American Democracy Minute

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 7, 2025 North Carolina: Former Election Directors Weigh In On Unresolved Supreme Court Race; Former Justice Argues Partisan Gerrymandering Akin to ‘Stuffing the Ballot Box’ In a brief to the North Carolina Court of Appeals, a bipartisan group of former county election directors urged the court to reject a claim that as many as 65,0...

Brian is away today, so we’re rebroadcasting a report from last July, which is particularly apt for the shattering of the norms of the presidency we’ve witnessed in the first weeks of the Trump second term. The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 6, 2025 Would the Founding Fathers Have Embraced Having Unfettered Power for the Presidency?  Not Likely. Anti-authoritarian f...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 5, 2025 The Deadline was Feb. 19th and the Trump Transition Team Still Hasn’t Disclosed Its Transition Donors We reported last year that the Trump transition team had been funding itself through unknown private donations, and refused to sign a General Services Administration transition support memo which limited private donations t...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 4, 2025 Like the FEC, the FCC Could Fall Under the Control of Partisan Actors Under Executive Order 14215, Potentially Restricting Access to the Airwaves In our last report, we explained how Executive Order 14215 claims Presidential authority over the FEC and other independent agencies, putting fair elections at risk.  Manipulation...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 3, 2025 Executive Order Asserting Presidential Authority Over Independent Agencies Could Put Federal Election Oversight Under Partisan Control On February 18th, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order #14215, entitled “Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies.”  It claims Presidential authority over historically independent a...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 28, 2025 NH’s Voter Registration Proof-of-Citizenship Law Began January 1st; Similar Citizenship Bills are Pending in 20 Other States.  9% of Americans Don’t Have Access to Those Documents If you’re headed to vote in New Hampshire’s traditional March town meetings and need to register, bring proof of citizenship documents with you,...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 27, 2025 Town Officials in Tiny PA Town Arraigned After Investigators Unravel Rare Case of Alleged Voter Fraud Three elected officials in the tiny Pennsylvania borough of Millbourne are being arraigned on mail and voter fraud charges relating to a 2021 attempt to manipulate a town mayoral election. Some podcasting platforms strip ou...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 26, 2025 Virginia Legislature Sends Several Pro-Voter Bills to Gov. Youngkin, and a Constitutional Amendment Restoring Rights to Returning Citizens to Voters In the coming weeks, Virginia GOP Governor Glenn Younkin considers multiple pro-voter bills sent to his desk by a Democratic-majority legislature.  A state constitutional amend...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 25, 2025 Appeals Continue in 2024 NC Supreme Court Race Challenge; Elon Musk PAC Dumping Millions Into 2025 WI Supreme Court Race The North Carolina Supreme Court declined to fast-track a challenge by a GOP Supreme Court candidate who lost in November by 734 votes after two recounts and two court losses.  And Super PACs backed by El...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 24, 2025 How Could a Trump Takeover of the U.S. Postal Service Affect Mail-In Voting? Over 88 million American voters voted early in the 2024 presidential election.   An estimated 42 million voted by mail.  What could a Trump takeover of the U.S. Postal Service mean for mail-in and absentee voters? Some podcasting platforms strip ou...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 21, 2025 A Glimmer of Hope in Mississippi:  State Senate Advances Early Voting Bill; State House Moves Forward Signature Mismatch Curing & Other Bills Mississippi has one of the country’s worst records for protecting voting rights and advancing democracy reforms.  So when pro-voter bills emerge from the state house and senate li...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 19, 2025 Arizona Governor Vetoes Bill Restricting Mail-In Voting, But House Republicans Attempt to Bypass It With Constitutional Amendment Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed a bill February 18th which would have restricted how and when mail-in ballots could be returned, and hobbled the state’s long-running permanent vote-by-mail li...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 19, 2025 Just Two Weeks Before Bribery and Corruption Charges are Dropped Against NYC Mayor Eric Adams, Former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez Gets 11 Years A federal judge sentenced former New Jersey U.S. Senator Bob Menendez January 29th to 11 years in prison for corruption charges and acting as a foreign agent. Menendez, a Democrat, wa...