American Democracy Minute

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Oct. 11, 2024 Sensing a Threat to Their Power, Idaho GOP Leaders Use Every Lever to Stop Open Primaries & Ranked Choice Citizen Ballot Initiative Apparently sensing an existential threat to their power, Idaho GOP leaders are pulling every lever to defeat an open primaries and ranked choice voting citizen initiative.  The measure woul...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Oct. 10, 2024 Is it Illegal to Pay a $47 Bounty to Get a Registered Voter to Sign a Petition?  Elon Musk’s Super PAC is Doing Just That. An Elon Musk super PAC is offering a $47 recruiting bounty for referring registered voters who then sign a petition pledging support for the First and Second Amendments.  So, what’s behind it and is it...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Oct. 9, 2024 State Officials Grant Flexibility to Hurricane Affected Areas of FL, GA, and NC To Support In-Person and Mail-In Voting for Thousands of Displaced Citizens With Hurricane Milton adding insult to Hurricane Helene’s injury, state officials in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina are making accommodations to help as many affecte...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Oct. 8, 2024 PA Supreme Court Refuses to Rehear Mail-In Ballot Missing Date Appeal, but Allows Counties to Continue to Notify Voters and ‘Cure’ Ballots The Pennsylvania Supreme Court refused to rehear a challenge to mail-in ballots with missing or inaccurate dates on the merits, after dismissing the case on a technicality in September. ...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Oct. 4, 2024 As State Voter Registration Deadlines Draw Near, Data Suggests 2024 New Registrations Still Lagging Behind 2020 As state deadlines for voter registrations draw near, new registrations across the United States are down compared to 2024, according to political data and advertising firm TargetSmart. But there are increases in c...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Oct. 3, 2024 What is the 'Materiality Provision' of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and How Can it Help Protect Voters? Our report on court challenges to undated or misdated mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania mentioned the “Materiality Provision” of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  Just what is the Materiality Provision, and how can it help protect v...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Oct. 2, 2024 The ACLU Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Rule on Undated Pennsylvania Mail-in Ballots Case We’ve reported for months now on challenges to undated or misdated mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.  After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned a state court ruling allowing the counting of those ballots, the ACLU is now taking a paral...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Oct. 1, 2024 Early Voting Ramps Up in Most States in October, and Voter Registration Deadlines Begin to Close.  What’s Your Registration and Voting Plan? Early voting for the 2024 general election has begun in six states, either by mail or in-person. Another nine states begin next week.  But, beware, voter registration begins closing nex...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 30, 2024 NH Primary AI Robocall Costs Operative $6 Million; Newsmax Settles with Smartmatic Over Airing 2020 Voting Machine Conspiracy Theories The FCC levied a $6 Million dollar fine Sept. 26th for an A-I deep fake robocall in January’s NH Presidential Primary, and on the eve of a civil trial, conservative outlet Newsmax settled a...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 27, 2024 Spoiler Alert: Ranked Choice Voting Could Solve the Green Party and JFK Jr. ‘Spoiler Effect Spoiler alert:  Both major political parties are trying to minimize the impact of voters choosing third party candidates in the 2024 election.  What could fix the “spoiler effect”, and allow third party candidates to still compete?...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report for Sept. 26, 2024 US Postal Service Slowdowns Concern State Election Officials; Will DeJoy’s Leaner USPS Deliver Ballots in Time? GOP challenges to state laws allowing the counting of properly postmarked mail ballots after the election takes on more significance when considering chronic U.S. Postal Service delays. U.S election officials are worried. To v...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 25, 2024 GOP Challenge to Mississippi Mail Ballot Deadline Law Likely to Set Up U.S. Supreme Court Challenge with National Consequences National and state Republicans will ask the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down a Mississippi law which counts mail-in ballots up to five days after election day.  The decision co...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report for Sept. 24, 2024 Updates on 97,000 Registered AZ Voters Without Citizenship Proof, CO Open Primaries & RCV Poll; and Stickering Out RFK Jr. in WI We have three quick state updates, including a court decision favoring the over 97,000 Arizona voters who didn’t have citizenship documents on file, a promising poll showing Colorado voters may embrace ope...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 23, 2024 Georgia State Board of Elections Passes Hand Count Reconciliation Rule Against Recommendations of SOS and County Election Officials Against the recommendations of state and county election officials, three Trump loyalists serving on the Georgia State Election Board voted Friday to mandate county election officials to do a...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 20, 2024 Alabama SOS Sweeps Up Naturalized Citizens In Move to Root Out Noncitizen Voters, Spurs Lawsuit Shortly after taking office, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen directed state election officials to invalidate voter registrations of immigrants who had been issued a Permanent Resident, or “green” card by the U.S. Government...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 19, 2024 State Data Mistake Puts Voting in Local & State Elections at Risk for 97,000 Arizonans Voting in state and local elections is at risk for an estimated 97,000 longtime Arizona voters due to a proof of citizenship data tracking problem at the DMV. To view the whole script of today’s report, please go to our website . Tod...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 18, 2024 Ohio Supreme Court Upholds Intentionally Misleading Description Language for Citizen Redistricting Ballot Measure  In a dubious decision, the Ohio Supreme Court mostly upheld the state ballot board’s intentionally misleading description for a citizen redistricting commission measure for the November ballot. To view the who...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 17, 2024 Pennsylvania Won’t Count Undated Mail Ballots After All; Alaska Natives Organizing to Retain Ranked Choice Voting  Two updates on stories we’ve covered recently in Pennsylvania, where its high court invalidated ballots with missing or inaccurate dates, and Alaska, where the Alaska Native population is organizing against a...

