American Democracy Minute

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for Aug. 14, 2026 District Court Block of Executive Order for USPS Citizenship Verification Now Nationwide; DOJ Asks SCOTUS to Quickly Overturn the Ruling In late June, a federal district court issued a temporary injunction preventing the U.S. Postal Service from implementing President Trump’s plan to have the USPS verify citizenship fo...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for Aug. 13, 2026 Alabama Holds 2nd Primary Election With Legislature’s Discriminatory Congressional Districts, Restored After SCOTUS Callais Decision The U.S. Supreme Court majority’s April 29th Callais decision invalidated use of race for redistricting, and sent some GOP-led states running to redraw congressional maps to dilute Black...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for Aug. 12, 2026 Let’s Just Say the Trump Administration’s Quest to Obtain State Voter Data Has Not Gone Well.  DOJ is now 0 for 22, With 9 More Cases Pending. We’ve been reporting since last spring on attempts by the Trump administration to obtain state voter and personal data for the expanded SAVE Database. That effort included lawsu...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for Aug. 11, 2026 The U.S. Senate Will Leave for Summer Recess Without Passing the SAVE America Act, But the Restrictive Voting Bill Will Be Back in the Fall At 4:36 AM August 8th, before legislators were released for the summer recess, the U.S. Senate voted on a subset of the SAVE America Act. This version required narrow types of phot...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for Aug. 10, 2026 Delaware Enacts State Voting Rights Act; Virginia Strengthens Its VRA, Laying Groundwork for Automatic Voter Registration On the 61st anniversary of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Delaware enacted a state VRA prohibiting voter discrimination, suppression and vote dilution.  Virginia’s governor signed legislation to expand...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for Aug. 7, 2026 North Carolina Governor Signals Veto of Bill Shortening Early Voting, and Lengthening the Window for Ballot Challenges We’re in North Carolina today, where Governor Josh Stein signalled he would veto a bill shortening early voting for primaries, lengthening the time for activists to challenge a voter’s eligibility, and...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for Aug. 6, 2026 Missouri Voters Block GOP’s Attempt to Change Ballot Measure Rules;  State SOS Blocks Nov. Measure Trying to Overturn Legislature’s Racially-Gerrymandered Congressional Map A ballot measure by the GOP-majority legislature to raise the bar for passing citizen ballot initiatives was overwhelmingly defeated in Missouri’s s...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for Aug. 5, 2026 The Supreme Court’s Callais Decision Likely to Take Down Another Majority-Minority District, This Time Impacting Native Americans Back in April we reported on the seizure of over 600,000 Riverside County, California ballots by County Sheriff Chad Bianco.  The state attorney general and a group of voters asked the state...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for Aug. 4, 2026 California Supreme Court Schedules Special Session to Hear Cases Against Riverside County Sheriff Who Seized 600,000 Ballots Back in April we reported on the seizure of over 600,000 Riverside County, California ballots by County Sheriff Chad Bianco.  The state attorney general and a group of voters asked the state supre...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for Aug. 3, 2026 Virginia’s Governor Has Restored Rights to Over 66,000 Formerly Incarcerated Citizens. November’s Question 3 Would Make it Automatic. Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger announced July 31st that she has restored the voting and civil rights to over 66,000 formerly incarcerated citizens since she took office in January....

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for July 31, 2026 Community Poll Workers are Essential to Key a Safe, Secure and Accessible Election. August 11 is National Poll Worker Recruitment Day. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission reports over 772,000 poll workers served during the 2024 general election, but shortages were common. National Poll Worker Recruitment Day is Aug...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for July 30, 2026 Making Sense of Latest Conflicting Appeals Court Rulings on Trump’s March Executive Order on Elections. Has Harm Been Done . . . Yet? A second appeals court handed down a ruling on President Trump’s March 31st executive order on elections, this time allowing the U.S. Postal Service’s preparations for checking eligibili...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for July 29, 2026 Largely Blocked by Lower Courts, Administration Asks SCOTUS to Allow Executive Order Directing USPS to Verify Citizenship of Mail-In Voters The lower courts have largely blocked President Trump’s March executive order on elections as violations of the Constitution’s Elections Clause. July 27th, his administration asked...

