Podcasts about electoral count reform act

SEASON 3 EPISODE 84: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:50) SPECIAL COMMENT: Happy Insurrection Day, when Republicans will certify the election of a “president” who is constitutionally ineligible to hold the office according to the 3rd clause of the 14th Amendment and the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 and who himself fomented the assault four years ago that ended our conceit about the peaceful transfer of power. The illegitimate president’s Republican whores and servants may in fact trudge to the capitol through a blizzard to make this prostitution of democracy official The Democrats? They won’t say anything because this didn’t TEST well as a campaign ad and their flaccid willingness to risk anything in our defense is further deflated by their perception that this is a fait accompli and since it is a fait accompli ESPECIALLY because of their own cowardice they now have to do their best to compromise, and obey in advance, a group of bandits and pirates posing as a presidential administration, whose only desire TO compromise is to compromise Democrats and the Free Press and Reality and democracy itself. These are some of those Republicans: Freshman Congressman Riley Moore – “My constituents have sent me here to this town not to work with Democrats but to destroy their agenda." “We asked everyone not to leak. Please for god’s sake do not give inside information to the enemy” that's from the LEAD Republican in the House, the CREEPIEST Republican in the House since Denny Hastert, Mike Johnson and I don’t know if by “the enemy” he means the Democrats or the media or both or the temptations of his anti-porn app, and I no longer care. This is Insurrection Day and we all KNOW what the Republicans would be doing today in the mirror version of this grim reality; if they were in charge and Trump were in office and had presidential immunity and a new president was about to sign off on putting him in jail and it would be what they actually did four years ago today only they wouldn’t bother to try to be subtle or legal about it (they’d be gassing up the tanks). AND NO, JUDGE JUAN MERCHAN IS NO HERO. He too is obeying in advance. Along with the Washington Post, squeezing out cartoonist Ann Telnaes. And Brian Stelter, covering up for Fox News. And the media soft-pedaling the Vegas bomber's hopes to see all Democrats murdered, and Congressman Tom Suozzi, and soon-to-disappear Senator Kyrsten Sinema. B-Block (29:30) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Those memorializing Aaron Brown without including the incident about his refusal to cover The Challenger explosion; Congresswoman Nancy Mace and "Gunther Eagleman" who only read the headline; and the meticulous Oliver Darcy who only gets mentioned here because he asked a question that really traumatized me: What will Olivia Nuzzi do in 2025? (42:14) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Remember dear Flaco? The majestic owl liberated from the Central Park Zoo? There is an extraordinary new book about him. And from an old book: remember the Ash Heaps in "The Great Gatsby"? They were real and you'll never believe what was built were they used to sit. C-Block (52:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Young Tippy needs the same surgery my new pup Kitt just got, and we need your help to pay for it. (55:30) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: It's an actors' story that invokes Trump, Orson Welles, The Odd Couple, Mike Nichols - and me? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a bipartisan vote, Congress just pushed Social Security closer to the brink to appease certain labor unions. The Congressional Budget Office warns that the Social Security Fairness Act—as it was called—will cost $196 billion over the next decade to provide added benefits to some 3 million Americans, whose municipal employers didn't always pay fully into the fund, depleting the trust fund by a whopping $20 billion a year. And FYI, when the House and Senate approved the legislation, they skipped the pay-as-you-go legal requirements. Can you say "Inflationary Spending"? According to an internal memo, Gavin Newsom's administration drafted a plan titled “Immigrant Support Network Concept,” which would create “an Immigrant Support Network comprised of regional ‘hubs' to connect at-risk individuals, their families, and communities with community systems — such as legal services, schools, labor unions, local governments, etc.” In other words, Newsom and company are looking to use tax-payer money to protect illegal aliens from Trump's upcoming deportation efforts while creating legal cover for themselves as they continue the Newsome promise of Trump-proofing California. David Schulte, a Chicago investment banker and friend of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, joined Evan Davis, the former Democratic president of the New York City Bar Association, in echoing Rep. Jamie Raskin's idea of using the 14th Amendment to disqualify Donald Trump from taking office and using the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 to install Kamala Harris as the regime's new "front person. " Become a supporter of Tapp into the Truth: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tapp-into-the-truth--556114/support Tapp into the Truth on Rumble. Follow, watch the older shows, and join the live streams.Morning KickIf recent events have proven anything, you need to be as prepared as possible for when things go sideways. You certainly can't count on the government for help. True liberty requires self-reliance. My Patriot SupplyDiversify and protect your hard-earned wealth. Use America's Premiere Conservative Gold Company, Harvard Gold Group. Use promo code TAPP.Support American jobs! Support the show! Get great products at great prices! Go to My Pillow and use promo code TAPP to save! Visit patriotmobile.com or Call (817) 380-9081 to take advantage of a FREE Month of service when you switch using promo code TAPP! If you are a content creator in need of a professional drone or you just enjoy flying a drone on the weekend, EXO Drones has you covered!  EXO Drones Plus, get 15% off your order by using this link.Follow Tapp into the Truth on Locals  Follow Tapp into the Truth on SubstackHero SoapPatriot DepotBlue CoolersKoa CoffeeBrainMDDiamond CBDSauce Bae2nd SkullEinstokBeanstoxBelle IsleMomento AIHoneyFund"Homegrown" Boone's BourbonIsland BrandsBlackout Coffee Co.Full Circle Brewing Co.Pasmosa Sangria  

