Checks and Balance: Voting wars

Primary season is in full swing but more than a third of voters and a majority of Republicans still believe the last election was stolen. At the centre of this struggle is Georgia, which in 2020 had the tightest presidential election results in the country. It has since passed restrictive new voting laws, locking both Republicans and Democrats into a fierce fight over electoral fairness. We explore why the parties have so much power over the running of elections in America and ask what it will take to restore voters’ faith in their own democracy. John Prideaux hosts with Charlotte Howard and Idrees Kahloon. Idrees has been reporting from Georgia where he spoke to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger about what’s at stake for Georgia voters this time around. We look back at why the mechanics of how Americans vote have changed so much and so frequently over time. And we hear from Nse Ufot, head of the New Georgia Project, a voter-registration organisation, about the impact of new voting laws on the coming elections. For full access to print, digital and audio editions as well as exclusive live events, subscribe to The Economist at economist.com/uspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.