Richard L. Hasen [CANCELED]

Update

This event has been canceled. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Harvard Book Store welcomes RICHARD L. HASEN—Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine and author of Voting Wars—for a discussion of his latest book, Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust, and the Threat to American Democracy. He will be joined in conversation by renowned author and Harvard Law professor LAWRENCE LESSIG.

About Election Meltdown

As the 2020 presidential campaign begins to take shape, there is widespread distrust of the fairness and accuracy of American elections. In this timely and accessible book, Richard L. Hasen uses riveting stories illustrating four factors increasing the mistrust. Voter suppression has escalated as a Republican tool aimed to depress turnout of likely Democratic voters, fueling suspicion. Pockets of incompetence in election administration, often in large cities controlled by Democrats, have created an opening to claims of unfairness. Old-fashioned and new-fangled dirty tricks, including foreign and domestic misinformation campaigns via social media, threaten electoral integrity. Inflammatory rhetoric about “stolen” elections supercharges distrust among hardcore partisans.

Taking into account how each of these threats has manifested in recent years—most notably in the 2016 and 2018 elections—Hasen offers concrete steps that need to be taken to restore trust in American elections before the democratic process is completely undermined.

Praise for Election Meltdown

“There is no better work describing the astonishing attacks on the most basic element of our democracy—voting—nor a more hopeful account of the changes that could fix it. If there is a plan to establish democracy in America, this book is a central chapter.” —Lawrence Lessig, author of They Don’t Represent Us

“Hasen’s informative and important book makes a compelling case for long-term, systemic reform of our elections." —Trevor Potter, Founder and President of the Campaign Legal Center

"Voters losing faith in the integrity of elections is one of the greatest risks any democracy faces. Rick Hasen chronicles why that risk is increasing in the United States and what to do about it before it’s too late." —Richard H. Pildes, author of The Law of Democracy