In a bipartisan vote, Congress just pushed Social Security closer to the brink to appease certain labor unions. The Congressional Budget Office warns that the Social Security Fairness Act—as it was called—will cost $196 billion over the next decade to provide added benefits to some 3 million Americans, whose municipal employers didn't always pay fully into the fund, depleting the trust fund by a whopping $20 billion a year. And FYI, when the House and Senate approved the legislation, they skipped the pay-as-you-go legal requirements. Can you say "Inflationary Spending"? According to an internal memo, Gavin Newsom's administration drafted a plan titled “Immigrant Support Network Concept,” which would create “an Immigrant Support Network comprised of regional ‘hubs' to connect at-risk individuals, their families, and communities with community systems — such as legal services, schools, labor unions, local governments, etc.” In other words, Newsom and company are looking to use tax-payer money to protect illegal aliens from Trump's upcoming deportation efforts while creating legal cover for themselves as they continue the Newsome promise of Trump-proofing California. David Schulte, a Chicago investment banker and friend of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, joined Evan Davis, the former Democratic president of the New York City Bar Association, in echoing Rep. Jamie Raskin's idea of using the 14th Amendment to disqualify Donald Trump from taking office and using the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 to install Kamala Harris as the regime's new "front person. " With BTR shutting down, follow Tapp into the Truth to Spreaker! 

When Navy SEAL Jacob Carter accepts an experimental mission, he could never have imagined the spiritual odyssey awaiting him. That is the unforgettable journey of faith, action, and discovery that Shilo Creed introduces readers to Plunged - the first book in the Three Worlds Trilogy. Shilo joined me to discuss the inspiration for and what she hopes the impact will be for the readers of the book. Dr. James Thorp is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist (OB/GYN) and maternal-fetal medicine physician with over forty-four years of obstetrical experience and co-author of Sacrifice: How the Deadliest Vaccine in History Targeted the Most Vulnerable. Dr. Thorp joined me to discuss the book and why the outgoing Biden Administration has quietly extended a pandemic-era measure that protects COVID-19 "vaccine" makers from being sued for injuries or deaths. Ron Edwards, host of the Ron Edwards American Experience, joined me, and we talked about how Congress extended additional Social Security benefits to workers whose employers didn't pay fully into the fund; how California Governor Newsom's administration is planning to aid and abet criminals shifting California tax-payer dollars to "nonprofits" in an effort to shield illegal aliens from President-elect Donald Trump's forthcoming deportation efforts and themselves from legal consequences; and the latest scheme from the political left looking to use The Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 in an effort to steal the White House from Donald Trump. Become a supporter of Tapp into the Truth: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tapp-into-the-truth--556114/support Tapp into the Truth on Rumble. Follow, watch the older shows, and join the live streams.Shilo CreedPlungedDr. James ThorpSacrifice 2024Sacrifice: How the Deadliest Vaccine in History Targeted the Most VulnerableRon EdwardsMorning KickIf recent events have proven anything, you need to be as prepared as possible for when things go sideways. You certainly can't count on the government for help. True liberty requires self-reliance. My Patriot SupplyDiversify and protect your hard-earned wealth. Use America's Premiere Conservative Gold Company, Harvard Gold Group. Use promo code TAPP.Support American jobs! Support the show! Get great products at great prices! Go to My Pillow and use promo code TAPP to save! Visit patriotmobile.com or Call (817) 380-9081 to take advantage of a FREE Month of service when you switch using promo code TAPP! If you are a content creator in need of a professional drone or you just enjoy flying a drone on the weekend, EXO Drones has you covered!  EXO Drones Plus, get 15% off your order by using this link.Follow Tapp into the Truth on Locals  Follow Tapp into the Truth on SubstackHero SoapPatriot DepotBlue CoolersKoa CoffeeBrainMDDiamond CBDSauce Bae2nd SkullEinstokBeanstoxBelle IsleMomento AIHoneyFund"Homegrown" Boone's BourbonIsland BrandsBlackout Coffee Co.Full Circle Brewing Co.Pasmosa Sangria  

