Election battles are being waged at the ballot box and in the courtroom.
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The presidential race is cracking like a hickory fire here. Couldn't be much closer. 121 for George Bush, 119 for Al Gore. NPR projects that Barack Obama will win the White House. Quite an historic moment here. Fifty years ago, blacks could not exercise their right to vote in many parts of the country. Now an African American is headed for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Election day is almost here and we could soon find out who will become our next president. But winning doesn't only happen at the ballot box. The results of this election are already being litigated in court.

Just like it was after the 2020 election, with former President Donald Trump claiming he was the real winner. We think we will win the election very easily. We think there's going to be a lot of litigation because we have so much evidence, so much proof, and it's going to end up perhaps at the highest court in the land. We'll see. But we think there'll be a lot of litigation because we can't have

Trump and his allies filed a slew of lawsuits alleging widespread fraud, from the pro-Trump elector strategy in Arizona to the mailed ballots in Pennsylvania. These efforts failed. Fast forward four years later, and the lawsuits are back.

Consider this. Elections are being decided not just at the ballot box, but in the courtroom as well. And even if we have an outcome on November 5th, Democrats and Republicans are gearing up for a legal fight, just like they did in 2020, to make sure that that outcome is accurate. ♪

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Hey there, it's Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I know this is hard to believe, but one day the election will be over. Then the winner gets a lot more powerful. It's my job to report on what they do with that power. That's public accountability, but it's not possible without public support. So please support our work. Sign up for NPR Plus. Go to plus.npr.org.

It's Consider This from NPR. Election Day is less than two weeks away, and no matter what happens on November 5th, Republicans and Democrats are preparing for a lengthy battle over the results.

Already, there have been dozens and dozens of lawsuits filed that challenge how elections are run in this country, and many Americans have already voted. Here to walk us through what could happen next month and into the new year is Jessica Marsden, Director of Impact Programs for Free and Fair Elections at Protect Democracy. Hi there. Thanks so much for having me. Jessica, I just want to start with...

With the fact that there are already a number of lawsuits and legal issues that have been filed and we haven't even gotten to Election Day yet. What can you tell us about what we know about them? What kinds of themes are emerging? Yeah, these last minute challenges hit on a few themes. One is we've seen a number of suits from the RNC and affiliated conservative organizations come

challenging voter eligibility, saying in essence that there are a number, thousands in some cases, of voters who are registered to vote who shouldn't be, whether that be because they are non-citizens or there's some other issue with their eligibility. Another category of cases I'd point to has to do with overseas voting. Just in the past few weeks, we've seen cases in North Carolina, Michigan, and Pennsylvania where

challenging those states' procedures for allowing overseas citizens, including members of the military, to participate this fall. Help us unpack the Republican strategy here and why those types of lawsuits are coming now. One strategy

strategy that may lay behind filing these lawsuits now goes back to 2020, where many of those cases were dismissed by courts because the cases were brought too late. You can't wait until after an election to challenge a voter's eligibility to cast his or her ballot. So it seems likely that by filing some of these cases now, even though they were

don't stand a chance of getting relief before the election, the RNC may be readying to make some of those same arguments after the election and hoping that the existence of these earlier suits somehow helps their cause then. So we talked about some of the lawsuits that the Republican National Committee has filed, but what about the Democrats? What kind of suits have they brought? In general, the Democrats have been bringing...

fewer cases than the Republicans this year. And often they are intervening in cases that were initially brought by Republicans. So you do end up with the two parties on opposite sides of a lawsuit. But one unusual thing this year is that I think we've seen more of these cases coming from

Republican groups. You know, I have to imagine that most voters, they don't follow the ins and outs of election and some of this litigation as closely as you and I do. But if they're hearing this conversation, they might be concerned if they've already cast a ballot or they're preparing to cast one. What would you say to people who might be feeling some of that anxiety around all of this? Yeah, that's a great question. So in many states, you can

actually follow up with your local election office and see, you know, if you've cast a mail-in ballot, was it counted? Was that ballot accepted? But in general, I just remind voters that if they are closely following the instructions from their election offices,

their vote's going to count. With being as close to election day as we are and with the fact that this is a race, by all projections, it's going to be quite close, what concerns you the most when you look at the landscape? I think the fact that we have seen a close to a four-year campaign to really degrade trust in our election system and that that, you know, has led some voters to lose faith

in the election process is probably my biggest concern. I'd encourage folks with questions about the trustworthiness of our election process to spend some time, you know, on the website of your local election office. You know, there are a number of

really excellent election officials who are putting out good information that will walk folks through the process of how their vote gets cast and counted. That kind of information, I hope, can start to dispel some of the fear and anxiety that voters may have about this process. That was Jessica Marsden, lawyer and director of Impact Programs for Free and Fair Elections at Protect Democracy. Jessica, thank you. Thanks so much.

This episode was produced by Karen Zamora with audio engineering by Valentina Rodriguez-Sanchez and Zoe Venganoven. It was edited by Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sammy Yannigan. Thanks to our Consider This Plus listeners who support the work of NPR journalists and help keep public radio strong. Supporters also hear every episode without messages from sponsors. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers. Anxious? This October, Shortwave is helping wrangle that fear. And the trick may have to do with horror movies. I feel more alive when I am in situations like this. Learn the surprising science to conquering fear when you subscribe now to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.

Studies have shown that elections can spike feelings of stress and anxiety. That's why NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is there to help you feel more grounded as we talk about the buzziest TV movies and music. Try a show on HBO's Industry or a roundtable on Rom-Coms to take a step back from the news of the day, at least before you plunge back in tomorrow. New episodes every week on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.