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As threats, misinformation and polarization spread, what is the future of democracy?

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Voters cast their ballots at a Masonic Lodge on June 5, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Voters cast their ballots at a Masonic Lodge on June 5, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

With elections still a week away, more than 100 lawsuits have already been filed targeting mail-in voting, early voting, voting machines, registration, access for partisan poll workers and more. The profound distrust in the process, fueled by misinformation, is also inciting threats and harassment — much of it aimed at the country's mostly-volunteer poll workers who are quitting in droves in fear of violence on Election Day.

And about the Republican Party? Republican political advisor Mark Mckinnon has said it's "end times" for the GOP.

Here & Now's Robin Young had an opportunity to discuss it all on stage at WBUR's City Space in Boston recently with Harvard historian Jill Lepore, former Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton and Harvard Law professor Guy-Uriel Charles, who is also the director of the Charles Hamilton Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard.

This segment aired on November 1, 2022.

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