Voting, the Voting Rights Act, recent challenges on the right to vote, the process and technology of modern-day elections, the role of the current administration in elections, the difficulty of “stealing” a modern election, and even what would happen to elections in the event of a war were all discussed during the second installment of TCPL’s “The Constitution: Rights to Know.”

The series, presented in partnership with the Tompkins County Historian, focuses on critical aspects of the founding document, particularly during ongoing controversies and challenges.

“The United States is, paradoxically, simultaneously the place where it is easiest in the world to vote and where it’s hardest in the world to vote,” said David A. Bateman, Associate Professor in the Government Department as well as the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University and author of Disenfranchising Democracy: Constructing the Electorate in the United States, United Kingdom, and France, who led the discussion. “And it depends where you are, who you are, what election you’re voting in and a variety of other things.”

Watch the entire program from Thursday, October 16 below.

Tompkins County Elections Commissioners Alanna Congdon and Stephen DeWitt also joined the discussion, answering questions from Professor Bateman as well as the audience about issues relevant to Tompkins County voters.

The audience question-and-answer period included questions about actions of the current administration, what would happen if there was a war or martial law were declared, and the barriers to election fraud. There was even discussion of what happened when a car crashed into a Tompkins County polling location during a recent election (quickly determined to be an accident), as well as how New York City elections officials handled the primary election that was underway when terrorists struck on September 11, 2001.

Two more discussions are planned for the series. On Thursday, November 20th Steve Yale-Loehr, retired professor of immigration law at Cornell Law School and co-organizer of “The Constitution: Rights to Know,” will lead a discussion on Immigration. He will be joined by Tania Penafort, law clerk for Journey’s End Refugee Services.

The series will conclude on Thursday, December 18 with a discussion on Citizenship led by Michael Dorf, the Robert S. Stevens Professor of Law at Cornell University and co-author of On Reading the Constitution who led the first installment of the program, which focused on The Bill of Rights.

Each program will begin at 6:00 p.m. in the Library's BorgWarner Community Room. The programs will also be available to watch on the Library's YouTube Channel.

The Constitution: Rights to Know programming is a joint effort between Tompkins County Interim Historian Carrol Kammen, Steve Yale-Loehr, retired professor of immigration law at Cornell Law School and Tompkins County Public Library.

Livestreaming at TCPL is made possible in part by a grant from The Tompkins County Public Library Foundation.