The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 7, 2025

In a brief to the North Carolina Court of Appeals, a bipartisan group of former county election directors urged the court to reject a claim that as many as 65,000 voters were ineligible last November.  And a former state supreme court justice is arguing in another appeals case that gerrymandering by the state legislature is akin to ‘stuffing the ballot box.” 

We’ve followed the claims from state supreme court candidate Jefferson Griffin that as many as 65,000 registered, eligible voters had incomplete registrations in a race he lost by 734 votes to incumbent justice Allison Riggs.  The race is the only unresolved election in the country.   

In late February, a bipartisan group of 42 former county election directors filed a brief outlining why the voters should be considered valid, and concluding:  “The citizens of North Carolina who obeyed the laws and the direction of the elections administrators should not have their votes discarded.” 

In another North Carolina case, former state supreme court justice Bob Orr is arguing in state appeals court that the legislature’s gerrymandered voting districts manipulate election outcomes.  By ‘packing’ voters by party into a district, he argues, it violates the state constitution’s guarantee of free elections with a fair count.  Orr told the Charlotte News & Observer, “If they can’t stuff the ballot box, how can they stuff the voter pool?”

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

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

American Democracy Minute – Appeals Continue in 2024 NC Supreme Court Race Challenge
NC Newsline – NC Supreme Court rejects requests to have GOP Judge Griffin’s case skip appeals court
NC Newsline – (Commentary) Documenting the damage of Judge Jefferson Griffin’s Supreme Court election challenge
North Carolina Court of Appeals – Brief by Bipartisan Group of 42 Former County Election Directors

News & Observer – Bob Orr pushes NC courts to answer an essential question: Do we have a right to fair elections? | Opinion

Groups Taking Action:

Democracy North Carolina, ACLU NC, League of Women Voters NC

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 #NorthCarolina #FairMaps #EndGerrymandering

The post North Carolina: Former Election Directors Weigh In On Unresolved Supreme Court Race; Former Justice Argues Partisan Gerrymandering Akin to ‘Stuffing the Ballot Box’ appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 14, 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.

A North Carolina appeals court struck down the state legislature’s new law removing the governor’s appointment power for election boards.  And a decision in a South Carolina gerrymandering case from the U.S. Supreme Court may be released shortly.

Last year we reported on HB 749, removing the North Carolina governor’s power to appoint state and county election boards, and giving that authority to the legislature.  The new law created a state election board with equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats, so likely deadlocks would mean few decisions and no accountability.  Governor Roy Cooper vetoed the bill, but was overridden. 

Democracy Docket reports that a three-judge appeals panel found HB 749 QUOTE “infringes upon the Governor’s constitutional duties” and was a “stark and blatant removal of appointment power from the Governor.” 

We’re also awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court decision in a South Carolina racial gerrymandering case.  The state legislature claims that when it moved two-thirds of Black voters from Congressional District 1 into District 6, it did so for partisan, not racial, reasons.  Partisan gerrymandering was deemed by the court in 2019 to be a state issue, while racial gerrymandering is still subject to federal Voting Rights Act requirements.  Siding with the legislature would likely mean a nationwide flood of racial gerrymandering by anti-voter legislatures, saying it was for partisan reasons.

We have details of both cases at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
American Democracy Minute – North Carolina Legislature Overrides Governor’s Vetoes of Voter Suppression and State Election Board Bills
Democracy Docket – North Carolina Court Strikes Down New Election Law That Would Strip Power From Democratic Governor
Scotus Blog – Justices question finding that S.C. district was unconstitutional racial gerrymander
BallotPedia – Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP

Groups Taking Action:
Voto Latino, Down Home North Carolina, North Carolina Black Alliance, Democracy North Carolina, North Carolina Voter, ACLU North Carolina,  NAACP Legal Defense Fund, ACLU, Constitutional Accountability Center

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 #NorthCarolinaPolitics #SouthCarolinaPolitics #Racial Gerrymandering  #VotingRights  #SCOTUS

The post NC Legislature’s Stripping of Governor’s Appointment Power to Election Boards Overturned; SCOTUS Decision Expected in SC Gerrymandering Case appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 6, 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.

March 1st, the Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the state’s Congressional districts, after throwing out state assembly and senate maps as unconstitutional late last year.  

Challengers said under the court’s clarified redistricting criteria, the Congressional map should be reviewed, given that the GOP won 6 of 8 Congressional seats with only 50% of the statewide vote.   

The partisan balance of the court shifted last year with the election of Justice Janet Protasiewicz, who was outspoken in her campaign about Wisconsin’s gerrymandered maps.  Unlike the state legislative maps though, Protasiewicz did not participate in the Congressional district decision.

From Conservative justices who sat on the previous court upholding over a decade of manipulated maps came a snarky concurrence from Justice Rebecca Bradley and Chief Justice Annette Ziegler.  QUOTE “The new majority’s reckless abandonment of settled legal precedent in Clarke v. Wisconsin Elections Commission . . . incentivizes litigants to bring politically divisive cases to this court regardless of their legal merit.  While the court rightfully denies this motion, it likely won’t be long until the new majority flexes its political power again to advance a partisan agenda despite the damage inflicted on the independence and integrity of the court,” the concurrence said.

