Almost from the start of his outsider presidential campaign, Donald Trump has been planting seeds of doubt in the election process. The Republican's standard-bearer has suggested he might not accept the results of next week's election, and has argued the entire electoral process has been rigged against him.
Some Trump backers have pledged to camp out at polling places in Charlotte and elsewhere in order to stop what they see as a stolen election. The conspiracy theories have been fueled by scattered reports of problems with voting machines, including some in Mecklenburg County.
It's Michael Dickerson's job to make sure the vote in Mecklenburg is fair and square. The county's election director has dismissed the notion of a rigged contest. "(Trump) won North Carolina in the primary, didn't he? We're using the same equipment, the same process, and the same procedures," Dickerson said.
Dickerson joins Charlotte Talks to discuss what the local elections office is doing to ensure confidence at the ballot box. We'll also hear from Lawrence Norden from the Brennan Center for Justice, who says outdated technology, not vote-rigging, is the real danger facing elections.
Later in the program, PolitiFact NC's Will Doran will discuss his fact-checking of claims North Carolina's hotly-contested gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races. Trump's recent suggestion of fraud in Barack Obama's 2008 victory in North Carolina was rated a "pants-on-fire" falsehood on PolitiFact's "Truth-O-Meter."
GUESTS
Michael Dickerson, election, Mecklenburg County Board of Elections
Lawrence Norden, deputy director, Brennan Center for Justice Democracy Program, NYU School of Law
Will Doran, reporter, PolitiFact NC, The News & Observer