 1970. We will have to wait and see.”
— David Yalof, UConn political science professor and department head
“I’ve been praying for 15 years for the Supreme Court and the end of abortion…This is the answer to a prayer...She will be the first pro-life female Supreme Court justice in history.”
—Christina Bennett, a Connecticut resident and co-chairwoman of Pro-Life Voices for Trump [via Hartford Courant]
“This nomination is really one of the worst things in my lifetime for the state of the law. It is not just going to potentially roll back abortion rights. It could also roll back gay marriage. It could mean the Affordable Care Act is flipped. I think we all took for granted that Roe v. Wade has been the law of the land since 1973, but we were just one vote away from that not being the case. We’ve lost that vote now.”
—Carol Gray, UConn Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science
Infographic: Recent polling numbers
Graphic designed by Mike Mavredakis
SOURCES: Suffolk University/USA Today poll, Sacred Heart University/Hartford Courant poll, Siena College/New York Times poll, Quinnipiac University poll
What UConn students can expect at the polls in Mansfield
Ben Crnic writes: Here’s how COVID-19 and social distancing will affect voting at the Mansfield Community Center, which is where UConn students vote in-person. Answers from Vera Ward, Mansfield’s Republican registrar of voters:
Q: What social distancing measures will be put in place at the polling center?
A: The lines will be long, and people will be spaced 6 feet apart. They will be mostly outside. We ask that people wear a mask, but people who refuse to wear a mask will still be allowed to vote, there will just be a path cleared for them. People should use their own black and blue pens, otherwise we would have to sanitize them after each use. We will have people sanitize voting stations, and we will have hand sanitizer on the way out. We ask that people do not use hand sanitizer before voting, as it will dampen the ballots.
Q: Do you think it will take longer for people to vote in person because of this?
A: Yes. I don’t know how long exactly as it depends on the volume of people, but it will take longer to vote. The line will be even longer for same-day registration in the Town Hall.
Q: President Trump urged his supporters to form an "army" of poll watchers on Election Day. Rumors of voter fraud have been rampant. Will there be any kind of security/police presence at the community center poll to reassure people?
A: Yes, people are concerned and no, we have no reason to expect any trouble—just possibly long lines waiting socially distant from one another. And, yes, we will have police presence for the duration of the polling hours at each of the polling places—this is not unusual and have had police presence at previous elections.
What else to know about voting in-person in Connecticut
The polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3. All voters in line at 8 p.m. will be permitted to vote, even if they have not yet reached the ballot boxes, according to the Secretary of the State’s office.
Voters have to bring a form of identification, especially if they are doing same-day in-person registration. That identification does not have to be a photo I.D. though — it can be your name and a signature, your name and address or your name and photo.
If you intend to vote in person, Connecticut does offer same day voter registration. However, if you are in line to register to vote when the polls close at 8 p.m., you will not be allowed to vote — you must be in the voting line by that time.
Here’s how votes are counted in Connecticut
Ben Crnic writes: With all of the confusion surrounding absentee ballots in this election, you may be wondering how votes will be counted in Connecticut when the polls close on Nov. 3.
Counting the votes is a decentralized process, as each municipality counts its own votes separately. After the votes are counted, they are sent to the Secretary of the State.
Both in-person and absentee ballots will be counted on Election Day. Towns are not allowed to open mail-in ballots until the day of the election; however, they are able to verify the legitimacy of the inner envelope which contains a voter’s submitted ballot and signature starting on October 30 at 5 p.m.
Absentee ballots must be received by local town clerks by 8 p.m. on Election Day or they will not be counted.
According to the Secretary of the State website: “When the polls close on Election Day, the Town Clerks feed the ballots into the tabulators to be counted. Each town is able to report their results in separate totals for absentee ballots and for polling places.”
Because of the unprecedented number of absentee ballots in 2020, results may not be known on election night. Absentee ballots take longer to count, and since many states cannot begin counting them until Election Day, this may cause official results to be delayed.
In addition, there are some states that allow mail-in ballots to be received after Election Day as long as they are postmarked by Nov. 3. This is the case in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, which are allowing ballots to be counted nine days and three days after, respectively. Delivery delays by the U.S. Postal Service nationwide also mean a large number of votes may be counted after Election Day.
Election officials are encouraging Americans to be patient. And just because the winner of the 2020 presidential race won’t be called on election night, that doesn’t mean the eventual results will be flawed or fraudulent.
Conversation starter: Has politics ended any of your friendships?
Ben Crnic writes: This election season has been an intense one, and Americans are more polarized than ever. According to the Pew Research Center, 80% of Trump and Biden voters say they have a few or no friends who support the opposing candidate.
Americans are also very skeptical of the party opposite theirs: 81% of Republicans believe the Democratic Party has been “taken over by socialists,” while 78% of Democrats believe the Republican Party has been “taken over by racists,” according to Public Religion Research Institute.
Political polarization is not a new phenomenon in America. However, the current division we are experiencing is unique, according to psychology professor Eli J. Finkel of Northwestern University.
“What we have [now] is an alignment of social identities that correspond to our political identities in a way that we’ve never seen before…You have this alignment in a way that the two sides feel increasingly different from one another,” Finkel said in an interview with Scientific American.
Given that Americans are much more likely to disagree over politics now, tensions have been heightened at dinner tables around the country. Friends and family members are butting heads over political disagreements. Some have even ended friendships.
Jason Spencer, a UConn senior majoring in Human Development and Family Science, said friendships should not end over politics unless the person has bigoted beliefs.
“If you are immature enough to end a friendship over politics it’s a negative reflection on yourself. However, an exception would be if they support homophobia, misogyny, or racism. Then, it is a completely different story,” he said.
Some questions:
How much does politics matter in your relationships? Do you think you could be close with someone with opposing political beliefs?
Would you consider ending a friendship or other relationship because of differing political opinions?
Do you think the political polarization is justified?
Talk about it with your friends and family! 🗣🗯
In case you missed it
Here are some notable #Election2020 headlines from the past week:
The Supreme Court issued multiple last-minute rulings on whether or not absentee ballots can be counted after Election Day in multiple states, including allowing a three-day extension in Pennsylvania, blocking an extension in Wisconsin and allowing an extension of six days to count ballots in North Carolina. [AP News]
A poll released by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics indicated young voters might have a record turnout this election, as 63% of 18 to 29 year olds said they would “definitely “ vote in the election, the highest amount in the 20 years the poll has been conducted. [NPR][Washington Post]
Before counting absentee ballots, election officials will have to analyze voters’ signatures — making sure the signature matches what’s on file. Some 500,000 ballots were discarded during the primaries and invalid signatures were a major reason why [ABC News]
Endangered Species Act protections for grey wolves in most of the country were removed by President Trump this week. Wolf hunting can be resumed in key battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. [PBS Newshour]
Miles Taylor, former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff revealed he is the “Anonymous” author of the viral September 2018 op-ed that criticized Trump and confirmed a “resistance inside the administration.” [NPR]
Walmart is removing all guns and ammunition from displays in 4,700 stores, aiming to head off any potential theft of firearms amid social unrest. [Axios]
That’s it for this week’s Crash Course! Stay tuned next week for our roundup of Election Day reaction, election results and a look at what comes next for many of the issues we’ve explained.
We’d like to hear about your experience voting in 2020. Email us your story at crashcourse@uconn.edu. You can also tweet us at @crashcourse2020.
Crash Course is reported, written and produced by UConn Journalism majors Ashley Anglisano, Fiona Brady, Ben Crnic, Mike Mavredakis and Allison O’Donnell, under the guidance of Associate Professor Marie K. Shanahan. Read more about us »
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