The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for April 4, 2025

With a vote on the SAVE Act imminent in the U.S. House, Secretaries of State, pro-voter groups and elections officials are voicing alarm at likely widespread disenfranchisement of eligible voters and an unfunded mandate by Congress.  

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act’s sponsor seeks to keep “foreign nationals” from voting in federal elections – already illegal –  without any evidence of widespread noncitizen voting in any state.  

It will, however, keep eligible Americans from voting.  It mandates proof of citizenship to register or when updating records, but limits that proof to a birth certificate, U.S. Passport, or naturalization papers. Nine percent of Americans don’t have those documents readily available, and because they have to be presented in person, working Americans, seniors and the disabled will all be impacted.  Driver’s licenses, even REAL ID-compliant ones, can’t be used. Even with a birth certificate, 69 million married women changed their name upon marriage, and 146 million Americans don’t own a valid passport, according to the Center for American Progress.

The group Declaration for American Democracy just submitted a letter from over 100 member organizations, citing its impact on rural voters, voters of color, women and victims of natural disasters.  Election officials convened by Issue One cited criminal penalties for errors and the unfunded costs to implement it.   Fourteen secretaries of state and counting now oppose the bill.

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

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

Rep. Chip Roy (R) TX – Rep. Roy reintroduces bill to protect the integrity and sanctity of American elections
U.S. Congress – Text of the SAVE Act
National Conference of State Legislatures – 9 Things to Know About the Proposed SAVE Act
Center for American Progress – The SAVE Act: Overview and Facts
WMTW – Secretaries of state call on Congress to vote against the SAVE Act
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison – Opposition to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act 
Election Officials Convened by Issue One – Opposition to the SAVE Act (H.R. 22, S. 128) – Unfunded, Operationally Unrealistic, and Legally Risky for Election Officials

Groups Taking Action:

Declaration for American Democracy, The Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights, US Vote Foundation, Association of Americans Resident Overseas (AARO)

Register or Check Your Voter Registration:

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

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #SAVEAct #Disenfranchised #VoterSuppression #FreedomtoVote

The post Secretaries of State, Pro-Voter Groups and Election Officials Submit Letters Opposing the SAVE Act, Likely to Disenfranchise Millions of Americans in Effort to Block Noncitizens appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 18, 2025

How quickly we forget.  If you were an Irish Catholic immigrant in the1840s through the 1920s, many of your Protestant fellow Americans, some of whom joined the xenophobic Know Nothing Party, tried to suppress your vote.  

A famine in Ireland and economic instability in Germany saw millions of immigrants coming to America beginning in the 1820s.  According to Smithsonian Magazine, between 1845 and 1854, 2.9 million immigrants arrived, including an estimated one-quarter of Ireland’s entire population. 

In cities like New York and Boston, the mostly Protestant American political elite, many descendants of immigrants themselves, saw Irish Catholics as a threat to their American culture.  In 1849, the shadowy Know Nothing Party arose, a cross between a political party and a street gang, and grew to America’s first sizable third party. Historian Jay P. Dolan found the Know Nothings elected 8 governors, 100 Congressmen and several mayors.   Abraham Lincoln wrote, “When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read ‘all men are created equal, except negroes and foreigners and Catholics.’

They proposed a 21-year wait time for foreign-born immigrants to vote, tried to ban Catholics and foreigners from holding office, and intimidated immigrants, even deporting 300 Irish immigrants back to Liverpool. 

But Irish immigrants, when they could vote, voted in higher numbers.  By the 1880s, they became a political force in Boston, New York, and Chicago. 

