2020 Election Precautions, Big Tech's Control of Data, and More

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August 5, 2020

Election officials begin counting nearly 80,000 absentee ballots from last week's primary vote. A few races could be decided Election officials begin counting nearly 80,000 absentee ballots from last week's primary vote. A few races could be decided from the outcome of these absentee ballots. (Reuters/USA TODAY NETWORK)

Election night? Think again—election month might be more like it

Differences between in-person and absentee voters could significantly affect exit polling on Election Day. With large numbers of votes expected to be cast by mail or absentee, it will be crucial not to call the election before all ballots are counted, Elaine Kamarck argues.

Contingency planning for Presidential interference with the election

President Trump has raised the prospect of postponing the November election and has refused to say he will accept the results if he doesn't win. Robert Taylor says the military must now plan on how to respond if the president attempts to wield the power of his office to thwart the electoral process.

Read on Lawfare

Big Tech and antitrust: Pay attention to the math behind the curtain

Tom Wheeler writes that it was the "Wizard of Oz" in digital format as the four titans of Big Tech testified this week. The wizard in this case—the reason these four companies are so powerful—is the math that takes our private information and turns it into their corporate asset.

Join us for a webinar

Addressing another COVID-19 crisis: Corruption

Thursday, August 6, 2020 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EST

Why the world is at a turning point with artificial intelligence and what to do about it

Monday, August 10, 2020 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM EDT

More from Governance Studies

Announcing a new series on healthy elections. Lawfare and the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections project are partnering to launch a new series focusing on election integrity in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. Topics will include the election administration supply chain, mail voting, safe polling place design, and more.

Where's the stimulus? U.S. Senators left Washington, D.C. last week without taking action on another round of legislation to respond to the continuing COVID-19 crisis. Why has this proven so difficult? As Molly Reynolds explains, it has a lot to do with divisions among the GOP.

School reopening linked to politics, not public health. New data analysis from Jon Valant finds no correlation between school districts' reopening decisions and their county's new COVID-19 cases, while districts located in counties that supported Trump in 2016 are much more likely to have announced plans to open.

GOP lawsuit to stop remote voting. After extended inaction, the House amended its rules to permit remote voting during COVID-19. On Lawfare, William Ford and Margaret Taylor explain why that discretion now hangs in the balance.

A note on the Brookings response to COVID-19

The Brookings Institution campus in Washington, D.C. will be closed through at least January 4, 2021. For more information, read our full guidance here. As Brookings experts continue to assess the global impacts of COVID-19, read the latest analysis and policy recommendations at our coronavirus page or stay up to date with our coronavirus newsletter.