American Elections: Is This the Best We Can Do?

You know by now that we have major problems with our electoral process. The three authors in this session will tell us how we can fix the system. Our democracy sort of depends on whether we succeed, so pay close attention. David Daley wrote Unrigged as a follow-up to his previous bestselling book, Ratf**ked, about partisan gerrymandering. Here, he talks about the ways in which citizens can, against the odds, change laws about gerrymandering, voting roll purges, voting rights for released felons, and more, using tactics that range from taking to the streets to circulating petitions to running for office. In Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College? Alex Keyssar investigates the long history of that strange artifact which has handed the presidency to the loser twice in modern times. Why do we still have it? Probably not for the reasons you think. And finally, Katherine Gehl, co-author with Michael Porter of The Politics Industry, puts forth an original analysis of the political parties as duopolies that stifle competition. She has some simple, actionable ideas for reforming electoral politics.  Can we do better? Yes, we can! Anthony Brooks, senior political advisor at WBUR, 90.9 FM, will host this session. Media sponsor for this session is 90.9 WBUR.