American Democracy Minute

Tuesday’s Ohio Special Election Attempts to Take Away Simple Majority Rulefor Ballot Initiatives.  Now the Legislature is After Ranked Choice Voting.  The Ohio special election on Issue 1, the legislature’s attempt to raise the threshold to pass a citizen ballot initiative to 60%, is Tuesday, Aug. 8th.  Now, in an effort to wrest even more power from its citizenry, an Ohio legislator has introduce...

Dismissed: The Recent Arizona Election Denier Court Cases Which Crashed and Burned Notable court cases brought by Arizona election deniers during and after the 2022 midterms have had decisions in the last few weeks.  It didn’t go well for the election deniers. Our podcasting host recently made changes which stops us from including our entire script as part of the podcast content.  To view the whol...

Alabama’s Racial Gerrymandering Showdown with SCOTUS Goes Back to Federal Court August 14th We’re back in Alabama today, where freedom-to-vote and civil rights groups go back to federal district court August 14th to oppose the legislature’s defiant racially gerrymandered Congressional voting district map. Our podcasting host recently made changes which stops us from including our entire script as...

Alleged Voting Machine Tampering Suspects Arraigned in Michigan Include Former Candidate for State Attorney General and Former State Rep Eclipsed by Tuesday’s news of former President Trump’s indictment for his involvement in the attempted overturning of the 2020 election was an arraignment of two of nine of his supporters who allegedly tampered with voting machines in Michigan. Our podcasting hos...

Aug. 8 Referendum Changing Ohio’s Threshold for a Ballot Initiative to Win Holds a 112-Year-Old Precedent and Reproductive Rights in the Balance Early voting for Ohio’s Aug. 8th special election is robust, as voters consider raising the threshold for a ballot initiative to win to a 60% margin.   At stake in Issue 1 is a 112-year-old precedent of a 50%+ 1 simple majority rule  — and an attempt to d...

U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Head Announces Additional Election Security Advisors to Assist States in Securing Elections The head of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA, spoke July 25th to state election directors, announcing an investment in new regional staff helping states protect their elections.  She also cited artificial intellige...

Georgia’s Inactive Voter Purges:  When Voter List “Election Integrity” Maintenance Becomes Voter Suppression  As we reported last week, Georgia and 20 other states remove voters who may not have voted recently, but are otherwise qualified, arguing it’s done for “election integrity.”  When does routine maintenance become a tool for voter suppression? Our podcasting host recently made changes which...

Georgia Prepares to Purge Almost 200,000 Voters from the Voter List, Applying “Use it or Lose it” Rules; 20 Other States Have Similar Laws. Today we’re in Georgia, where almost 200,000 people who haven’t moved, aren’t felons, and whose voter eligibility hasn’t changed, may lose their voter registration prior to the 2024 Presidential election.  The reason?  They haven’t recently voted. Today’s Link...

Florida Just Purged its List of Absentee Ballot Requestors, Forcing Millions of Voters to Reapply If you voted in the midterms by absentee ballot in Florida last year, your automatic request, along with millions of others,  may no longer be valid for 2024, due to a new law requiring that absentee ballot requests expire in two years, rather than four. Our podcasting host recently made changes which...

Is Absentee Voting a Right or a Privilege?  Wisconsin Voters Take Their State to Court Over Recent Restrictions on Absentee Ballots Wisconsin’s election code states that the legislature sees voting in person a “right,” while voting by absentee as a “privilege.” Some Wisconsin voters disagree, and are taking that concept, and other absentee restrictions, to court. Our podcasting host recently made...

Texas Withdraws from ERIC, But the State Has Yet to Implement an Alternative to Keep Its Voter Lists Clean Last week, Texas became the ninth state to officially withdraw from the multi-state voter registration cooperative called ERIC, recently the target of fringe conspiracy theories. But, Texas doesn't yet have a replacement. Our podcasting host recently made changes which stops us from including...

Alabama Governor Signs VotingMaps in Open Defiance of Supreme Court Order; Alleged Michigan Fake Electors Stripped of Duties, Face Resignation Calls We have updates on stories from Alabama & Michigan we brought you last week.  Alabama’s governor has signed a new Congressional voting district map in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court, and an alleged Michigan “Fake Elector” has been stripped of...

