Understanding The Presidential Election Process in 2020: Powered by Polis: Center for Politics | Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University

What if enough state results get tied up in the courts to prevent a clear winner? What if Congress gets involved? From presidential concession speeches to Duke experts, we’ve assembled this list of resources for understanding the election process. Below is a collection of speeches, experts and multimedia content on a range of election material.

PRESIDENTIAL CONCESSION SPEECHES

• Adlai Stevenson (D) (1952)

• Vice President Richard Nixon (R) (1960)

• Senator Barry Goldwater (R) (1964)

• Vice President Hubert Humphrey (D) (1968)

• Senator George McGovern (D) (1972)

• Gerald Ford (R) (1976)

• President Jimmy Carter (D) (1980)

• Governor Michael Dukakis (D) (1988)

• President George W. H. Bush (R) (1992)

•Vice President Al Gore (D) (2000)

• Senator John McCain (R) (2008)

• Mitt Romney (R) (2012)

• Hillary Clinton (D) (2016)

• Hertzberg, “The Concession Stand,” New Yorker (11/04/96)

• “A Short History of the Awkward Concession Phone Call”

LEGAL AND HISTORICAL SOURCES

• “Presidential Elections and Inaugurations,” National Archives

• “Legal Provisions Relevant to the Electoral College Process,” National Archives

• “What is the Electoral College?” National Archives

• National Conference of State Legislatures, “When Absentee/Mail Ballot Processing and Counting Can Begin”

• Merrefeld, “The Electoral College: How America Picks Its President,” Harvard/Kennedy School/Shorenstein Center

• Congressional Research Service, “The Electoral College: A 2020 Presidential Election Timeline,” 

• Siegel, “The Conscientious Congressman’s Guide to the Electoral Count of 1887,” Florida Law Review 

• Kesavan, “Is the Electoral Count Act of 1887 Unconstitutional?” North Carolina Law Review 

• Text of the Electoral Count Act of 1877

• “Article II, Section 1, Clauses 2 and 3” National Constitution Center

• Katz, “Elections and the Electoral College,” Prologue/National Archives 

NATIONAL COMMENTARY

• Yoo, “How Donald Trump Defends Presidential Power,” National Review (08/04/20)

•Sunstein, “Responding to a Contested Election, Step By Step,” Bloomberg Opinion (08/31/20)

• Sunstein, “Worried About A Disputed Election? Steel Yourself,” Bloomberg Opinion (09/01/20)

• Harsayni, “The Democrats’ Dangerous Delegitimization of the Election,” National Review (09/03/20)

•Foley, “How to Know if the Election is Actually ‘Rigged,'” Politico (09/13/20)

• Rutenberg, “The Attack on Voting in the 2020 Election,” New York Times Magazine (09/30/20)

•Bomboy, “The Constitution and Contested Presidential Elections,” National Constitution Center (10/05/20)

• Rozsa, “Another Electoral College Nightmare: We May Face a Constitutional Crisis If Either Candidate Dies,” Salon (10/06/20)

• Berman, “The November Surprise: What If Everyone Showed Up to Vote This Year?” Atlantic (10/07/20)

• Douthat, “There Will Be No Trump Coup,” New York Times (10/10/20)

• Montellano and Siders, ” How Biden Could End 2020 on Election Night …,” Politico (10/12/20)

• Skelley and Rakich, “What Pollsters Have Changed Since 2016 – And What Still Worries Them About 2020,” FiveThirtyEight (10/13/20)

• Finnegan, “Pennsylvania Could Hold Up Outcome of Presidential Election,” Los Angeles Times (10/14/20)

• French, ” The Growing Danger of Political Violence Threatens to Destabilize America,” Time (10/14/20)

• Yokley,“Democrats Preferred to Vote by Mail. But as Election Day Nears, More Say They’ll Head to the Polls” Morning Consult (10/15/20)

• Enten, “How Early and Mail-In Voting Could Affect When We Learn the Winner of the 2020 election,” CNN Politics (10/15/20)

• Hawkings, “Carter Center Details Its First Oversight of an American Election,” The Fulcrum (10/16/20)

• Wolf, “It’s Not Magic, It’s Math. Here’s How CNN Makes Election Projections,” CNN Politics (10/17/20)

• Enten, “Why Early Vote Trends Can’t Tell You Who Will Win,” CNN Politics (10/18/20)

• Williams and Roberts, “We Gamed Out The 2020 Election And Found Our Constitution Can Handle The Madness,” The Federalist (10/18/20)

•Desilver, “Election Night Marks the End of One Phase of Campaign 2020 — and the Start of Another”, Pew Research Center (10/22/20) 

•Foley, “The Particular Perils of Emergency Election Cases,” SCOTUSblog (10/23/20) 

•Parlapiano, “How Long Will Vote Counting Take? Estimates and Deadlines in all 50 States”, New York Times (10/27/20)

•Brockbank, et al, “Post-Election Day Scenarios”, Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project (10/27/20)

•Friedman, et al, “From Tabulation to Certification: How Battleground States Count the Vote”, Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project (10/30/20) 

• Gelman, “The Election That Could Break America,” Atlantic (November 2020)

•Sosnik, “Election Night Viewers Guide”, (11/01/20)

•Bauer and Ginsberg, “Trust Our Electoral System. It’s Built to Handle Challenges Like This,” Washington Post (11/03/20) 

DUKE EXPERTS

•Hartsoe, “Why So Many Young People Don’t Vote: Bass Connections Team Studying Causes and Developing Solutions,” Duke Today (10-29-18)

•Charles [Duke Law], “Motivated Reasoning, Post-Truth, and Election Law,” St. Louis University Law Journal (Summer 2020)

•Boston Globe Editorial Board, “Let the World Watch the 2020 Election,” (08/09/20) [citing Sanford School Dean Judith Kelley]

• Ferreri, “Presidential Election: ‘Might Be a Waterfall We’re Going to Crash Over’, Experts Say,” Duke Today (09/20/20) [interview with Dean Kelley and Rubenstein Fellow Susan Gordon]

• Duncan, “Claims of Election Fraud Have Dangerous Consequences, Experts Say,” Spectrum News (09/30/20) [citing Dean Kelley]

• “Six Duke Books on Elections and Voting,” Duke Today (10/02/20)

• Charles [Duke Law], “Texas legal battles highlight how the 2020 election is being fought in the courts”, NBC News (10/22/20)

•“Five Duke Books on Politics and Public Policy,” Duke Today (10/27/20)

VIDEOS AND PODCASTS

• Interactive Constitution, “The Right to Vote: A Constitutional History,” National Constitution Center (7/20/20)

• Interactive Constitution, “American Elections During Crisis,” National Constitution Center (8/6/20)

• Financial Times/The Rachman Review, “Investigating ‘The Doubts’ about the US Presidential Election” (8/27/30)

• Cato Daily Podcast “American Election Security”, (10/13/20)

•National Public Radio “The Electoral College”, (10/15/20)

•Washington Post, “The 2020 Election Is Facing Big Challenges: Which One Matters Most?”, (10-15-20)

• Duke Sanford Policy 360 Podcast, “Everything You Need to Know About Voting in North Carolina”, (10-21-20)

•CBS News Sunday Morning, “Voter Fraud, Suppression, and Partisanship,” (10/25/20)

•Harvard Law Professor Noah Feldman’s “Deep Background” Podcasts:

•”Can the Post Office Handle the Election?” (8/25/20)
•”Why A Leading Election Scholar Cannot Sleep” (9/16/20)
•”Will Trump Concede?” (10/7/20)