election 2024 — ϲ Tue, 05 Nov 2024 17:53:06 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 Activating National Guard Troops for 2024 Election /blog/2024/11/05/activating-national-guard-troops-for-2024-election/ Tue, 05 Nov 2024 17:53:06 +0000 /?p=205131 Govenors in several states have called up National Guard troops in response to threats of violence on Election Day.
Reporters looking for an expert on this issue, please see comments from Professor Emeritus . He is the author of “” and the founding director of the.
  • “The precautionary measures by governors – activating or placing on alert members of their state National Guard – are reasonable in the same way that similar callups would precede a major storm that threatens a state. The governors would order the Guard personnel to quell any violent disturbances, but not to interfere in any way with voting or counting. In some circumstances monitoring that line up to election interference can be challenging, but that’s the task presented,” said Banks.
Earlier this year, Professor Banks wrote the article “ for Just Security which offers insight into the lawful role of the U.S. military on domestic soil.
Please contact Ellen James Mbuqe, executive director of media relations, at ejmbuqe@syr.edu to schedule an interview
]]> Does Fear and Anxiety Get People to the Polls? /blog/2024/10/30/does-fear-and-anxiety-get-people-to-the-polls/ Wed, 30 Oct 2024 17:43:40 +0000 /?p=204831 Reporters looking for an expert to discuss issues around the election and the ongoing anxiety and fear permeating society, please see comments from , professor of political science at the Maxwell School at ϲ and co-author of “” and “.”
Professor Gadarian can discuss how anxiety impacts voter participation. Please contact Ellen James Mbuqe, executive director of media relations at ejmbuqe@syr.edu, to schedule an interview.
From Professor Gadarian:
  • “I think that there are high levels of anxiety about this election because the stakes of the election are very high. Anxiety comes from the sense of uncertainty about the future and here that anxiety is what is the nature of the US government and society going forward,” said Gadarian.
  • “Harris and Trump have very different visions for who has power and who benefits from government in the future. Trump’s vision is of a future where the federal government deports immigrants, takes revenge on enemies foreign and domestic, and keeps ‘America for Americans’. This is a vision that appeals to a part of the electorate who feels left behind, but it is not one that is widely shared even among people who may ultimately support Trump at the ballot box.
  • “Harris’s vision is more about using the federal government to broaden who shares in power and who benefits from programs like Medicare. The uncertainty and anxiety that she is focusing on is about Trump’s unique threat to the democratic institutions of government and that the future might bring a diminished democracy or no real democracy under a second Trump term with fewer guardrails than in the first term,” said Gadarian. “Anxiety alone is not a motivator for action, in fact, it can lead to avoidance in very high levels.”
  • “But pairing anxiety with a solution and telling people how to resolve it can allow people to feel efficacious. Importantly, the best antidote for anxiety at this point is the same no matter which candidate’s vision you subscribe to and it’s to vote,” said Gadarian.
]]> Voting Rights for Elderly and Long-Term Care Residents /blog/2024/10/22/voting-rights-for-elderly-and-long-term-care-residents/ Tue, 22 Oct 2024 19:29:42 +0000 /?p=204636 Voting Rights for Elderly and Long-Term Care Residents
ϲ ProfessorNina Kohn is the David M. Levy Professor of Law at ϲ College of Law with expertise in the legal rights of older people. For the 2024 election, She can discuss the voting rights or lack thereof for elderly people and people living in long-term care facilities.
She is the co-author of the paper “” (Boston University Law Review).
In it, the authors write:
  • “An estimated 2.2 million Americans live in long-term care facilities in the United States. Many of these Americans—perhaps the majority—would vote if voting were accessible to them. Unfortunately, as we show, long-term care residents face systemic disenfranchisement. Specifically, based on our systematic review of nursing home investigation reports, we present disturbing new empirical evidence that demonstrates how burdensome election procedures, profound isolation, and widespread failure by facilities to provide required assistance prevent long-term care residents from voting. Noting that entities traditionally enforcing voting rights have largely ignored these problems, we call for a new wave of voting rights litigation aimed at dismantling barriers to long-term care voter participation and provide a roadmap for how existing law could be employed in such litigation. Finally, continued disenfranchisement of long-term care residents has profound implications not only for older adults and people with disabilities but also for democratic legitimacy.”
Kohn is also the Solomon Center Distinguished Scholar in Elder Law with the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School.Professor Kohn’s scholarly research focuses on elder law, advance planning and medical consent, and the civil rights of older adults and persons with cognitive capacity challenges.
She is available to speak to reporters about voting rights for the elderly and those living in long-term care facilities. Please reach out to media relations executive director Ellen James Mbuqe at ejmbuqe@syr.edu.
]]> Will Abortion Bring Voters to the 2024 Polls? /blog/2024/04/04/will-abortion-bring-voters-to-the-2024-polls/ Thu, 04 Apr 2024 16:16:44 +0000 /?p=204948 Reporters looking for an expert to discuss how abortion can be a motivating factor for voters, please see comments from political science professor Shana Gadarian who studies political behavior and is co-author of “” and “.”
This week, Florida’s state supreme court allowed the 6-week abortion ban to take effect but also allowed a proposed amendment protecting abortion rights in the state constitution to be on the ballot in November. Professor Gadarian says that this could prove to be a powerful motivator for voters.
  • “In every state where abortion has been on the ballot since the end of Roe v. Wade, abortion access has won with significant majorities even in conservative states. This means that there are voters in places like Kansas, Ohio, and Kentucky who normally support Republican candidates who turned out in off-year elections to support abortion access as a single issue,” said Gadarian.
  • “As in other states, I would anticipate that there are a lot of conservative voters in Florida who ultimately support more access to abortion than the 6-week ban that is going to go into effect and abortion access is a popular issue. Two things make this ballot measure more challenging for abortion access than the previous ballot measures:
    • “1. the threshold for victory for this constitutional amendment that would enshrine access is 60% which is more than the threshold that Ohio’s constitutional amendment won by (57%), and
    • 2. being during a presidential election cycle means that you will see higher turnout generally which will include more Republicans voters who may be more skeptical of a constitutional amendment,” said Gadarian.
  • “That doesn’t mean that it will lose – this constitutional amendment will likely drive more Democrats to the polls, but in my mind, the election timing does make it more challenging. What you are likely to see is that there will be cross-over conservative voters who vote for abortion access and Trump for president so I wouldn’t anticipate that even this salient issue is enough to swing Florida toward Biden even if people support a policy that is more aligned with Democrats,” said Gadarian.
Please contact Ellen James Mbuqe, executive director of media relations at ϲ, at ejmbuqe@syr.edu to schedule an interview.
You can also see some of Professor Gadarian’s interviews:
  • ,
  • ,
  • Christian Science Monitor
  • NBC News,
  • Agence France-Presse,
  • Newsweek,
  • WBUR’s On Point,
  • Axios,
  • US News and World Report,
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