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Democracy Decoded

Campaign Legal Center

Let’s face it: This is an unprecedented time for our democracy. Many of our government’s checks and balances are being challenged or outright ignored. We did not
arrive here because of one person or one policy, but rather the erosion of numerous
safeguards, which, over time, have allowed some persistent issues with our system of
government to be exploited.

Decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court in recent years have favored secretive political
donations and restrictive voting laws, reshaping our political landscape. Corruption and
executive overreach are on the rise, and gerrymandering in states across the country
continues to prevent many Americans from making their voices heard.

If you follow us at Campaign Legal Center, you’ll have heard us repeatedly calling out
these issues — and proposing ways to fix them. Because that’s what we’re all about:
solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy.

This season of our award-winning podcast, Democracy Decoded, will focus on a
handful of key factors that have led us to this point — and we’ll outline solutions for how
we can begin to repair the cracks in our system.

Each episode will spotlight the story of an individual client, organization, case, or
specific problem indicating where these cracks have formed. Drawing from Campaign
Legal Center’s experts and other distinguished guests, we will diagnose the underlying
problems democracy faces and chart ways that we can hold our government
accountable, ensuring everyone can participate fully in our democracy and we continue
to have free and fair elections for years to come.

Listeners will come away understanding the solutions Campaign Legal Center is
advancing nationwide to shore up these crucial aspects of our democracy. Democracy
Decoded will encourage listeners to better grasp how we, as citizens, can change things
for the better.

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  • 20 episodes
  • Avg 28 min
  • English
  • S5 · E8
    Nov 20, 2025 · 42 min

    How New Voting Barriers Threaten Elections

    Host Simone Leeper speaks with experts Rick Hasen and Danielle Lang about how new voting restrictions are threatening elections, and what it will take to ensure every voter can participate meaningfully in our democracy.

  • S5 · E7
    Nov 13, 2025 · 42 min

    The Latest: How the Erosion of Federalism Endangers Elections

    Host Simone Leeper speaks with Campaign Legal Center attorneys Catie Kelley and Jonathan Diaz about the Trump administration’s efforts to seize state control of elections. From unlawful executive orders to voter registration barriers and voter roll data grabs, they explain how these actions undermine federalism—and what CLC is doing to protect American elections in the lead-up to 2026 and 2028.

  • Nov 6, 2025 · 1 min

    A Quick Update from Democracy Decoded

    Host Simone Leeper shares a quick Election Day 2025 update — Campaign Legal Center staff worked to safeguard elections; millions of Americans exercised their freedom to vote in states across the country; and Democracy Decoded will return next week with lessons learned from this and past elections that we will carry with us into 2026 and beyond. About CLC: Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy. Campaign Legal Center fights for every American’s freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process. Learn more about us. Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

  • S5 · E6
    Oct 30, 2025 · 41 min

    How Gerrymandering Undermines Fair Representation

    Host Simone Leeper speaks with Campaign Legal Center’s Mark Gaber and Utah voters Vicki and Malcolm Reed about how everyday Americans are fighting back against gerrymandering — and what’s at stake when politicians choose their voters instead of the other way around.

  • S5 · E4
    Oct 16, 2025 · 34 min

    How Corruption and Abuses of Power Threaten Democracy

    Host Simone Leeper speaks with Mark Lee Greenblatt, Jodi Vittori and Kedric Payne to examine how corruption and abuses of power are eroding safeguards in government; how failures of accountability in Congress and the courts are weakening public trust; and what reforms could protect against corruption and conflicts of interest now and in the future.

  • S5 · E3
    Oct 9, 2025 · 34 min

    The Latest: How to Address Threats to the Rule of Law

    Host Simone Leeper speaks with litigation experts Anna Baldwin and Brent Ferguson to unpack threats to the rule of law — and what can be done to preserve our system of checks and balances.

  • S5 · E2
    Oct 2, 2025 · 43 min

    How Big Money Is Dominating American Politics

    Host Simone Leeper speaks with former FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and CLC President Trevor Potter to examine how court rulings opened the door to unlimited political spending; how partisan gridlock has left the FEC unable to act; and what reforms could restore transparency and accountability in American democracy.

  • S5 · E1
    Sep 25, 2025 · 42 min

    How the U.S. Supreme Court Is Drastically Reshaping American Democracy

    The U.S. Supreme Court has vastly reshaped American democracy — rolling back voting rights, enabling secret money in politics and expanding presidential power. These decisions have a real impact on all Americans by making it harder for citizens to exercise their freedom to vote, easier for wealthy interests to sway elections and more difficult to hold leaders accountable. In this episode, we unpack the real-world impact of landmark Supreme Court decisions and explore what reforms could restore

  • Sep 4, 2025 · 2 min

    Democracy Decoded, Season 5: How to Repair the Cracks in American Democracy

    How did American democracy reach such a precarious moment — and what can we do to fix things? Host Simone Leeper examines the fundamental threats to our democracy today, from gerrymandering and corruption to abuses of executive power and the outsized role of money in politics.