In Michigan, State AG Charges 16 Fake Electors, Voting Machine Tampering Case Moves Forward  While former President Donald Trump awaits a likely indictment for his role in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, we’re in Michigan, where two related cases involving alleged fake electors and voting machine tampering are moving forward. Our podcasting host recently made changes which stops us from...

U.S. House & Senate Democrats Reintroduce the Freedom to Vote Act,  But It Faces More Hurdles This Session Today's Script Tuesday, Democratic leaders of the U.S. House and Senate re-introduced the Freedom to Vote Act, the sweeping democracy reform bill narrowly defeated in the U.S. Senate in 2022.  Our podcasting host recently made changes which stops us from including our entire script as par...

Alabama Redistricting Committee Defies SCOTUS Milligan Decision, Again Proposing Only One Majority Black Congressional District   Democracy advocates in Alabama are incredulous after an Alabama state legislative committee passed a new Congressional voting district map on Monday which again proposed only one majority Black district.   Our podcasting host recently made changes which stops us from in...

New York Court Sends Congressional Redistricting Map Back to Independent Commission; SCOTUS Sets Date to Consider South Carolina Congressional Map Thursday, a New York state appeals court ordered a redrawing of the state’s Congressional districts.  The next day, the U.S. Supreme Court set a date for a South Carolina case which could greenlight MORE gerrymandering.  Our podcasting host recently mad...

Turnout for Ohio Legislature’s Anti-Voter Constitutional Amendment Strong, as Century-Old Pro-Voter Ballot Initiative Rules Hang in the Balance Today's Script Our podcasting host recently made changes which stops us from including our script as part of the podcast content.  To view the script, please go to our website and find today's report. Today’s Links Articles & Resources: Ohio Secretary...

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Report Recommends Changes to  Reduce Barriers to Voting for South Dakota’s Native Americans Today's Script (Variations occur with audio due to editing for time)  Today’s Links now below the script You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people. We’re in South Dakota today where a new report issued by the bipartisan U...

“American Confidence in Elections Act” Introduced in U.S. House Nationalizes Restrictions on Mail-In Voting & Doubles Down on Election Disinformation Today's Script Our podcasting host, Podomatic, recently developed a technical issue stopping the inclusion of our daily script in the episode "Description."   To view the script, please go to our website and find today's report. Today’s Links Art...

Foes of Alaska’s Ranked Choice Voting Alleged to Have Used Church as a Front to Shield Disclosure of Donors Today's Script Our podcasting host, Podomatic, recently developed a technical issue stopping the inclusion of our daily script in the episode "Description."   To view the script, please go to our website and find today's report. Today’s Links Articles & Resources: Alaska Public Media - A...

Democracy Advocates Win First Round Battling State of Florida’s Attempt to Stop Voter Registration Drives Today's Script (Variations occur with audio due to editing for time)  Today’s Links now below the script Our podcasting host, Podomatic, recently developed a technical issue stopping the inclusion of our daily script in the episode "Description."   To view the script, please go to our website...

North Carolina Prepares to Implement Strict Voter ID Law, After Partisan State Supreme Court Reverses Opinion Today's Script (Variations occur with audio due to editing for time)  Today’s Links now below the script You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people. The showdown between the North Carolina legislature and North Carolina Supreme Court ha...

Impacts of Recent SCOTUS Decisions on Gerrymandering in Alabama, North Carolina, Louisiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin Our podcasting host, Podomatic, recently developed a technical issue stopping the inclusion of our daily script in the episode "Description."   To view the script, please go to our website and find today's report. Today’s Links Articles & Resources: NPR - What the Supreme Court's rej...

Would the Founding Fathers Have Given You the Freedom to Vote? Today's Script Our podcasting host, Podomatic, recently developed a technical issue stopping the inclusion of our daily script in the episode "Description."   To view the script, please go to our website and find today's report. Today’s Links Articles & Resources: U.S. Library of Congress - The Founders and the Vote Prof. Thomas Je...

Moore v. Harper Hangover:  SCOTUS Decision OKs Court Review, but Also Cracks the Door for a Weaker Version of the Independent State Legislature Theory Our podcasting host, Podomatic, recently developed a technical issue stopping the inclusion of our daily script in the episode "Description."   To view the script, please go to our website and find today's report. Today’s Links Articles & Resour...