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 18, 2025 Arizona’s DMV Error May Force Nearly 200,000 Already Registered Voters to Bring In Citizenship Documents – or Be Dropped  In September 2024, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes announced an error in state voter rolls involving 97,000 voters, revolving around a state DMV data error.  That number has risen to nearly 200,...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 17, 2025 CISA Pauses All Election Security Programs for Full Review.  Hint:  It’s Not About Election Integrity, It’s Reprisal for Telling the Truth. The interim head of CISA, charged with protecting America’s critical cybersecurity infrastructure, including for elections, just issued a memo pausing all election protection operations...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 14, 2025 State Updates on Bills Shortening Early Voting and Changing Mail-in Ballot Requirements, and the Contested NC Supreme Court Race Lawsuit While attacks on democracy norms ensue in Washington, state legislatures have also been busy.  We have updates from Utah, Kansas, Indiana, and an update on the contested North Carolina Sup...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 13, 2025 Voter Suppression Bills Aimed at College Students Pushed (Again) by the NH Legislature The New Hampshire legislature has proposed various schemes over the last decade to keep liberal-leaning college students living in the state from voting in elections.  Most have failed, but no fewer than three voter suppression bills are...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 12, 2025 Trump Fires Office of Government Ethics Chief Monday; Hours Later, DOJ Drops Federal Corruption Charges Against NYC Mayor Eric Adams February 10th, the head of the Office of Government Ethics, a Senate-confirmed position, was fired by letter by President Donald Trump, likely illegally. In an even more questionable action th...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 11, 2025 Trump Attempts to Fire Federal Election Commission Chair ‘Effective Immediately.’  It’s Not Legal. After 22 years as a commissioner and chair of the Federal Election Commission, Ellen Weintraub was purportedly sacked by President Donald Trump with this terse sentence: “You are hereby removed as a Member of the Federal Elect...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 10, 2025 In WI, State Supreme Court Candidate’s Image Altered by AI in Opponent’s Attack Ad, and Election Commission Administrator Targeted by Conspiracy Theorists Allowed to Stay We’re in Wisconsin today, where a candidate for state supreme court had her image manipulated by AI in an opponent’s attack ad, and the state high court a...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 7, 2025 Nebraska & New Hampshire Wrestle with “Winner Take All” and “Winner by District” Presidential Electoral Vote Systems A New Hampshire Senate bill, just killed in committee, would have moved the state’s four presidential electoral votes to a “Winner by District” system, from “Winner Take All”.  Nebraska, the only state bes...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb 6, 2025 Will Utah’s Voter-Approved Independent Redistricting Commission and Fair Maps Prevail Over the Legislature’s Attempt to RigThem? In 2018, Utah voters approved a ballot initiative establishing an independent redistricting commission to create fair voting districts.   The legislature neutralized it, and gerrymandered the maps a...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb 5, 2025 Could Trump Run for a Third Term? The 22nd Amendment Prohibits it, But a TN Congressman Wants to Repeal It.  And There are Loopholes. In 1944, when Franklin Roosevelt said he would run for a fourth term, discussions began on a Constitutional amendment to limit a U.S. President to two terms in office. In 1951, the 22nd Amendme...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 4, 2025 Elon Musk Spent Over a Quarter Billion Dollars in the 2024 Election - MoreThan Expected.   Millions More Came After the Election New Federal Election Commission filings by multi-billionaire and quasi Trump cabinet member Elon Musk show he and his companies spent at least $288 million dollars in the 2024 election cycle, even...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for February 3, 2025 The SAVE Act Could Disenfranchise as Many as 21 Million Voters.  It’s Been Fast Tracked in Congress Last month, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas reintroduced the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE Act, mandating proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections, and requiring only certain types of ID be used. Millions o...