The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Jan. 11, 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.

With America’s polarization, a special-interest driven Congress, a former President with 91 criminal indictments, a compromised U.S. Supreme Court, and rogue state legislatures, a newly updated Gallup poll shows satisfaction with American democracy plunged to just 28%, a 40-year low.

In December 2023, Gallup asked just over 1,000 U.S. adults in all 50 states, “Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way democracy is working in this country?” In the nine previous polls since the question’s inception in 1984, satisfaction has plunged from 61% and 60% in 1984 and 1991, to 35% in 2021, and now 28% in 2023.

Democrats, Republicans and independents are all less satisfied than they were in 2021. Democrats dropped from 47% in 2021 to 38% in the latest survey. Independents dropped from 36% to 27%, and Republicans dropped from 21% to 17%.

In 1998, long before former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of a rigged system and widespread voter fraud, conservative Americans were big supporters of American Democracy, with 67% of Republicans saying they were satisfied with it.

Perhaps suggesting democracy serves college-educated Americans better than Americans who are not, over a third of college-educated Americans were satisfied with our democratic system, while among those with only a high school education, only 21% were satisfied.
We have a link to the Gallup survey at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources: 
Gallup – Record Low in U.S. Satisfied With Way Democracy Is Working

The Hill – American satisfaction with democracy at record low: Gallup
Pew Research Center – (2023) Public Trust in Government: 1958-2023

CNN – (2023) Americans are broadly unsatisfied with the state of things in the US, poll finds

Groups Taking Action:
Protect Democracy, Public Citizen, League of Women Voters US, States United Democracy Center, Declaration for American Democracy

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #GallupPoll #VoterConfidence  #AmericanDemocracy

The post New Poll Shows the Lowest Satisfaction with American Democracy in 40 Years appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report and Podcast for November 4, 2022

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

A quote attributed to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels says, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”   Polling just released by the Pew Research Center confirms just before the 2022 midterm election that an alarming number of voters have low confidence in our election system.  

In October 2018, Pew polling showed that 87% of voters supporting GOP congressional candidates thought the upcoming 2018 midterm election would be conducted “Very well” or “Somewhat well.”  In 2020, that number dropped to 50% of GOP voters.  Now, two years after “The Big Lie” and the January 6th committee revelations, that number has improved just 6 points to 56%.   

When asked in 2020 whether their in-person votes would be counted accurately, 92% of GOP voters said they were “Very” or “Somewhat” confident.  In 2022, that number dropped to 79%, with “Very” confident dropping from 48% to just 26%.  

But that confidence drops even further with the counting of absentee and mail-in ballots, and it hasn’t changed much from 2020 to 2022.   Just 37% GOP-supporting voters are “Very” or “Somewhat” confident that mail ballots will be counted accurately in 2022, compared to 36% in 2020.

We have links to the poll, and credible sources showing the American election system is safe, accurate and secure at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl.

The post Poll Shows GOP Voters Continue to Have Low Confidence in Elections, Despite No Credible Evidence of Problems appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

Listen!

Today’s Links

Articles:
Associated Press – New USPS election division will oversee mail-in ballots
Washington Post –  DeJoy is poised to remake a resurgent USPS. Now comes the hard part.
Washington Post  – Senate passes $107 billion overhaul of USPS, lauding mail agency’s role in pandemic response
U.S. Postal Service Inspector General Report  – Vote by Mail and the Postal Service: A Primer
Groups Taking Action:
League of Women Voters US, ACLU, Common Cause,Voting Rights Alliance

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

In 2020, a highly-suspect U.S. Postal Service slowdown directed by newly-appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy created doubt in the postal system’s ability to deliver mail-in ballots. The USPS just announced a permanent division to deal with election mail volume, but will it be enough to restore confidence?

Last week, the USPS announced the Election and Government Mail Services division, tasked with training “election mail strike teams” in communities and postal districts in all states and U.S. territories.

The USPS says that in 2020, it delivered 135 million pieces of outbound and inbound election mail, with 97.9% of ballots delivered from voters to election officials within three days. And 99.89% of ballots were delivered within seven days. Unofficially, there were stories of heroic postal workers who prioritized election mail at the local level, even defying management directives, to deliver on time. A July 14th release from USPS trumpets an on-time delivery of 94% for first class mail for its fiscal year fourth quarter.

Louis DeJoy, the businessman and Trump donor appointed as Postmaster General is still in place despite widespread calls for his removal. He points out in an interview with the Washington Post that his fiscal remake of the USPS has just begun. In March, Congress passed a $107 billion dollar restructuring plan, which may include the shuttering of 18 sorting facilities and shortening local post office hours.

Articles and a report by the Postal Service Inspector General’s office are at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl.

The post ADM for August 11, 2022: USPS Creates Division for Overseeing Election Mail – But Will it Restore Confidence? appeared first on American Democracy Minute.