Commonwealth Club: Assessing the Threats to Voting Rights in the Midterm Elections

America’s election system faces unprecedented challenges as we approach the midterms. An electoral environment already upended by mid-decade gerrymandering and Supreme Court decisions undermining the Voting Rights Act has been compounded by collapsing popular confidence in the system we use to choose our leaders. Never-before-seen actions through executive orders and postal service changes, as well as a variety of measures at the state level, have created confusion and uncertainty as Americans begin to cast their ballots in the early voting period. Can the system withstand these unprecedented threats to the right to vote? Join Stanford Law professor Nate Persily, one of the nation's foremost experts on voting rights and election administration, and Ari Berman, Mother Jones' national voting rights correspondent, for an in-depth look at the state of the nation's voting system as the midterms approach. They will examine efforts at the state and federal level to change election rules, the legal battles surrounding them, and what voters and election officials should expect in the weeks ahead.