With a record number of absentee ballots cast, ongoing legal battles around voting rights and a health pandemic with spiking case rates: this election is unprecedented.
After the polls close, and as the country awaits the results from the presidential election, WUOT's Claire Heddles is joined by a panel of experts to talk about what's next for Tennessee.
We'll discuss what to expect from the new Tennessee legislature, the battles surrounding Tennessee's newest laws and the future of immigration policy in the state.
Karla McKanders is an attorney, professor of refugee and immigration law and director of the Immigration Practice Clinic at Vanderbilt University. Previously, she was a tenured law professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. She serves on the American Bar Association's Commission on Immigration Advisory Committee and is a widely cited expert on immigration and refugee law.
Holly McCall is the editor in chief of Tennessee Lookout, a nonprofit news outlet covering Tennessee government and politics. Holly is both a longtime reporter and political strategist who extensively covered the path to Tuesday's election and has overseen Tennessee Lookout's COVID reporting. The watchdog digital news organization launched this spring and broke the story that Governor Bill Lee was giving names and addresses of COVID patients to law enforcement.
Tom Castelli is the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee. In recent months, the ACLU has brought multiple lawsuits against the state of Tennessee regarding voting rights during the COVID pandemic. Rulings in a case brought by the ACLU expanded absentee voting to all voters with underlying health conditions in the August primary.