American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for July 28, 2026 Software Design Error and Slow DOT Response Likely Led to Noncitizen Registrations in New Jersey, Not Intentional Fraud A software design error in an automatic voter registration system, compounded by a slow New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission response to correct it, apparently led to the voter registration of approximatel...

American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for July 27, 2026 Trump Administration Withholds FEMA Disaster Relief Funding Because States Refused to Provide Voter Data.  In response, 24 States & DC Sued. The Trump administration threatened to withhold 20% of routine FEMA emergency disaster funding unless states complied with Department of Justice demands to turn over voter informa...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for July 24, 2026 U.S. House Passes the SAVE America Act and Will Combine It With a Defense Appropriations Bill to Make it Harder to Vote Down in the Senate The U.S. House passed the SAVE America Act again, this time with language to attach it to a normally bipartisan defense appropriations bill before it’s sent to the Senate. It’s a la...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for July 23, 2026 Yet Another ‘Election Integrity’ Crusading Politician is in Hot Water, This Time for Not Being a Registered Voter:  MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Yet another “election integrity” crusader, MyPillow CEO and candidate for Minnesota governor, Mike Lindell, is in hot water.  The 2020 election skeptic doesn’t appear to be a reg...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for July 22, 2026 Trump’s July 16th Election Security Speech Appears to Have Elements of Activist-Proposed National Emergency Order Which Surfaced in March President Trump’s July 16th speech included elements of an activist-proposed  national security executive order which surfaced in March.   New reporting suggests representatives of e...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for July 21, 2026 U.S. Appeals Court Allows the USPS Mail-In Voter Verification Plan to Proceed, But Other Challenges to Trump’s Executive Order are Active A U.S. district court of appeals has allowed President Donald Trump’s executive order, directing the U.S. Postal Service to verify the citizenship of mail-in voters, to move forward....

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for July 20, 2026 Citing Select Declassified Documents President Trump Blames 2020 Loss on China,  Says ‘Deep State’ Withheld Intelligence from Him President Trump’s election security speech July 16th rehashed election machine vulnerabilities and made allegations that the QUOTE “deep state” withheld classified information about China’s...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for July 17, 2026 Amidst Signs of Meddling in the Midterms, State & Local Election Officials Plan for Election Interference Scenarios – Including by the Administration Well before President Trump’s July 16th expected rehash of 2020 election conspiracies, pro-democracy groups and election officials were already planning for possible...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for July 16, 2026 Trump Touts July 16 Primetime Address on Election Security, Telling Reporters ‘It’s Really, Really Big News.’ Here’s What You Might Expect. Claiming “It’s really, really big news,” President Donald Trump addresses the nation on election security, Thursday, June 16th at 9 pm Eastern.  There are few details, but he’s exp...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for July 15, 2026 Removal of EAC Commissioners Draws Attention to Hollowed Out Federal Agencies with ‘Election Integrity’ Responsibilities Unable to Function We’ve reported on the shocking removal of three commissioners from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. But it’s not the only federal agency with election oversight to be hamst...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for July 14, 2026 Texas AG, U.S. Senate Candidate and ‘Election Integrity’ Advocate Ken Paxton May Be Living Outside the County in Which He Voted New reporting suggests that Texas Attorney General, U.S. Senate candidate and strident “Election Integrity” advocate, Ken Paxton, may have voted in six elections using an address where he no l...

The American Democracy Minute Radio News Report & Podcast for July 13, 2026 U.S. Election Assistance Commission Members Removed Days After SCOTUS Expands Presidential Power Over Independent Agencies  Just days after the U.S. Supreme Court decided that a president could remove personnel at most independent agencies without cause, the remaining commissioners at the U.S. Election Assistance Commi...