The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 24, 2023
Today’s Links
Articles & Resources:
New Hampshire House/Legiscan – HB 324 Voter-Owned Elections
Open Democracy Action – One Pager on Small Donor, Voter-Owned Elections
PBS Wisconsin/AP – Protasiewicz, Kelly advance in 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court primary
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – Janet Protasiewicz, Daniel Kelly advance in high stakes, high-spending Supreme Court race
Democracy Docket – North Carolina Supreme Court Will Rehear Two Voting Rights Cases With New GOP Majority
Democracy Docket – North Carolina Republicans File Brief in Redistricting Case Being Reheard by State Supreme Court
Slate – Unfortunately, the Biggest Election Case of the Supreme Court Term Could Be Moot
Scotus Blog – Court seems unwilling to embrace broad version of “independent state legislature” theory
Groups Taking Action:
NH – Open Democracy Action, League of Women Voters NH
WI – Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition, Groups List of groups supporting fair maps in Wisconsin
NC – Common Cause NC, League of Conservation Voters NC, Campaign Legal Center
Today’s Script: (Variations occur with audio due to editing for time)
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
We’re updating breaking Democracy stories we’ve covered recently, ranging from Voter-Owned Elections in New Hampshire, to the Supreme Court elections in Wisconsin and the Moore v. Harper case in North Carolina.
First to New Hampshire, where the state House last week voted down the HB 324 Voter-Owned Election bill, 200 to 163. The bill would have created an optional small donor “Voter-Dollars” system for funding the state’s gubernatorial and Executive Council races.
On to Wisconsin’s supreme court election, where Tuesday, voters chose one liberal and one conservative to move forward to the general election on April 4th. Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz, an outspoken critic of gerrymandered maps approved by the current court, was the top vote-getter at 46%. She was followed by former state Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly at 24%. Should Wisconsin’s gerrymandered maps be overturned, it could have a dramatic impact on the makeup of the state’s legislature & Congressional seats.
In the North Carolina Supreme Court, March 14th has been set to rehear the Harper v. Hall Congressional district gerrymandering case. The highly-irregular rehearing caused a sitting justice to call it a “display of raw partisanship. The case spawned the Moore v. Harper “independent state legislature” case in the U.S. Supreme Court. A new North Carolina court may overturn the earlier decision striking down the maps, but it’s unclear whether Moore v. Harper will rendered moot.
We have more details at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.