Poll workers in Reno, Nev., wear masks during the primary election on June 9, 2020. (Trevor Bexon / Shutterstock)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.
Twenty years ago, this country faced a drawn-out electoral dilemma—and we were woefully unprepared. The Democratic campaign had no what-if plan in 2000. Ultimately, all it took to seal our nation’s fate was the Republican Party shutting down the Miami-Dade recount.
That can’t be allowed to happen again.
With many states navigating newly expanded mail-in voting procedures and potentially record-breaking voter turnout, election officials are anticipating significant delays—and results could still be questioned.
“We are in one of the most perilous and fraught moments for American democracy since the mid-19th century,” Chris Hayes told me in a recent interview for The Nation.
If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that we must prepare for all outcomes.
Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.
Katrina vanden HeuvelTwitterKatrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of The Nation, America’s leading source of progressive politics and culture. An expert on international affairs and US politics, she is an award-winning columnist and frequent contributor to The Guardian. Vanden Heuvel is the author of several books, including The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in The Age of Obama, and co-author (with Stephen F. Cohen) of Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev’s Reformers.