VPM News Focal Point
Trusting our elections
Clip: Season 3 Episode 13 | 2m 43sVideo has Closed Captions
With an eye on election integrity, Chambers discusses why we should trust the vote
As the public becomes more sensitized to issues of election integrity, a University of Richmond law professor lays out the facts about the security of the vote. Hank Chambers also shares why accepting the outcome of a fair election is a hallmark of American democracy.
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VPM News Focal Point is a local public television program presented by VPM
The Estate of Mrs. Ann Lee Saunders Brown
VPM News Focal Point
Trusting our elections
Clip: Season 3 Episode 13 | 2m 43sVideo has Closed Captions
As the public becomes more sensitized to issues of election integrity, a University of Richmond law professor lays out the facts about the security of the vote. Hank Chambers also shares why accepting the outcome of a fair election is a hallmark of American democracy.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipHANK CHAMBERS: President Trump lost the 2020 election.
Period.
Full stop.
So anything that suggests that he won the election is problematic and calls the election is problematic and calls into question an election that was perfectly fair.
Are there irregularities in every election?
Sure.
There are some votes that get counted that maybe shouldn't.
There are votes that don't get counted, that should.
But the question is whether the irregularities are big enough to swing an election in any of the particular states that we're talking about.
And that simply wasn't the case, as every court found.
What folks tend to think about as election security oftentimes, is voter suppression.
I recognize that in-person voter fraud typically doesn't occur.
I also recognize that when you're talking about mail-in ballots and absentee ballots, typically speaking, yes, you could engage in fraud, but it's just not, generally speaking, what occurs.
But for other people who are particularly skeptical, particularly folks who don't really know how elections work, their notion is, oh my goodness, unless you show up with certain information at certain spots, at certain times, I won't trust the result.
That's why I say in order for those people to think that an election is secure, they will tend to say, we need to stop certain people from voting and that necessarily becomes voter suppression.
Part of what's going on is that folks are simply refusing to take their losses because they just don't want to feel as though they've lost.
Well, that's the way life goes.
I guarantee you, Nixon was not happy that he lost to Jack Kennedy, but he accepted and he moved on.
Jimmy Carter wasn't happy that he lost to Ronald Reagan, but he said, hey, I got beat.
The notion that, ‘I got beat is something that's okay, because it doesn't mean that you as a person are less or less than.
It just means that the American people elected somebody else.
That shouldn't be a cause for folks who take up arms.
It's a cause, particularly not in this day and age.
It's a cause for us to say, okay, let's see how we can make the next four years.
Still the best years of America moving forward, So for all those folks who claim to love the Constitution, for all those folks who claim to love the flag, you can't just love the flag when you win.
You got to love the flag when you lose.
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: S3 Ep13 | 5m 39s | How secure is the vote? This is the question many are asking across the political divide. (5m 39s)
Likely voters share what’s on their minds
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Clip: S3 Ep13 | 4m 19s | Democracy, election integrity & misinformation are on the minds of likely voters in 2024. (4m 19s)
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Clip: S3 Ep13 | 4m 45s | The line between election security and voter suppression. (4m 45s)
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VPM News Focal Point is a local public television program presented by VPM
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