This Day in Legal History: Saddam Hussein Sentenced to DeathOn November 5, 2006, Saddam Hussein, former President of Iraq, was sentenced to death by hanging by the Iraqi High Tribunal. This judgment followed a lengthy trial process in which Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity, including the 1982 mass killing of 148 Shiite Muslims in the town of Dujail. The Dujail massacre was carried out in response to a failed assassination attempt on Hussein, leading to mass arrests, torture, and the destruction of local farmland. Hussein's trial, held in Baghdad, was one of the most closely watched and controversial trials of its time, bringing international focus on Iraq's fledgling judicial system and the challenges it faced in balancing fairness with the demand for justice.The trial faced various disruptions, including assassinations of defense lawyers, allegations of bias, and criticisms regarding procedural flaws. Hussein himself was often defiant in court, questioning the legitimacy of the tribunal and claiming that his actions as president were lawful under Iraqi sovereignty. Despite these defenses, the court concluded that the atrocities committed in Dujail warranted the ultimate penalty. Hussein's sentence and subsequent execution on December 30, 2006, marked a historic moment, as it was one of the few instances in modern history where a former head of state was tried, sentenced, and executed by his own country's judiciary. While some viewed the trial and execution as a symbol of justice for Iraq, others criticized it as a rushed process influenced by U.S. political interests in the region. The execution, carried out on a holy day for Muslims, further polarized public opinion and left a complex legacy, both within Iraq and internationally.As the 2024 U.S. presidential election nears, the Supreme Court is preparing for a potential influx of election-related litigation, echoing the post-2020 legal battles when Donald Trump and his allies challenged his loss to Joe Biden. Although the Supreme Court largely dismissed Trump's 2020 appeals, legal experts anticipate another wave of lawsuits if the upcoming race, currently tight according to polls, results in a Trump loss. Already, some cases have reached the Supreme Court, including one involving Pennsylvania mail-in ballots—an issue also contested in 2020.The court's conservative majority, which includes three Trump appointees, may face pressure to rule on election-related disputes. Although the Supreme Court recently provided Trump some legal wins, including reversing a Colorado ruling disqualifying him from the ballot, experts doubt it will intervene to decide the election outcome unless it is extremely close. Nonetheless, lawsuits have proliferated, with the Republican National Committee leading numerous pre-election suits, ostensibly for election integrity, though many have not succeeded in court.The 2022 Electoral Count Reform Act also limits post-election legal disruptions by refining the process for certifying election results in Congress. Experts suggest that, despite the possible involvement of the court in narrow-margin scenarios, the current legal activity may be more focused on influencing public perception, potentially to undermine acceptance of the election's legitimacy.US Supreme Court girds for rush of election-related litigation | ReutersOn November 4, 2024, a Pennsylvania judge ruled that Elon Musk's $1 million-a-day voter giveaway could continue despite allegations that it might constitute an illegal lottery. Musk's pro-Trump America PAC launched the giveaway to voters in key swing states, offering daily payouts to those who sign a petition supporting free speech and gun rights. However, during court proceedings, America PAC's director admitted that winners were selected based on their suitability as spokespeople, rather than by random drawing as initially claimed by Musk.Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner argued that the selective nature of the giveaway constitutes fraud and sought to block it, citing vague rules and potential violations of federal law prohibiting payments for voter registration. Although the judge denied Krasner's request to halt the contest, he did not immediately provide a detailed explanation.Legal experts are divided on whether this promotion violates election laws, particularly given the Department of Justice's prior warnings to America PAC. Critics argue that the payouts could distort the election process, as Pennsylvania's electoral votes are pivotal in this closely contested race.Pennsylvania judge allows Elon Musk's $1 million voter giveaway | ReutersOn November 4, 2024, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that Cobb County cannot extend its deadline for counting approximately 3,000 absentee ballots sent out shortly before Election Day, a decision that aligns with the Republican National Committee's (RNC) stance and benefits Donald Trump's campaign. This ruling overturns a lower court's extension that would have allowed ballots to be counted through Friday, limiting the count only to ballots arriving by 7 p.m. on Election Day. Civil rights groups had sought an extension, arguing the county delayed ballot mailings due to high demand, potentially disenfranchising affected voters. However, the RNC argued that extending the deadline would violate Georgia law. Cobb County, a racially diverse area in Atlanta's suburbs, is seen as a crucial battleground, having leaned Democratic in recent elections. The court also ordered that ballots arriving after the deadline be set aside, though affected voters can still vote in person on Election Day. Georgia's decision may significantly impact the presidential race, as the state is critical in the close contest between Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.Georgia top court won't extend ballot deadline in win for Trump | ReutersElection Op-EdAs you head to the polls today, I'm not here to tell you who to vote for. You have to decide that for yourself. Instead, I'd like to offer a few brief anecdotes from the past to think about. This election cycle, debates over sporting events and who gets to participate in them have taken center stage in a way that feels unprecedented. Yet, the arguments for exclusion are far from new—they have a long and disturbing