Corrected Version The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 16, 2024 Sept. 17 is National Voter Registration Day.  If You’re One of the 81 Million Americans Not Registered, Now is the Time. There are an estimated 81 Million Americans who are NOT registered to vote.  If you’re one of them, National Voter Registration Day, Tuesday, September 17th, is a great time to get it d...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 13, 2024 Following Questionable Late Voter Registration Purges, the U.S. DOJ Issues State Guidance and Asks for Help from Impacted Voters Reacting to recent partisan voter registration purges and rule changes from state officials, legislatures and election boards, September 10th, the U.S. Department of Justice reminded states of th...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 12, 2024 As in the Republican National Convention, the Debate Claim of Widespread Voting by Noncitizens is Nonsense In the Sept. 10 Trump-Harris Presidential debate, former President Trump made claims that Democrats encouraged illegal immigration so that noncitizens would vote and support their candidates.   A similar claim was mad...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 11, 2024 Texas AG Paxton Sues Two Counties to Suppress Voter Registration Effort After ordering controversial searches of homes of LatinX democracy advocates in August, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued two counties in early September for attempting to register citizens to vote prior to the 2024 election. To view the whole scr...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 10, 2024 In Wins for Pennsylvania Voters, Court Rules ‘Naked Ballots’ Can Be Fixed, and Ballots with Date Issues Can Be Counted In wins for voters, two Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court rulings confirmed that  so-called ‘naked ballots’ may be cured with a provisional ballot, and that undated or misdated mail ballots must be counted....

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 9, 2024 National Voter Registration Day is Sept. 17 and Organizers Hope to Enlist More Nonprofit and Corporate Partners to Help The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 69.1% of Americans were registered to vote for the 2022 midterms, the highest number in over two decades. To register the other 30%, National Voter Registration Day is S...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 6, 2024 U.S. DOJ Takes Action on Russian Propaganda Campaign to Influence the U.S. Election and Shape American Attitudes Toward Ukraine The U.S. Justice Department announced actions against a sophisticated Russian propaganda campaign, designed to influence voting of specific demographic groups in the 2024 election, and shape attitu...