President Trump recently announced on social media his plans to “lead a movement” to ban mail-in ballots and voting machines. Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, he outlined his intention to sign an executive order that would stop the use of mail-in voting and curb the use of voting machines, which he accused of being “highly inaccurate” compared to paper ballots.

This week, Archon Fung and Stephen Richer discuss the assertions about mail-in voting and machines, the executive branch’s authority over elections, and what this portends for future elections and voter participation.

About Terms of Engagement 

From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it. 

Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.

Contact Us

Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at [email protected]. 

About the Hosts

Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney.  Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.

Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy.  In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.”  In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.”  In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times.  And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”

About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.

Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group

Last week, President Donald Trump flexed the federal government’s power over the nation’s capital to address what he sees as a city “overtaken” by crime and homelessness. He invoked a power that allowed him to take over the city’s police department and deployed the National Guard and federal agents to patrol the city.

This week, Juliette Kayyem, a national leader in homeland security and crisis management, joined Archon Fung and Stephen Richer to discuss these latest developments and what they mean for Washington, D.C. and democracy more broadly.

In academia, the private sector, government and media, Juliette Kayyem is a national leader in homeland security and crisis management. She is currently the Robert and Renee Belfer Senior Lecturer and faculty chair of the Homeland Security and Security and Global Health Projects at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Professor Kayyem also serves as a national security analyst for CNN where she has been described as CNN’s “go to” for disasters. A frequent contributor to The Atlantic, she has a weekly security segment on NPR’s Boston station WGBH.

In government, she most recently served as President Obama’s Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. Previously, she was Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s Homeland Security Advisor, a role that included overseeing the National Guard. She is the recipient of many government honors, including the Distinguished Public Service Award, the Coast Guard’s highest medal awarded to a civilian. She has also served on the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Advisory Committee where she co-authored its strategic assessment of critical infrastructure and cyber security vulnerabilities.

Video Credit: James Comer on Newsmax's Wake Up America, White House video posted on X, and footage of a man throwing a sandwich at federal agents.

About Terms of Engagement 

From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it. 

Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.

Contact Us

Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at [email protected]. 

About the Hosts

Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney.  Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.

Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy.  In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.”  In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.”  In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times.  And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”

About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.

Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group

The newest season of “South Park” premiered with a parody of President Donald Trump and in the second episode, a satirical jab at the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Since airing, the show’s lampooning of the current administration has drawn ire from the White House and praise from the President’s critics.

This week, Michelle Goldberg, an opinion columnist for The New York Times, joins Stephen Richer and Archon Fung to discuss these recent episodes and the role political satires, such as “South Park,” play in political discourse.

Michelle Goldberg is an opinion columnist at The New York Times, where she writes about politics and culture from a left-leaning, feminist point of view, though she tries to seek out stories that challenge her preconceptions. Goldberg is particularly interested in the rise of authoritarianism in both America and around the world, the state of the progressive movement, and the evolution of gender relations.

Before joining The New York Times, Goldberg was a columnist at Slate, and her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Nation, The New Republic, and many other publications. Her first book, “Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism,” was about religious authoritarianism in American politics.

‘South Park’ Skewers a New Kind of Sanctimony

Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/opinion/south-park-trump-conservatives.html

Video Credit: South Park, Season 27, Episode 1: “The Sermon on the Mount” (Paramount)

About Terms of Engagement 

From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it. 

Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.

Contact Us

Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at [email protected]. 

About the Hosts

Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney.  Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.

Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy.  In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.”  In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.”  In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times.  And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”

About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.

Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group

Texas GOP lawmakers recently unveiled a new draft district map, created to flip several House seats from blue to red. In response, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced his intention to respond with a California map that favored Democrats, despite California’s existing independent redistricting commission. Maryland, Illinois, and New York could also be poised to engineer maps to produce more House seats likely to be won by Democrats.

On Tuesday, August 5, 2025, Harvard Law School’s Nicholas Stephanopoulos, Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law, joined Archon Fung and Stephen Richer on Terms of Engagement to discuss redistricting, how these map (re)drawing efforts will impact voters, and answer the question: Can we ever put a stop to gerrymandering in the US?

Nicholas Stephanopoulos is the Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Stephanopoulos’s research and teaching interests include election law, constitutional law, administrative law, legislation, and comparative law. His work is particularly focused on the intersection of democratic theory, empirical political science, and the American electoral system. He is the author of Aligning Election Law (2024) and a coauthor of Election Law: Cases and Materials (7th ed. 2022). He has also written for popular publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Atlantic, New Republic, Slate, and Vox. He has been involved in several litigation efforts as well, including two partisan gerrymandering cases based on his scholarship and decided by the Supreme Court. He continues to work on litigation and advocacy as the Director of Strategy of Harvard Law School’s Election Law Clinic.

Video: ABC10 and WTEN

About Terms of Engagement 

From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it. 

Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.

Contact Us

Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at [email protected]. 

About the Hosts

Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney.  Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.

Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy.  In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.”  In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.”  In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times.  And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”

About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.

Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group

On July 23rd, Columbia University announced it reached a deal with the Trump administration that involves a $220 million payment; an agreement to suspend, expel, or revoke degrees from some 70 students; as well as a report to a monitor to ensure their programs “do not promote unlawful DEI goals.”

What does this settlement mean for higher education? Are the First Amendment rights of Columbia and other universities being infringed?

This week, Archon Fung and Stephen Richer are joined by Suresh Naidu, Professor of International and Public Affairs and Jack Wang and Echo Ren Professor of Economics at Columbia University, to discuss what this deal portends for higher education, democracy, and free speech.

Suresh Naidu is Jack Wang and Echo Ren Professor of Economics and Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He has a B.Math in Pure Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, a MA in economics from the University of Massachussetts-Amherst, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. He was a Harvard Academy fellow from 2008-2010, and has been at Columbia since 2010. He works on political economy and historical labor markets. He has interests in the economic effects of democracy and non-democracy, monopsony in labor markets, the economics of American slavery, guest worker migration, and labor unions and labor organizing. He is external faculty at the Santa Fe Institute, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and co-director of the Columbia Center on Political Economy.

Suresh Naidu, New York Times, “Columbia’s Administrators are Fooling Themselves” (July 23, 2025):
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/opinion/trump-columbia-deal-professor.html

Manhattan Institute Statement on Higher Education:
https://manhattan.institute/article/the-manhattan-statement-on-higher-education

David Pozen, Regulation By Deal (July 23, 2025)
https://balkin.blogspot.com/2025/07/regulation-by-deal-comes-to-higher-ed.html

PBS Newshour Interview with Michael Roth, President, Wesleyan University (July 24, 2025)
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-columbias-settlement-with-the-trump-administration-means-for-higher-education

Q&A With Larry Summers, “The Best Day Higher Ed Has Had in a Year” Chronicle of Higher Education (July 24, 2025)
https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-best-day-higher-ed-has-had-in-a-year 

Video Credit: PBS Newshour and The Princess Bride directed by Rob Reiner

About Terms of Engagement 

From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it. 

Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.

Contact Us

Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at [email protected]. 

About the Hosts

Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney.  Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.

Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy.  In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.”  In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.”  In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times.  And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”

About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.

Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group

Video Credit: Surrounded - 1 Progressive vs 20 Far-Right Conservatives (ft. Mehdi Hasan)

About Terms of Engagement 

From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it. 

Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.

Contact Us

Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at [email protected]. 

About the Hosts

Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney.  Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.

Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy.  In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.”  In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.”  In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times.  And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”

About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.

Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group