history. Time and again, appeals to "fairness," "tradition," and "protecting the game" have been used to justify keeping certain groups out of sports. In the full light of history, it is clear: among right minded individuals, these arguments have consistently aged poorly, serving only to reveal the bias and fear underlying them, and the misguided thoughts of the time, rather than any genuine concern for the sport itself.In short, concerns about "outsiders" or "unqualified" individuals entering sports aren't new. Over the years, similar arguments have been used repeatedly to exclude certain groups from competing, often with claims about preserving the integrity or "purity" of the game–usually by folks that care little about sport and are more interested in using it as a cudgel against the vulnerable. I wonder if these arguments sound familiar: * Some argued that a new group would "ruin the quality" of the game;* Others that their participation would be "unfair" to other players; * Still others insisted that they would "lack the skills" needed to succeed at the highest level;* Some insisted their presence would "change the culture" of the sport;* Or their presence would be a “distraction” to fans and players alike. Those were all arguments made before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. I wonder if they sound similar to arguments made today. When a politician runs on a platform that they will keep a given sport “pure” — ask yourself, what is more likely: are they great patrons of women's sports or are they using them as a weapon to attack the vulnerable and achieve their own ends?I don't know about you, but when I heard Jackie Robinson's story as a kid I always envisioned myself, in my most ambitious moments, as one of the players that would have embraced him. When I was a bit more introspective regarding my own talents and abilities, I envisioned myself as a fan that would cheer when he took the field – not a heckler. And I can honestly say I never pictured myself as a baseball executive that would have actively worked to exclude him, and players like him. If history doesn't repeat itself but rhymes, it may be worth considering what from history rhymes with the political positions of your chosen candidate when you go to vote today.  This is a public episode. 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Welcome back to our Election Edition of It's Complicated! In this very special episode, hosts Asha Rangappa and Renato Mariotti are joined by attorney, author, and former U.S. Ambassador Norm Eisen.  They discuss the potential chaos Trump could unleash on election night, as well as the complexities of reforming U.S. election laws. Subscribe to our Patreon here, where paid members will get access to exclusive portions of this show. patreon.com/reallyamericanmedia Norm Eisen, a veteran election law litigator, sheds light on the safeguards that have been put in place to prevent a repeat of 2020, emphasizing the importance of the Electoral Count Reform Act. According to Eisen, the legal landscape has shifted significantly since 2020, closing many of the loopholes Trump exploited in his previous campaign. Eisen, who helped shape the Electoral Count Reform Act and testified before Congress on the matter, breaks down the systemic changes made to prevent Trump's election chaos from happening again.  Norm assures our listeners that, this time, reforms have been made to fortify the certification process against using alternate slates of electors. He explains how, for example, the reform act has demystified the vice president's ceremonial role and defined it as purely ministerial. And despite the close-call potential in states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, Eisen remains optimistic that these changes will safeguard the democratic process. Asha urges our listeners to remain vigilant against disinformation and skewed information on social media, which can fuel doubt and unrest. Renato breaks down the potential legal disputes that Trump could still bring to the table. And together, they'll assess the battleground states most likely to face litigation. We'll see you next time for another incredible episode of It's Complicated, as we keep you informed on the pivotal issues shaping the evolving landscape of election law. We'll also be announcing a very special opportunity for you to join us for a cruise next July, so stay tuned for that! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Los Angeles Event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1027970416187?aff=oddtdtcreator San Diego Event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1030505227877?aff=oddtdtcreator Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus content most Mondays, bonus episodes every month, ad-free listening, access to the entire 700-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/ In this weekly roundup, Brad and Dan prepare listeners for the 2024 election with insights into the latest election security concerns, voter dynamics, and political strategies. They discuss recent FBI and DHS warnings regarding voter intimidation and election-related violence, and examine the protections offered by the Electoral Count Reform Act against election fraud. Focusing on early voting patterns, Brad and Dan analyze key demographics, including female and minority voters, and how they may influence the outcome. They also address the rhetoric and strategies of figures like Donald Trump and JD Vance, whose approaches aim to appeal to specific voter bases. The conversation covers mental preparedness for election week, offering tips for staying safe and resilient. Ending on a hopeful note, the hosts emphasize voter enthusiasm and share positive perspectives on the election's potential outcomes. Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC Order Brad's book: https://bookshop.org/a/95982/9781506482163 Check out BetterHelp and use my code SWA for a great deal: www.betterhelp.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Los Angeles Event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1027970416187?aff=oddtdtcreator San Diego Event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1030505227877?aff=oddtdtcreator Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus content most Mondays, bonus episodes every month, ad-free listening, access to the entire 700-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/ In this episode, Brad scrutinizes the unsettling rhetoric at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally, featuring Sid Rosenberg, Stephen Miller, and Tony Hinchcliffe. The discussion addresses open racism, xenophobia, and ethno-nationalism, and their alignment with Trump's broader campaign strategy. Key topics include Trump's divisive remarks on ethnic demographics, potential election interference hinted at through statements about 'secrets' with the Speaker of the House, and mass deportation policies suggested by Mike Johnson. Additionally, the episode breaks down the Electoral Count Reform Act's implications, stressing the importance of vigilance against efforts to undermine electoral integrity. Linktree: https://linktr.ee/StraightWhiteJC Order Brad's book: https://bookshop.org/a/95982/9781506482163 Check out BetterHelp and use my code SWA for a great deal: www.betterhelp.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Oct. 29, 2024It May Be Bumpy, But Most Democracy Experts Think the Electoral Count Reform Act Will Help Protect the ElectionOur last three reports focused on the likely plans for bad actors to subvert the election.  Thankfully, Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022, which most experts believe will prevail. How does it work?To view the whole script of today's report, please go to our website.Today's LinksArticles & Resources:Protect Democracy - Understanding the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022Brennan Center for Justice - How Electoral Votes Are Counted for the Presidential ElectionCampaign Legal Center - Updating the Electoral Count Act to Protect the Will of the People in Presidential ElectionThe Fulcrum - Understanding the Electoral Count Reform ActNational Constitution Center - Democracy Checkup: Preparing for the 2024 ElectionCheck 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.orgWant 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 #ElectoralCountReformAct #ECRA

Monday, October 21st, 2024Today, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro says law enforcement should investigate Elon Musk's $1M voter lottery scam; Democrats in Congress are working to prevent another January 6th; questions surround Montana Republican Senate candidate Sheehy's bullet wound story; the Trump ground game in key swing states has been flagged as potentially faked; and a failed mic leaves Trump in awkward silence for over 20 minutes; and Allison delivers your Good News. Guest:Laura PackardProtect Our Care 2024 Bus Tour (protectourcare.org)Twitter: @lpackardFacebook: LauraPackardActivistInstagram: LauraPackardActivistThreads: @laurapackardactivistYouTube: LauraPackardTikTok: @laurapackardactivisthttps://www.laurapackard.comThank you Helix25% off Sitewide + 2 FREE Dream Pillows with any mattress purchase HelixSleep.com/DailyBeansStories:Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro: Law enforcement should 'take a look at' Elon Musk voter payments (Alexandra Marquez | NBC News)Elon Musk and Marjorie Taylor Greene risk Dominion's wrath with revived conspiracy theories (The Independent)Democrats in Congress seek to prevent another Jan. 6 riot, protect Electoral College certification (Scott MacFarlane | CBS News)Montana ranger questions Senate hopeful Sheehy's bullet wound (Liz Goodwin | Washington Post)Revealed: Trump ground game in key states flagged as potentially fake (Hugo Lowell | The Guardian)Harris Social Media Toolkit Harris Campaign Social Media Toolkit (kamalaharris.com)Give to the Kamala Harris Presidential Campaign Kamala Harris — Donate via ActBlue (MSW Media's Donation Link)See What's On Your Ballot, Check Your Voter Registration, Find Your Polling Place, Discover Upcoming Debates In Your Area, And Much More! Vote411.orgCheck Your Voter Registration!vote.orgCheck out other MSW Media podcastshttps://mswmedia.com/shows/Subscribe for free to MuellerSheWrote on Substackhttps://muellershewrote.substack.comFollow AG and Dana on Social MediaDr. Allison Gill https://muellershewrote.substack.comhttps://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrotehttps://www.threads.net/@muellershewrotehttps://www.tiktok.com/@muellershewrotehttps://instagram.com/muellershewroteDana Goldberghttps://twitter.com/DGComedyhttps://www.instagram.com/dgcomedyhttps://www.facebook.com/dgcomedyhttps://danagoldberg.comCheck out the first 2 episodes of Trump's Project 2025: Up Close and Personal.https://trumpsproject2025pod.com/There is a new “Harris For President” Patreon tier:https://www.patreon.com/muellershewrote/membershipHave some good news; a confession; or a correction to share?Good News & Confessions - The Daily Beanshttps://www.dailybeanspod.com/confessional/From The Good NewsUtah Voter Information (Utah.gov)DR. KRISTIN LYERLY FOR WISCONSIN 8TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT  (kristinforwisconsin.com) Check out other MSW Media podcastshttps://mswmedia.com/shows/Subscribe for free to MuellerSheWrote on Substackhttps://muellershewrote.substack.com Follow AG and Dana on Social MediaDr. Allison Gill https://muellershewrote.substack.comhttps://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrotehttps://www.threads.net/@muellershewrotehttps://www.tiktok.com/@muellershewrotehttps://instagram.com/muellershewroteDana Goldberghttps://twitter.com/DGComedyhttps://www.instagram.com/dgcomedyhttps://www.facebook.com/dgcomedyhttps://danagoldberg.comHave some good news; a confession; or a correction to share?Good News & Confessions - The Daily Beanshttps://www.dailybeanspod.com/confessional/ Listener Survey:http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=shortFollow the Podcast on Apple:The Daily Beans on Apple PodcastsWant to support the show and get it ad-free and early?Supercasthttps://dailybeans.supercast.com/OrPatreon https://patreon.com/thedailybeansOr subscribe on Apple Podcasts with our affiliate linkThe Daily Beans on Apple Podcasts

USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Aysha Bagchi discusses the 2022 Electoral Count Reform Act ahead of next month's election.Donald Trump leads Kamala Harris on swing state voters' confidence about navigating the U.S. through foreign wars, a new Wall Street Journal poll shows.USA TODAY Domestic Security Correspondent Josh Meyer talks about threats against FEMA workers.Recent hurricanes brought infections, contamination and disease.Massachusetts may become the third state to legalize psychedelics. But the industry faces hurdles cannabis never did.The Europa Clipper has launched, searching for life on a Jupiter moon.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of American democracy that sets the United States apart — the so-called north star of our electoral system. Yet the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 challenged that tradition profoundly. In the lead-up to this November, we answer the question that is on the minds of many voters: Will the months after this presidential election look like the aftermath of the last one? Fortunately, lawmakers who were caught in the eye of that storm seized the opportunity to make updates to our election laws that were, by some accounts, about 150 years overdue. In 2021, Congress passed the bipartisan Electoral Count Reform Act, or ECRA, in an effort to curtail the tactics that bad actors could use to exploit the Electoral College and to define and streamline the procedures by which states count and certify election results.Catie Kelley of CLC joins us to explain how an otherwise deeply divided Congress pulled together to pass this important law, and why the passage of this new law will help ensure that this presidential election goes much more smoothly than the last one. Host and Guests:Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor's degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.Catie Kelley is Senior Director for Policy & Strategic Partnerships at Campaign Legal Center. Previously, Catie built and ran CLC's state campaign finance program. In that capacity, she worked with state and local stakeholders and policymakers to advance innovative policies designed to decrease the influence of money in the political process. She began her legal career in the Federal Election Commission's Office of General Counsel.  Links:We Voted, Now What? How the President is Elected - Campaign Legal CenterElecting the President: From Election Day to the Joint Session - Campaign Legal CenterEnactments Relating to the Electoral Count Reform Act - National Conference of State LegislaturesCongress Passes ECRA to ward off another Jan 6th - NPRElectoral Count Reform Act Makes It Harder to Undermine Presidential Elections - Campaign Legal CenterCongress Takes Historic Action to Update the Electoral Count Act - Campaign Legal CenterWhat the Electoral Count Reform Act Means for States - Campaign Legal CenterStates Enact Important Legislation to Update Election Laws Ahead of Presidential Election - Campaign Legal CenterBipartisan Arizona Law Makes Crucial Updates to Presidential Election Deadlines - Campaign Legal CenterAbout CLC:Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American's right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. Learn more about us.Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

This episode of “Lawfare Live: National Security and the 2024 Election” was recorded on September 24 in front of a live audience on Youtube and Zoom.Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes spoke to Lawfare Senior Editors Scott R. Anderson, Molly Reynolds, Quinta Jurecic, and Anna Bower and Professor of Law at Stanford Law School Nate Persily. They discussed how Congress has prepared for the 2024 election, including the passage of the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022, how the government and social media companies are addressing election-related disinformation, and how states have used the lessons of 2020 to prepare for the 2024 election.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sam Harris speaks with Barton Gellman about election integrity and the safeguarding of American democracy. They discuss the war games he's run to test our response to an authoritarian president, using federal troops against American citizens, the difference between laws and norms, state powers to resist the federal government, voter identification and election integrity, political control over election certifications, the Bush-Gore election, the Electoral Count Reform Act, the prospect of public unrest after the November election, January 6th, George Soros, the "good people on both sides" calumny against Trump, what happens to Trump and Trumpism if Harris wins in November, the presidential debate with Harris, the authoritarian potential of a second Trump term, Project 2025, and other topics. If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe. Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That's why Sam Harris created the Waking Up app. From rational mindfulness practice to lessons on some of life's most important topics, join Sam as he demystifies the practice of meditation and explores the theory behind it.

Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/384-stress-testing-our-democracy Sam Harris speaks with Barton Gellman about election integrity and the safeguarding of American democracy. They discuss the war games he's run to test our response to an authoritarian president, using federal troops against American citizens, the difference between laws and norms, state powers to resist the federal government, voter identification and election integrity, political control over election certifications, the Bush-Gore election, the Electoral Count Reform Act, the prospect of public unrest after the November election, January 6th, George Soros, the "good people on both sides" calumny against Trump, what happens to Trump and Trumpism if Harris wins in November, the presidential debate with Harris, the authoritarian potential of a second Trump term, Project 2025, and other topics. Barton Gellman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author. He currently serves as Senior Advisor at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. Previously, he was a staff writer at The Atlantic and The Washington Post. He is the author of Dark Mirror: Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance State and Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency, for which he won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Website: bartongellman.com Twitter: @bartongellman Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That’s why Sam Harris created the Waking Up app. From rational mindfulness practice to lessons on some of life’s most important topics, join Sam as he demystifies the practice of meditation and explores the theory behind it.

Former Maryland Governor Parris Glendening joins Midday to discuss Keep Our Republic. This organization is a coalition of former governors working to assure the votes cast in the 2024 election are reported in accordance with the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022. Email us at midday@wypr.org, tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Aug. 15, 2024New Report Recommends State Officials Be Proactive to Keep Rogue County Election Boards from Not Certifying Elections Our series on keeping our Presidential election from being overturned by bad actors explained how the new Electoral Count Reform Act clarifies federal and state rules.  But we've also learned how the blocking of election certification by rogue county election boards is still a possibility.  A new report recommends ways of stopping those disruptions. To view the whole script of today's report, please go to our website.Today's LinksArticles & Resources:Protect Democracy - Election certification, explainedCitizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) - Summary - Election certification under threatCitizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) - Full Report - Election certification under threatElection Reformers Network - Helping States Comply with the Electoral Count Reform ActBrennan Center for Justice - Election Denial Can't Overcome Election Certification ProtectionsGroups Taking Action:CREW, Protect ElectionsCheck 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.orgWant 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 #ProtectPollWorkers #CountyElectionCertification 

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Aug. 14, 2024The Electoral Count Reform Act Adds Federal and State Protections, But It Won't Stop Local Loyalists fromThrowing a Wrench in the WorksOur series on the federal Electoral Count Reform Act shows that it does offer protections of Presidential elections from fake electors and rogue legislatures, and clarifies rules, deadlines & responsibilities for the states.  But that doesn't stop local partisan loyalists from throwing a wrench in the certification works. To view the whole script of today's report, please go to our website.Today's LinksArticles & Resources:Protect Democracy - Election Certification ExplainedAmerican Democracy Minute -  (2022) NM County Officials Refuse to Certify Primary Election with No EvidenceAmerican Democracy Minute -  (2022) Election Denier Chaos in Cochise County, ArizonaAssociated Press - Election certification disputes in a handful of states spark concerns over 2024 presidential contestCitizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington (CREW) - Election certification under threatGroups Taking Action:CREW, Protect Democracy, Campaign Legal CenterCheck 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.orgWant 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 #ElectionCertification

