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The following is the transcript of the interview with David Becker, CBS News election law contributor and the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Nov. 1, 2026.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we’re joined now by our CBS News election law contributor and the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, David Becker. David, good to have you here. So each state- they have their own systems, their own timeline for poll closings–
CBS NEWS ELECTION LAW CONTRIBUTOR DAVID BECKER: Right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –and for vote counting. Some places, early votes already in, but when will we know results?
: Well, we’re going to know results, not because of the factor of how fast states are counting- look, the election officials in every county in every state are going to be working all night long trying to get the ballots reported out. The biggest variable is how close the elections are, because when you talk to someone like Anthony Salvanto, who will tell you if it’s really close, they just need more ballots in before they can make a call to say for sure the person in second place can’t come in- can’t win the race. So, in a lot of states where we haven’t seen close elections before, we’re going to see close elections in all likelihood, and it might take days. A day like- a state like Alaska in particular, where they’re already well behind Eastern Time, they’ve got very remote voting all over the place. They’re going to bring ballots in from all over the place to count them. And if the election’s really close, it could be several days. That’s normal. And everything that’s going on in the election offices all over the country is under observation. There are Republican and Democratic observers at all times watching the ballots counted, watching the mail ballots being opened, et cetera. So people should know there’s nothing going on. This is just the normal process and elections might be close. It might take a few days.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And who are those monitors?
: Usually people who are appointed by the parties, either the Democratic or Republican Party, representing candidates in many times or campaigns. That’s very normal. That’s the way it was in 2020. Even during COVID, there were literally thousands upon thousands of monitors and observers all over the place. So the parties are well represented. They’re seeing everything that’s going on, and as soon as the results come in and we see them, they’re aware of them.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Let’s talk about Alaska. It is ranked choice voting. It’s a little different in that way. This morning on CNN, Republican Dan Sullivan, the incumbent senator, said he will accept the results of the election if he loses. As we discussed on this program last Sunday with Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Justice Department is seeking to stop certification of a possible Democratic win due to ballot confusion with what the New York Times has reported is this Democratic scheme to stack the ballot in accusing- in a confusing way to disadvantage the senator. Yesterday, just to update everyone, Alaska’s Republican-led state government urged a federal judge to dismiss–
: That’s right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –the lawsuit that the DOJ filed. They said it was meritless.
: That’s right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, doesn’t this need to be settled by a federal judge before election day?
: It really does, and I mean, it’d be nice if a federal judge dismisses the DOJ’s lawsuit, as so many courts have across the country in these last-minute lawsuits that have been brought seemingly, mainly to create an impression of chaos. They’re failing, but in Alaska in particular, it would be nice if we got a federal court ruling. We might get one, but Alaska’s courts have ruled on this, including their Supreme Court.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
: They ruled that both Dan Sullivans can be on the ballot. We’ve shown- seen the ballot. You’ve shown the ballot before. It’s pretty clear that the Alaska Division of Elections, run by the Lieutenant Governor- Governor, there, a Republican, has done a really good job of making it as- as unconfusing as it can be. And with that ranked choice voting, if- even if someone still wasn’t sure and they ranked both Dan Sullivan’s first and second, by the second round, all of those votes would go to the- to the- whatever candidate got the most, presumably the incumbent senator. I’m not surprised Senator Sullivan says he will accept the results. Of course, this is Alaska defending its state sovereignty and its right and authority over elections in the state of Alaska, as guaranteed by the United States Constitution. It’s good to see the Republican governor and Republican lieutenant governor there in Alaska defending their sovereignty as strongly as they are.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But even Democrats, as I’ve said before, have said this does look bad. This looks like dirty pool. Looks like they’re playing dirty.
: There’s dirty pool. Both parties do this. It shouldn’t happen. Right now, in Nevada, there are two candidates named Ford running for governor, we’re not sure what the circumstances of that are. One of them is the major Democratic candidate. We’ve seen Elon Musk bankroll Cornel West’s presidential campaign in 2024. These kinds of things shouldn’t happen, I don’t think there’s any question, but it’s pretty normal politics, unfortunately. And Alaska’s courts and Alaska state law has already ruled on this.
MARGARET BRENNAN: There are other states, California, Washington state, where we’re seeing federal scrutiny. What are you monitoring here?
: Well, what’s really remarkable is there’s so much last-minute litigation alleging- allegedly non- non-citizens on the voter lists, alleging problems with the process coming from the DOJ. This Department of Justice has been in power for nearly two years. They have had the full power of the federal government to investigate any claims. And as you heard from Governor Shapiro, when they’ve made political statements on this in the press, when they’ve been asked to show their work, they’ve hid the ball. They have not shared information with California, with Pennsylvania, with other states. And now they bring these last-minute lawsuits, and they are being rejected soundly by every court, including by Trump-appointed judges in most cases. I think this is a good sign. I think this is a good sign that the administration is running out of gas here on this effort to sow confusion in the election, and the courts are holding firm. And most importantly, the election officials are holding firm. As you and I are talking right now, the last time I checked, it was over 53 million ballots already cast all over this country.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Wow.
: We’re going to see- the record, by the way, in a midterm election is 118 million ballots cast. We are definitely going to get well over half that before the- before election day even comes. We might see a record turnout. It looks like that’s highly possible. We’re certainly seeing it in places like Texas, where 7.7 million ballots have already been cast as we’re sitting here talking.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Wow.
: And their record for a midterm election is 8.375 million total. So they’re about- they’re just over about 600,000 or so ballots away from their highest turnout ever, and we are days before the election. Election day hasn’t even happened yet. That’s remarkable.
MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s fascinating level of participation.
: Yeah.
MARGARET BRENNAN: David, thank you for breaking it down. And I know we’ll be talking to you in the days and weeks to come. We’ll be back in a moment.
