The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Jan. 3, 2025

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

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

In November 2022, Michigan voters passed a constitutional amendment enshrining voting protections and expanding ballot access. After the legislature implemented the voters’ directive, GOP legislators sued, claiming that only the legislature could make such changes. 

Proposition 2 mandated nine days of early voting, postage for mail-in ballots, a permanent absentee voter list, protections for both voters and election workers from harassment, and a tracking system for absentee ballots.   It allowed for the funding of secure drop boxes, the counting of military and overseas ballots if postmarked by election day, and several other reforms.

Conjuring the “independent state legislature theory,” which argues that the U.S. Constitution allows only legislatures to control election law, 11 Michigan GOP legislators sued. 

On December 20th the federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s denial of the Michigan legislators’ claim.  But importantly, it did so saying that while the individual legislators had no standing to bring the case, a full legislature could, leaving the door open a crack.     The U.S. Supreme Court mostly, dismissed the theory in 2023’s Moore v. Harper case, but Justices Thomas, Gorsuch and Alito were all-in on the theory.

For the moment, the pro-voter reforms in Michigan are safe, but be watching for the independent state legislature theory to pop up again soon.  

We have the decision, and more on the ISL theory at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

American Democracy Minute – Michigan a Democracy Bright Spot as it Implements Proposition 2 Constitutional Amendment Protecting and Expanding Voting Rights
American Democracy Minute – Michigan Case Which Used the ‘Independent State Legislature Theory’ to Challenge Voting Rights Ballot Questions is Thrown Out
U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals – Decision in the Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Western District of Michigan at Grand Rapids.
SCOTUS Blog – (2023) Supreme Court rules against North Carolina Republicans over election law theory
American Democracy Minute – Moore v. Harper Hangover:  SCOTUS Decision OKs Court Review, but Also Cracks the Door for a Weaker Version of the Independent State Legislature Theory

Groups Taking Action:

Michigan Alliance for Retired Americans,  Detroit Downriver A. Phillip Randolph Institute, Detroit Disability Power

Register or Check Your Voter Registration:

U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State

Please follow us on Facebook and Bluesky Social, and SHARE! 

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

Want ADM sent to your email?  Sign up here!

Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #ISLTheory #MoorevHarper #Michigan #VotingRights #DemocracyReform

The post Federal Court of Appeals Throws Out GOP Legislator Challenge to Michigan’s Prop 2 Pro-Voter Reforms.  But Sleep with the Light On. appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Dec. 19, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

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

In official meeting rooms around the country, 538 electors for the 2024 Presidential election met December 17th to cast their vote on behalf of their state’s results.  Thirteen of those Electoral College electors are accused 2020 fake electors, some of whom still face prosecution. 

Trump campaign associates coordinated a plot in seven battleground states to submit a fraudulent slate of Republican electors.  The plot failed when Vice President Mike Pence refused to participate and certified the results. 

The alleged “fake electors” in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Mexico, Georgia and Arizona were subject to investigations by state officials, the January 6th Committee, and the Special Counsel.  Fake electors in Michigan, Georgia, and Arizona still face trial. Nevada prosecutors just refiled charges Dec.12th.  No charges were brought in New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. 

Stunningly, 13 of those electors were renominated by their state Republican parties as electors in 2024.  Six of the 15 awaiting trial for forgery in Michigan were renominated. Six Nevada electors were re-indicted last week on forgery charges, two of whom were renominated, including Jesse Law and state GOP chair Michael McDonald.  

Still unclear is whether Trump will include the fake electors in his promised pardons for those accused and convicted for the January 6th insurrection.  

We have more at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (C.R.E.W) – The cases against fake electors and where they stand
LawFare – Where the Fake Electors Cases Stand in State Court
Michigan Public – “Vindication” as Trump’s “fake electors” serve as real ’24 electors
NPR – ‘Fake electors’ from 2020 are casting 2024 votes for Trump while facing felony charges

ABC News – 13 accused of being ‘fake electors’ cast Electoral College votes for Trump
Wisconsin Politics – Trump vows to eliminate Education Department, pardon Jan. 6 convicts during Mosinee rally
CNN – Recordings, emails show how Trump team flew fake elector ballots to DC in final push to overturn 2020 election
WSAZ – January 6th defendants, “fake electors” hope President-elect Trump keeps his word on pardons

Groups Taking Action:
C.R.E.W.,  LawForward

Register or Check Your Voter Registration:

U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State

Please follow us on Facebook and Bluesky Social, and SHARE! 

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

Want ADM sent to your email?  Sign up here!

Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #January6th #FakeElectors

The post Among 2024 Electoral College Presidential Electors Were 13 Alleged 2020 Fake Electors, Some of Whom Await Trial on Fraud Charges appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Dec. 18, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

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

Gerrymandering, the manipulation of voting district boundaries to engineer an election outcome which benefits a particular party, had a significant impact on control of the new Congress, according to a new report. 

The Brennan Center for Justice found over four of five Congressional districts were won by a margin over 10%, including 90 percent of the GOP House majority.   Within that number, 132 GOP winners were in districts with winning margins of 25% or more, and 112 by a Democrat.  

In comparison, only 37 districts nationwide were decided by five percent or less, and only 19 districts were competitive enough to flip.  

The Brennan Center points to North Carolina as a state which, after a more liberal Supreme Court was flipped conservative in 2022, replaced the previous court’s 7 to 7 competitive maps, with the legislature’s gerrymandered version, resulting in a 10 to 4 GOP Congressional seat advantage.   