  • Apr 30, 2025 · 42 min

    The Latest: What Trump's First 100 Days Mean for American Democracy

    Donald Trump took office as president on January 20, 2025, having already served one term. Immediately, however, he made clear his second term would be even more unpredictable than his first. He put one of the world's richest men — and his biggest campaign donor — in charge of a shadowy new entity with seemingly unfettered access to government data. Trump also blitzed the system with a barrage of executive orders, which have seemingly upended the government. He has done everything from threateni

  • S4 · E9
    Nov 12, 2024 · 30 min

    The Latest: A Postelection Fight for Democracy

    In the end, the worst of everyone’s election fears — political violence, overt foreign interference or a razor-thin margin between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump leading to a hotly contested legal battle — did not come to pass. Instead, Donald Trump won a plurality of votes for president, and did so decisively. On January 20, 2025, he will once again become the country’s most powerful executive. His victory raises weighty questions for the experts at Campaign Legal Center. Trump ran explicitly

  • S4 · E8
    Nov 5, 2024 · 2 min

    Today’s the Day — Go Vote!

    This week’s episode is short, sweet, and to the point: It’s Election Day, and if you haven’t yet cast your vote, let us be your friendly reminder. Like many of her CLC colleagues, Simone will spend the day monitoring elections. Next week she’ll be back with the final episode of the season, with a look at how this most dramatic election is playing out. Until then, it’s up to you. Nationwide nonpartisan Election Protection (EP) hotline: 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683)

  • S4 · E7
    Oct 29, 2024 · 32 min

    The Latest: The 2024 Election, in a Nutshell

    An incumbent president drops out, mid-race. A former president becomes a party’s nominee for the first time in more than a century. There are multiple occurrences of political violence against a candidate. Newly emergent AI tools spread disinformation. And a Supreme Court that may be called upon to decide the race is perceived by the electorate as increasingly politicized. The 2024 election cycle has already made its share of history. With Election Day now just a week away, we bring you another

  • S4 · E6
    Oct 22, 2024 · 27 min

    Know Your Rights as a Voter

    Imagine you’re at home when you hear a knock. At your door are people who want you to share, in detail, who you voted for in the last election, months ago. When you ask them who they are and where they’re from, they remain vague and perhaps even aggressive. This was the case for some Americans in the years after the 2020 election, part of a spate of behaviors by election skeptics and deniers that, in some cases, amounted to voter intimidation. The history of voter intimidation in the United Sta

  • S4 · E5
    Oct 15, 2024 · 32 min

    Navigating Election Facts in the AI Era

    When New Hampshire voters picked up the phone earlier this year and heard what sounded like the voice of President Joe Biden asking them not to vote in that state’s primary election, the stage was set for an unprecedented election year. The call was a deepfake — and the first major instance of artificial intelligence being used in the 2024 election. With the rise of AI tools that can credibly synthesize voices, images and videos, how are voters supposed to determine what they can trust as they p

  • S4 · E4
    Oct 8, 2024 · 30 min

    The Latest: The Fights Over Election Certification

    Election certification has traditionally been a mostly symbolic process in the United States. You vote, your vote gets counted, your precinct and others get tallied together (“canvassed” is the term of art) and, within a few days, everyone looks at the counts and agrees on a winner. But lately, this banal, bland procedure has become a political flashpoint, as people who question the election process impose unrealistic requirements on certification — and, in some cases, outright refuse to certify

  • S4 · E3
    Oct 1, 2024 · 26 min

    Safeguarding America’s Electoral Process

    The peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of American democracy that sets the United States apart — the so-called north star of our electoral system. Yet the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 challenged that tradition profoundly. In the lead-up to this November, we answer the question that is on the minds of many voters: Will the months after this presidential election look like the aftermath of the last one? Fortunately, lawmakers who were caught in the eye of that storm seized

  • S4 · E2
    Sep 24, 2024 · 31 min

    The Latest: Attacks on Voter Registration

    Voter registration is the number one obstacle to voting in the United States. It should be easy, accessible and secure, but too often, states are moving backwards; making voter registration more difficult and less equitable. Here, we introduce a new type of episode: an up-to-the-minute interview with an expert to help you better understand some of the most important issues affecting elections. Danielle Lang, a voting rights attorney at CLC, joins Simone to explain why major actions in Arizona an

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