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I was thrilled to speak with election lawyer, Bryan Sells a week or so ahead of the big confrontation between Trump and Clinton. We talked about the process and importance of voting and the issues with the current election and future trends in our country’s voting.

Based in Atlanta, Bryan is a civil rights lawyer specializing in voting rights, election law, and redistricting. He represents individual voters, civil rights organizations, political parties, candidates, and campaigns.  Before founding his own firm, Bryan was been a senior litigator at the Department of Justice and the ACLU. Bryan posts frequently on twitter at @SellsBryan and his firm’s website is www.BryanSellsLaw.com.

INTERVIEW

-How did the practice of voting law get your attention?

-How did your background point you in the direction of election law? What were your other influences?

-Explain why it’s important to have a full and fair representation in the political process

Many people assume that voting is as easy as registering to vote and then showing up at a polling location and casting a ballot. However, many times it’s not that easy.

-What is the actual process of voting?

-How is it run at the federal, state, and local level?

-How and why can that get distorted?

-Where are the greatest injustices/blockades to access right now?

-What about the notion of dead people voting and “pre-voted” voting machines

-Redistricting and gerrymandering?

-One of the great unintended consequences of our system-

-How does it disenfranchise voters?

-How do we rewrite the rule book on this?

-Two party system continues to dominate- how do other parties and ideas begin to penetrate the system?

-Term Limits- what are the arguments for and against? Is it time to have them at the federal

-Finally, technology and voting? Are they the cause of or solution to voter fraud?  Or a little of both?  What should we be looking for when thinking about technology and the expense of voting?

QUICK NOTES:

With Trump’s shocking win, let’s see what I was thinking back BEFORE he took the nomination: Trump: The Yard Sale.  This was published 9/7/2015- well over a year ago and with no expectation that Donald Trump had a chance (at the nomination!) . . . boy, I was wrong.  but there was some interesting thinking in there.

This podcast was the first done by telephone.  I liked the results and it opens the podcast to a bunch of interesting participants.  Look for more shortly.