Racist Voting: A Conversation with Dean Daniel P. Tokaji

In this episode of Law and Democracy, we sit down with Dean Dan Tokaji of the University of Wisconsin College of Law—former Ohio State professor and long-time scholar of election law. We asked Dean Tokaji hard questions about election administration, judicial doctrines like Purcell, the meaning of “racist voting,” and the structural threats to democracy. Key themes The 2024 Election & Looking Ahead • What’s your assessment of the quality of election administration in 2024? • Are there areas of administration that still need improvement for 2026 and 2028? • Do you think improvements have been uniform across states? Purcell Doctrine & Judicial Intervention • What’s the problem with the Purcell Doctrine? • What happens when courts say it’s “too late” to intervene? • Could the courts soften Purcell or does Congress need to act? • Is Purcell disproportionately disadvantaging Democratic-leaning voters? Racist Voting & the Constitution • What is racist voting? • Are voters engaged in “state action” when casting ballots? • Can racist voting violate the Constitution? • Are you calling for new laws—or reinterpreting existing ones like Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act? Racial Polarization & Multiracial Coalitions • How should we understand racial bloc voting in a multiracial electorate? • What’s the threshold for determining racial polarization today? The State of American Democracy • How would you assess the health of American democracy in 2020–2024? • Is the core problem outside the electoral system itself? • Could social media or economic inequality be at the root of dysfunction? • Do campaign finance laws play a bigger role than we admit?Higher Education, Inequality & Trust • Why has public confidence in higher education declined? • How does access—or lack of access—factor into the perception of higher ed? • Is residential and partisan polarization reinforcing inequality in education? Subscribe for more conversations on law, democracy, and elections. Read Dan’s paper on Racist Voting: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.c… About Daniel P. TokajiDan Tokaji is the Fred W. & Vi Miller Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School. As Dean, he serves as the chief academic and executive officer of the school, with responsibility for faculty and staff development, personnel oversight, strategic planning and institutional vision, fundraising, budget planning and management, curriculum, and student academic affairs.