American Democracy Minute

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 19, 2023 Penalties Recommended for Church Organization and Pastor for Alleged Illegal and Unreported Contributions Supporting Anti-Ranked Choice Voting Effort We’re updating a story we’ve been following in Alaska, where fines have been recommended for a church, an associated church organization, and a pastor accused of making alleg...

American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 18, 2023 Proposed Rule Change Could Make the Feckless Federal Elections Commission Even Less Effective The feckless Federal Elections Commission may become even less effective.  A proposed rules change would task the usually deadlocked FEC commissioners with authorizing all campaign finance investigations, likely bringing meaningful ac...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 15, 2023 Statement from Presidential Libraries Calls on Elected Leaders &  All Americans to Take Action to Restore Faith in Democracy September 7th, a statement regarding, “the future of our nation and an urgent call to action for all Americans” was issued by 13 Presidential foundations and libraries.  We read an excerpt of tha...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 14, 2023 With Court Cases and Elections Looming, the Wisconsin Assembly Scrambles to Keep its Gerrymandered Voting Districts Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate have a 66% veto-proof supermajority. Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly are two votes short of a supermajority.  Yet the Governor of Wisconsin is a Democrat.  How is tha...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 13, 2023 Updates on a Federal Court Rejection of a Stay for Alabama’s Congressional Maps, and an Upcoming SCOTUS Case on South Carolina’s Maps  We have two updates on racial gerrymandering cases today, with another setback to the Alabama legislature’s defiant Congressional maps, and another important case coming up in South Carolin...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 7, 2023 Federal Appeals Court Slams Alabama Legislature for Defying U.S. Supreme Court’s Milligan Ruling and Strikes Down Revised Maps Tuesday, a U.S. District Court of Appeals struck down in the strongest possible terms, the Alabama legislature’s revised Congressional district maps, drawn in defiance of June’s Milligan decision by...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 6, 2023 Reports of False Election Officials Intimidating Voters Widens to 13 NY Counties; Texas Eliminates the Election Office in its Biggest County The scope of the New York election official impersonation story has widened.  And in Texas, the state legislature just dismantled its largest county’s election office. Our podcasting h...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Sept. 4, 2023 Investigation Opened Into Election Denier Activists Allegedly Impersonating Election Officials in New York County Election officials in an upstate New York county last week asked for an investigation of activists apparently impersonating election officials and visiting voters’ homes, in an effort to find evidence of voter f...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Aug. 31, 2023 Investigation Expands Into Alleged Sketchy Behavior of Groups Trying to Repeal Alaska’s Ranked Choice Voting We’re revisiting a complicated and expanding story from July, involving alleged sketchy behavior from groups hoping to repeal ranked choice voting in Alaska, involving a pastor, a group he organized as part of his ch...

American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Aug. 31, 2023 This 82-Year-Old Man Could Be Enjoying Retirement.  Instead, He’s Walking Across the Country to Fix Democracy * Disclosure - Host Brian Beihl is volunteering with Rick Hubbard's Walking to Fix Our Democracy effort.* Thursday, August 31st, Vermonter Rick Hubbard will walk the remaining 6 miles to the Round House, New Mexico’s ca...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Aug. 29, 2023 State of New Hampshire Seeks 14th Amendment Legal Advice on Whether Candidate Donald Trump Can Appear on the First in the Nation 2024 Primary A  New Hampshire 2020 U.S. Senate candidate endorsed by former President Trump is questioning Trump’s qualification for the Presidency under the 14th Amendment, Section 3, designed to...