The court’s decision to decline the case does not rule out challenges after the 2024 election.

We have more on Wisconsin’s fight for fair maps at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Princeton Gerrymandering Project – Wisconsin Congress Districts – F Grade

Wisconsin Public Radio – Wisconsin Supreme Court overturns Republican-drawn legislative maps
Milwaukee Sentinel –  Tony Evers urges Wisconsin Supreme Court to reconsider congressional maps
Democracy Docket – Wisconsin Voters Mount Renewed Challenge to Congressional Map in State Supreme Court
Wisconsin Examiner – Wisconsin Supreme Court declines to hear congressional maps challenge
Wisconsin Supreme Court – Order for Johnson v. Wisconsin Elections Commission
Politico – Wisconsin Supreme Court rejects Democrats’ congressional redistricting challenge

Groups Taking Action:
Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition, League of Women Voters WI, Common Cause WI

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 #WisconsinPolitics #FairMaps #EndGerrymandering

The post After Cleaning Up Gerrymandered State Senate & Assembly Districts, the Wisconsin Supreme Court Passes on Congressional Districts  appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb 21, 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.

Wisconsin’s governor signed off on state legislative maps February 19th, fixing  some of the worst gerrymandering in the U.S.  Missouri’s Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the state senate map, and a Nevada court rejected a citizen ballot initiative to implement an independent redistricting commission.

We reported last week that the Republican-dominated Wisconsin legislature approved maps proposed by Governor Tony Evers, rather than having the Wisconsin Supreme Court mandate even more competitive maps.   The Wisconsin Examiner reports that Monday, Evers signed those maps into law, saying it was “a new day in Wisconsin.”  Thus ends two decades of an inflated Republican majority, engineered by heavily-gerrymandered maps.   

In Missouri, a 2022 state senate redistricting map implemented by a judicial panel after the state’s redistricting commission deadlocked was upheld by the Missouri Supreme Court.   The Missouri Independent reports that citizens had challenged the map, saying the map did not follow the requirements of state constitution, including compactness and communities of interest. 

The Las Vegas Review Journal reports that two citizen ballot initiatives proposing an independent redistricting commission for Nevada were struck down by a circuit court judge, saying the cost of the commission was an unfunded mandate and unconstitutional.  The now-removed 2024 ballot question proposed a transparent, citizen-run commission to create competitive voting district maps. 

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

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Wisconsin Examiner – Gov. Evers signs new legislative maps, says they give every party a ‘fair shake’
Missouri Independent – Missouri Supreme Court upholds state Senate district map drawn by judicial panel
Nevada Independent – Advocates again push ballot measure to take redistricting out of Legislature’s hands
Las Vegas Review Journal – Judge blocks 2024 ballot initiatives seeking independent redistricting

Groups Taking Action:
Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition, League of Women Voters WI, Common Cause WI
League of Women Voters SW Missouri, Fair Maps Nevada

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 #FairMaps #EndGerrymandering #NevadaPolitics #WisconsinPolitics #MissouriPolitics

The post WI Gov. Signs Fairer Maps, MO High Court Rejects Challenge to State Senate Map, and NV’s Redistricting Commission Ballot Question Struck Down appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 20, 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.

When we last reported on New York’s Congressional redistricting drama, the state supreme court threw out a special master’s competitive map because the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission, or IRC, hadn’t completed its constitutional duties. Analysis of new maps released last week by the commission may give a slight advantage to Democrats.

After the advisory-only commission deadlocked on a compromise map in 2022, it submitted one Democratic-map and one Republican-map, with the legislature rejecting both. The Democrat-dominated legislature then gerrymandered the map for partisan advantage.

Those maps were thrown out by an appeals court in 2022, and a special master drew the more competitive maps used during the midterm election, flipping six Congressional seats Republican. Then in December 2023, the New York Supreme Court ruled that the IRC should have been given another chance to draw the maps under the state constitution.

A Politico analysis suggests that the new map bolsters two upstate incumbents, one Republican and one Democrat, while putting the 22nd District seat of freshman Republican Brandon Williams up for grabs.

Unlike the previous deadlocked IRC map, this Congressional map passed 9 to 1, on a board composed of 4 Democrats, 4 Republicans and 2 Independents. It’s now up to the Democrat-dominated state assembly and senate to approve the maps, and for Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign it. Hopefully, with no more drama.

We have the map and links to analysis at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
American Democracy Minute –  Plot Twist in New York’s Ongoing Redistricting Drama, as Appeals Court Throws Out Competitive Maps Drawn by a Lower Court’s Special Master
NY Independent Redistricting Commission – 2024 Congressional District Map Proposal
Spectrum News – Mixed reaction to proposed NY Congressional map
Politico – New House lines approved in New York. What would change.
Democracy Docket – New York’s Independent Redistricting Commission Releases New Congressional Map

Groups Taking Action:
Common Cause NY,   NY Civil Liberties Union, New York Law School Census and Redistricting Institute, Empire Center

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 #FairMaps #StopGerrymandering #NYPolitics

The post NY’s Redistricting Commission Proposes Another Congressional Map with a Slight Democratic Edge, But This Time with a 9-1 Bipartisan Endorsement appeared first on American Democracy Minute.