The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for May 23, 2023

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.

Residents of the District of Columbia may have a chance to implement ranked choice voting and open primaries by 2026.  That is, IF they can overcome opposition from the Democratic party’s leadership.

A citizen ballot initiative for the “Make All Votes Count DC Act of 2024” must collect signatures from 5% of the District’s 524,000 registered voters to qualify for the ballot, over 86,000 of whom are unaffiliated voters.

Those unaffiliated voters – the second largest group of voters in DC – can’t currently participate in closed Democratic and Republican primaries without switching party affiliation first.  The Make All Voters Count act would create semi-open primaries, where unaffiliated voters could choose which party primary ballot they’d like to use.   

The Act would also implement ranked choice voting for federal, District and local primary and general elections.   The Washington City Paper reports that the city council’s at-large positions often have numerous candidates.  In one recent race, the winning candidate had only 15% of the vote.  Ranked choice voting requires a 50%+1 majority to win.

The City Paper also notes that Democratic Party leadership has opposed these reforms in the past, which are seen as loosening the parties’ grip on controlling the election. Advocates have six months to collect required signatures.

We have links to the Make All Votes Count DC Act details at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  Follow us on Facebook @AmericanDemocracyMinute.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Washington City Paper – A New Ballot Initiative Could Bring Ranked-Choice Voting and Open Primaries to D.C. Expect a Big Fight.
WTOP – Ballot initiative may bring major changes to DC voting
Make All Votes Count DC – Text of the Ballot Initiative

DC Board of Elections – Statistics of Registered Voters April 2023
DC Municipal Rules – INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM

Groups Taking Action:
Make All Votes Count DC, Rank the Vote DC, DC for Democracy, Fair Vote, other coalition members

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #RankedChoiceVoting

The post “Make All Votes Count DC Act” Ballot Initiative Proposes RCV & Open Primaries for Nation’s Capital City appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

Listen! https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/americandemocracyminute/episodes/2022-06-15T08_17_17-07_00

Today’s Links:
Yahoo News/YouGov poll:  “Poll: Half of Americans now predict U.S. may ‘cease to be a democracy’ someday”
National organizations taking action:  Declaration for American Democracy (DFAD),
Public Citizen, Common Cause

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

A shocking new poll shows that half of Americans of all political persuasions believe that it’s likely that America will cease to be a democracy in the future.

The Yahoo/YouGov poll released June 15th shows that 55% of Democrats, and 53% of Republicans believe that failure is likely. With independent voters factored in, just under half of those polled think it’s likely that America will cease to be a democracy. As for the other half, only 25% consider it UNlikely, and the other 25% are not sure. The survey was conducted among 1500 adults around the U.S. from June 10th to June 13th.

The survey also polled Americans on their viewing of the January 6th hearings. June 9th’s initial hearing was watched by 24% of Americans, with an additional 27% following news coverage afterwards. Among the watchers, 52% of MSNBC viewers tuned in; 22% of Fox News viewers tuned in. Fox broadcasted the hearings live only on its Fox Business channel on Thursday; Monday’s daytime hearing was moved to Fox News.

After just the June 9th & 13th hearings, less than half of Americans, 45%, believe the January 6th insurrection was part of a conspiracy to overturn the election. This will be a statistic to watch in the coming weeks.

Links to the poll and some national organizations where you can take action are at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

Granny D said, “Democracy is not something we have, it’s something we DO.”
For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl.

The post American Democracy Minute for June 16, 2022: Shocking New Poll Shows Half of Americans Think Our Democracy Won’t Exist in the Future appeared first on American Democracy Minute.