 The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Aug. 28, 2023   New Mexico Redistricting Case One of the First to Employ a Partisan Gerrymandering Test Proposed by U.S. Supreme Court’s Justice Kagan An unusual New Mexico redistricting case reaches a state district court next month.  Unusual in that it’s Republicans claiming that Democrats did the partisan gerrymandering, but also tha...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Aug. 25, 2023   Can a U.S. President Pardon Him or Herself?  The Question Will Likely End Up in the U.S. Supreme Court.  Last week, we discussed the President’s broad powers and some limitations to issue a pardon. But can a U.S. President pardon him or herself?  Our podcasting host recently made changes which stops us from including our...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Aug. 25, 2023 How Did Presidential Pardons Evolve, and What Are Their Limitations? In the first 2024 GOP primary debate, Vivek Ramaswamy reiterated his campaign pledge to pardon former President Trump. How did Presidential pardons evolve, and what are their limitations? Our podcasting host recently made changes which stops us from includ...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Aug. 23, 2023 GOP Activists Are Pitching an Alternative to ERIC for Voter List Maintenance. But it Could Also Be Used for Voter Suppression. Nine conservative-leaning states have pulled out of ERIC, a cooperative of states which uses advanced computer matching to keep voter rolls clean.  Now, a group of GOP activists is launching its own...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Aug. 22, 2023 Trump Announces He’s Skipping the Initial GOP Primary Debates.  How Much Do Presidential Candidate Debates Matter? Former President Trump announced August 20th that he will not be participating in the upcoming GOP debates, saying the public already knew him. But just how important are the debates? Our podcasting host recent...

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Aug. 21, 2023 Federal Court Strikes Down Mississippi Constitutional Provision With Racist History Keeping 11% of Its Population from Voting Mississippi has the highest percentage of voting-age citizens who are not able to vote due to past felony convictions.  In early August, a federal court struck down the responsible Jim Crow provision...

American Democracy Minute Radio Report for August 18, 2023 Under the Cloak of “Election Integrity,” North Carolina Legislature Overhauls Election System; Override of Governor’s Expected Veto Likely The North Carolina legislature approved a so-called “election integrity” bill late Wednesday, making it harder to vote by mail, employing provisional ballots for election day registrants, implementing n...

American Democracy Minute Radio Report for August 17, 2023 Developments in the Fight for Fair Voting District Maps in Alabama, Florida and Wisconsin While we’ve been reading indictments, there have been three developments in the last week which may impact gerrymandered Congressional maps in Alabama, Florida and Wisconsin.   Today’s Links Articles & Resources: NPR - Alabama lost a voting rights...

Georgia Indictment of Trump & Allies Includes Ties to Breach of Voting Machines in Coffee County, GA In a follow up to our past reports on Coffee County, GA, Monday’s RICO indictment of former President Donald Trump includes evidence of alleged COORDINATION of voting machine tampering by Trump’s legal team, and indictments of lead actors involved in the alleged access to, and tampering with th...

Ohio’s Politician-Led Redistricting Commission Failed.  Citizens Are Proposing a Citizen-Led Commission Instead. With 70% of the vote in 2018, Ohio voters passed a constitutional amendment prohibiting partisan gerrymandering.  The state’s redistricting commission and legislature ignored it, and gerrymandered the voting district maps anyway.  Citizens are now trying to fix what the politicians won’...

DC Democrats Attempt to Block Citizen Initiative Proposing Ranked Choice Voting and Semi-Open Primaries in City Elections Democrats in the District of Columbia have sued the DC Elections Board to prevent a citizen ballot initiative proposing ranked choice voting and semi-open primaries, claiming it would violate the city charter, and confuse Black and Hispanic voters.  Many major party leaders per...

Should Commodities Traders Be Able to Gamble on Who Wins Control Congress?  Should investors be able to bet on who wins the control of Congress?  A commodities trading company wants to sell “futures” contracts based on the outcome of elections. Our podcasting host recently made changes which stops us from including our entire script as part of the podcast content.  To view the whole script, please...

Ohio Voters Defeat Republican Effort to Raise Citizen Ballot Initiative Passage to 60% in Victory for Direct Democracy With an unofficial 57% to 43% margin, Ohio voters soundly defeated the effort by the Republican-majority legislature to raise the threshold for passage of citizen ballot initiatives.  Issue one would have also required minimum numbers of qualifying signatures in 88 counties rather...

Oregon Expands Automatic Voter Registration, Protects Voters Who Move In-State From Losing Eligibility, and Seeks Funding for Dropbox Security Three bills signed by Oregon’s governor August 4th expand Automatic Voter Registration, protect voters who move within the state from losing eligibility, and allow the state to seek federal funding for dropbox security. Our podcasting host recently made cha...