Battleground 2020: the polls, mail-in voting, and political ads

Guests: Tom Sutton, Christopher DeLuzio, Steven Passwaiter

Today on our fourth installment of our Battleground 2020 series, we’ll talk about the Pennsylvania primary that was originally scheduled for today, but has been postponed until June 2 due to the Covid-19 epidemic. The delay gives residents more time to request mail-in ballots, as provided by the Commonwealth’s new election laws, and counties will have more time to strengthen their vote-counting systems. Candidates running for both national and state races have had to alter their strategies as rallies and door-to-door campaigning are no longer viable. What have all these changes mean for the candidates, the voters and our election system?  We talk with TOM SUTTON of the Great Lakes Poll about the latest polling results.  Then we’ll discuss the challenges to and advantages of mail-in voting in Pennsylvania with CHRISTOPHER DeLUZIO of the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security.  And finally we’ll take a look at the political ads running here and around the country — who is paying for them and what they’re saying. Joining us is  STEVE PASSWAITER of Kantar/CMAG, a non-partisan research company that tracks political advertising.