The most effective solution to gerrymandering at the moment is citizen-led independent redistricting, which has been successful in producing fairer and more competitive maps in California, Michigan, Utah and a handful of other states. In November, Ohio voters rejected such a commission, due in part to an attempt by elected officials to derail it.   Brennan found that independent commissions, citizen-led or otherwise, drew only 82 Congressional districts this cycle, but those districts were three times more competitive. 

We have the Brennan Center’s report at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

Brennan Center for Justice – How Gerrymandering and Fair Maps Affected the Battle for the House
FactCheck.org – Speaker Johnson’s Partisan Spin on Gerrymandering in the 2024 Election
National Conference of State Legislatures – Redistricting Commissions: State Legislative Plans
Campaign Legal Center – Independent Redistricting Commissions

Campaign Legal Center – Movement to Establish Citizen-Led Redistricting Commissions in the States
California Citizens Redistricting Commission – What is the Commission?

Groups Taking Action:
Common Cause, Represent.Us, League of Women Voters US

Register or Check Your Voter Registration:

U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State

Please follow us on Facebook and Bluesky Social, and SHARE! 

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

Want ADM sent to your email?  Sign up here!

Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #EndGerrymandering #FairMaps #RiggedDistricts

The post New Report Shows Gerrymandering’s Impact on Control of the New Congress  appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Oct. 28, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

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

Our third segment on Protect Democracy’s “Deceive, Disrupt, Deny” report anticipates how bad actors will likely use bogus claims of widespread non citizen voting to justify obstructing election certification, nuisance litigation, and sham audits.

Ultimately it won’t work, due to newly clarified deadlines and responsibilities states and courts must meet under the Electoral Count Reform Act.  But in a close election, those delays will try to buy time for partisans to find flaws, diminish election confidence, and mobilize partisan activists to demand it be overturned.  

Since 2020, election deniers have been appointed and in some cases elected to election offices around the country.  In several U.S. counties, officials initially refused to certify the 2022 results.  The Brookings Institution identifies 15 counties Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Nevada as of high or medium concern. 

Partisan legislatures or state election officials can also call for sham audits, as happened in 2020 in Arizona and Wisconsin, and lawsuits challenging the process and outcome are a certainty. 

The good news is that the Electoral Count Reform Act clarified the hard federal deadlines by which states must submit results and slates of electors.  More on that in our next report.   Find Protect Democracy’s full report at 

at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl. 

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

Protect Democracy – Deceive, Disrupt, Deny:  2024 election subversion strategies and how to defuse them
Brookings – The counties that may try not to certify the 2024 election
American Democracy Minute (2022) – Election Denier Chaos in Cochise County, Arizona
American Democracy Minute – (2022) – NM County Officials Refuse to Certify Primary Election with No Evidence
Brennan Center for Justice – What Georgia Tells Us About the 2024 Election Subversion Campaign

Groups Taking Action:
Protect Democracy, Campaign Legal Center, Brennan Center for Justice

Check Your Voter Registration:

• U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State
• USA Vote Foundation – Registration, Eligibility, State Election Office Links
• Vote.Gov – Register to Vote in Your State
• Vote.Org – Check Your Registration to Vote
  
  

Please follow us on Facebook and SHARE!  

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

Want ADM sent to your email?  Sign up here!

Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #ProtectElections #ElectionSubversion #ProtectDemocracy

The post ‘Deceive, Disrupt, Deny’ Report Anticipates Non Citizen Voting Will Be Used to Justify Post-Election Delays, Sham Audits & Litigation appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Aug. 16, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

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

In the last report of our series on protections against overturning the Presidential election, we consider what happens if the state official authorized to certify your state’s election results refuses to do so.   It’s not as far-fetched as you think.  

Ohio’s hyperpartisan Secretary of State Frank LaRose made no attempt to hide recent partisan attempts to change the rules for citizen ballot initiatives, try to stop initiatives his party didn’t like, and aggressively purge Black and Brown voter registrations.  Pro-democracy organization Public Wise is also tracking statewide officials considered “election threats,” including the election board chair and vice chair in Wisconsin, the secretary of state in Florida, and the lieutenant governor of Georgia, among seven battleground states.   

Democracy Docket disturbingly pointed out that in states including Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Nevada, candidates elected November 5th could be sworn in BEFORE the federal December 11th certification deadline, meaning an incoming governor or secretary of state election denier COULD be the executive authorized to certify.  A good reason to do your homework, and vote the whole ballot. 

Most states have penalties for willful obstruction of election proceedings. Failing that, the U.S. Justice Department could enforce the new Electoral Count Reform Act, Voting Rights Act, or civil rights laws.  But those deterrents may not keep rogue officials from trying. 

We’ve linked analysis at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Protect Democracy – Report: Election Certification Is Not Optional
National Conference of State Legislatures – Election Certification Deadlines & Procedures by State
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) – Full Report ‘Election Certification Under Threat”
Public Wise – Election Threat Index
Democracy Docket – What Happens When Election Officials Refuse to Certify Results?

Democracy Docket – This November’s State Legislative Elections Are Key To Protecting the Presidential Election

Groups Taking Action:
Public Wise, Protect Democracy, CREW

Check Your Voter Registration:

• U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State
• USA Vote Foundation – Registration, Eligibility, State Election Office Links
• Vote.Gov – Register to Vote in Your State
• Vote.Org – Check Your Registration to Vote
  
  

Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter and SHARE!  

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

Want ADM sent to your email?  Sign up here!

Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #ProtectElections #ElectionProtection #ElectionCertification

The post What if Your State’s Chief Election Executive Blocks Certification of the Presidential Election? appeared first on American Democracy Minute.