How to Steal a Presidential Election

By: Lawrence Lessig, Matthew Seligman

Narrated by: Christopher Ragland

From two distinguished experts on election law, an alarming look at how the American presidency could be stolen—by entirely legal means

Even in the fast and loose world of the Trump White House, the idea that a couple thousand disorganized protestors storming the U.S. Capitol might actually prevent a presidential succession was farfetched. Yet perfectly legal ways of overturning election results actually do exist, and they would allow a political party to install its own candidate in place of the true winner.

Lawrence Lessig and Matthew Seligman work through every option available for subverting a presumptively legitimate result—from vice-presidential intervention to election decertification and beyond. While many strategies would never pass constitutional muster, Lessig and Seligman explain how some might. They expose correctable weaknesses in the system, including one that could be corrected only by the Supreme Court.

Any strategy aimed at hacking a presidential election is a threat to democracy. This book is a clarion call to shore up the insecure system for electing the president before American democracy is forever compromised.

©2024 Lawrence Lessig and Matthew Seligman (P)2024 Yale University Press

very good read

important information for all US citizens to know and understand to keep any = 15

Major wake-up call for our threatened democracy

Clear, though complicated, description of the vulnerabilities in our election procedures: a must-read. Takes some careful study.

great information

I liked all the facts and the absence of misinformation . Good narration and very interesting subject matter

I'm more concerned than I was before

To learn that the legal theories that caused Jan 6th were among the weakest methods to undermine an election is alarming considering how much chaos it.

Republican, Democrat, Green, Libertarian, independent -- whatever you'd label yourself, if you believe in the value of democracy, this book will give you quite a lot to think about from the perspective of US elections. Lessig and Seligman make it clear, as usual, that things need to change to address catastrophic risks.

Not Engaging for Laymen

Very dry and hard to follow. Disappointed as a longtime Lessig reader. The book also doesn’t seem to try at all to appeal to conservatives, which I would argue it should.