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

Articles & Resources:

Smithsonian Magazine – How the 19th-Century Know Nothing Party Reshaped American Politics
Villanova University – The Know Nothing Party
History Channel – When America Despised the Irish: The 19th Century’s Refugee Crisis
Historic Ipswich – 1854: Anti-immigrant Know Nothing Party Sweeps Massachusetts Elections
NPR – (2019) With Latest Nativist Rhetoric, Trump Takes America Back To Where It Came From
UC Berkeley News – How Trump’s immigration policies compare to those of America’s past

Register or Check Your Voter Registration:

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

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Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

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

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #StPatricksDay #IrishAmericans #VoterSuppression

The post If You Were an Irish Catholic Immigrant in the 1850s, the Xenophobic ‘Know Nothing’ Party Tried to Suppress Your Vote appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for June 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.

A Pew Research Center report released in late April finds that Americans are frustrated with their federal government, and say that elected officials don’t care about what “people like them” think.

U.S. adults were surveyed in 2023 as part of a poll conducted since 1994.  In the early 2000s, 55% agreed with the statement that “Elected officials don’t care about what people like me think.”  In the most recent survey, that figure is 85%.  

It’s not surprising then that 70% of Americans say ordinary people have too little influence over the decisions members of Congress make, and 73% say lobbyists and special interests have too much influence. Eighty percent see campaign donors as having too much influence. 

In response to how the political system in the U.S. is working, only 4% said “Extremely well.”  Twenty-three percent said “very well,” 45% “not too well”, and 

27% not well at all.  Fifty-nine percent said they were frustrated with the federal government; 21% said they were angry.

Democracy advocates point to ranked choice voting, single ballot open primaries, and small-donor public financing of campaigns as ways of refocusing the attention of elected officials on ordinary citizens.   

RCV and open primary initiatives are on the November ballot in Nevada, Colorado & Arizona.

We’ve linked the Pew survey at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Pew Research Center – More than 80% of Americans believe elected officials don’t care what people like them think
Pew Research Center – Money, power and the influence of ordinary people in American politics
Pew Research Center – Views of the U.S. political system, the federal government and federal-state relations
Groups Taking Action:
Open Primaries, Represent.Us, FairVote, American Promise, Issue One

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Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

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#Democracy #DemocracyNews #PewResearchCenter #EndBigMoney #OpenPrimaries #RCV

The post Pew Study Finds 85% of Americans Don’t Think Elected Officials Care About What ‘People Like Them’ Think – Up 30% since 2000 appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Nov. 3, 2023

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 frightening survey released last week found substantial increases in the number of Americans who thought that the country needed leaders to break rules – authoritarianism – and that violence may be needed, to QUOTE “save our country.”

The majority of Americans still disagree with those positions, according to the survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution.  But 23% of Americans agreed with the statement, “Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country. That’s up 8% from 2021.  The increase is among all partisan groups, too,  including 33% of Republicans, 22% of independents, and 13% of Democrats.

The survey also found a disturbing trend of Americans supporting a leader not following the rules if it meant a change in political direction of the country.  

Four in ten Americans agree with the statement, “Because things have gotten so far off track in this country, we need a leader who is willing to break some rules if that’s what it takes to set things right.”   This bend toward authoritarian rule is not just among the 48% of Republicans who agreed; 38% of independents and 29% of Democrats concurred. 

Where DO most Americans agree?:  77% of Americans feel their country is headed the wrong direction. 

We have a link to the full survey results at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Public Religion Research Institute/Brookings  –  Survey Summary: Threats to American Democracy Ahead of an Unprecedented Presidential Election
Public Religion Research Institute/Brookings – Slide Deck Presentation:   Threats to American Democracy Ahead of an Unprecedented Presidential Election
Public Religion Research Institute/Brookings – Webinar:  What do Americans think about the health of our democracy and the upcoming presidential election?

NPR – More Americans say they support political violence ahead of the 2024 election
Journal of Democracy – The Rise of Political Violence in the United States

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Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #Survey #SaveDemocracy  #BrookingsInstitution #PoliticalViolence

The post Frightening Survey Results Show Increases in Americans Who Think Violence May Be Needed and Leaders Should Break Rules to “Save Our Country” appeared first on American Democracy Minute.