America, Are We Ready To Vote In A Pandemic?

WNYC News | Sep 22, 2020

WNYC's Brian Lehrer is joined by Christina Greer, associate professor at Fordham University and politics editor at thegrio.com and their guests and listeners around the country as we look at how the presidential election is affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, in how we vote and the choices we make at the ballot box.

Hour One: Voting In A Pandemic: How To Decide About How To Decide
This year especially, there's not one "Election Day": More people can choose to vote early or vote by mail. What does that mean for this presidential election and for our expectations of when the votes will be counted?
Joining this discussion are Ari Berman, senior reporter at Mother Jones covering voting rights and author of Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America, and Myrna Perez, director of the Brennan Center's Voting Rights and Elections Program.

Hour Two: Is There A Liberal And Conservative Way To End A Pandemic?
Trump’s vs. Biden’s plans for handling the pandemic, including how much any further response should be national in scope, what tone to take, and where to spend federal tax dollars.
First, Avik Roy, president of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP) in Austin, TX and Forbes' policy editor, health care policy advisor to the Romney presidential campaign in 2012, argues that the economic impact of the pandemic deserves more focus.
Then, Leana Wen, M.D., emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University, contributing columnist for The Washington Post, and former health commissioner of Baltimore, argues that the public health should be the main concern in fighting the impact of COVID-19.
Finally, Asma Khalid, political correspondent for NPR and co-host of The NPR Politics Podcast, discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic, and the candidates' approaches to it, could shape the election.

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