(This program was originally broadcast live on June 17, 2020)
Nationally, the United States ranks 26th in the world in voter turnout.
Given the pandemic, a battered economy, widespread civil unrest and all that is at stake in the upcoming presidential election, it remains to be seen whether more voters will embrace the power they yield at the ballot box in November.
Tom’s guest is Kim Wehle, a constitutional scholar who has written a primer on voting: how voting differs from state to state, what the structural barriers are to voting, and how those barriers can be overcome.
Wehle is a law professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law and a legal commentator for CBS News.
Her last book was called How to Read the Constitution and Why. Her new book is What You Need to Know About Voting and Why.