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Aug. 13, 2024The Electoral Count Reform Act Improves State Rules for Certifying and Protecting Presidential ElectionsWe're continuing our series exploring whether new rules will protect our Presidential election process from being hijacked by bad actors. The Electoral Count Reform Act added safeguards in Congress and clarified the role of the Vice President, but it also clarified procedures and deadlines for states. To view the whole script of today's report, please go to our website.Today's LinksArticles & Resources:Campaign Legal Center - What the Electoral Count Reform Act Means for StatesBrennan Center for Justice - How Electoral Votes Are Counted for the Presidential ElectionNational Conference of State Legislatures - Elections Q&As for Lawmakers: What Does the Electoral Count Reform Act Mean for States?National Conference of State Legislatures - Enactments Relating to the Electoral Count Reform ActDemocracy Docket - This November's State Legislative Elections Are Key To Protecting the Presidential ElectionGroups Taking Action:Issue One, Public Citizen, Protect Democracy, Election Reformers NetworkCheck 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.orgWant 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  #ElectoralCountReformAct

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Aug. 12, 2024What is the Electoral Count Reform Act and How Will it Protect the 2024 Election at the Federal Level? We're beginning a series exploring whether our Presidential election is safer now from being overturned by bad actors.  In our first report, we examine new protections in the federal Electoral Count Reform Act, then what protections states have in place — or not.  To view the whole script of today's report, please go to our website.Today's LinksArticles & Resources:National Archives - Electoral College Timeline of EventsNational Archives - Roles and Responsibilities in the Electoral College ProcessBrennan Center for Justice - How Electoral Votes Are Counted for the Presidential ElectionSenator Susan Collins - SUMMARY - ELECTORAL COUNT REFORM ACT OF 2022 Campaign Legal Center - Congress Takes Historic Action to Update the Electoral Count ActBrennan Center for Justice - Much Needed Reform for the Electoral Count ActGroups Taking Action:Protect Elections, League of Women Voters US, National Popular Vote CompactCheck 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.orgWant 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 #ElectoralCountReformAct #ElectionSubversion

As the 2024 presidential election approaches, a vital question is whether the legal architecture governing the election is well crafted to prevent corruption and abuse. In their new book, “How to Steal a Presidential Election,” Lawrence Lessig and Matthew Seligman argue that despite the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022, serious abuse of the presidential election rules remains a live possibility. Jack Goldsmith sat down with Lessig to learn why. They discussed the continuing possibility of vice presidential mischief, the complex role of faithless electors, strategic behavior related to recounts, and the threat of rogue governors. They also pondered whether any system of rules can regulate elections in the face of widespread bad faith by the actors involved.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Oct. 31, 2023Colorado, Minnesota & Michigan Courts Consider “Insurrection Act” Cases to Keep Trump Off the BallotA trial opened Monday in a Denver, Colorado courtroom to determine whether former President Donald Trump should be excluded from the 2024 Colorado ballot.  Similar cases are pending in Minnesota and Michigan.Our podcasting host recently made changes which stops us from including our entire script as part of the podcast content.  To view the whole script, please go to our website and find today's report.Today's LinksArticles & Resources:The Atlantic - The Constitution Prohibits Trump From Ever Being President Again NPR - 5 things to know about the 14th Amendment effort to block Trump from the presidencyColorado Newsline - Trump 14th Amendment trial in Colorado opens with focus on events of Jan. 6Associated Press - Lawyers argue whether the Constitution's ‘insurrection' clause blocks Trump from the 2024 ballotReuters - Trump should be disqualified from 2024 ballot over Jan. 6 riot, advocates say at trialMichigan Advance - Michigan judge fast-tracks lawsuit to force Trump off the ballot in MichiganMinnesota Public Radio - Minnesota lawsuit seeks to keep Trump off 2024 ballotDerek Muller, Election Law Blog -   Colorado trial court botches interpretation of Electoral Count Reform Act in rush to get Trump ballot access case to hearingGroups Taking Action:C.R.E.W., Free Speech for People, Mi Familia VotaPlease follow us on Facebook and Twitter and SHARE!  Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.orgWant ADM sent to your email?  Sign up here!#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #14thAmendment #InsurrectionAct #January6th  #ColoradoPolitics #StoptheSteal

Wes, Eneasz, and David discuss the news from the last two weeks from a rationalist perspective, with special guests appearances by Charlie and Gray!Support us on Substack!News discussed:The Electoral Count Reform Act was passedFinally got enough on the 15th ballotMexico captures El Chapo's son (again) and has a literal military battle with cartels. Brazil's Jan 6th happened on Jan 8th.By one estimate, the US has sent close to 1/5th of our artillery shell stockpile to Ukraine, which will take 2yrs to replenish at current ratesLanguage Models can make completely de novo proteins that are viable in the wetlab. William Eden has the best take.LLMs can discern cause & effectWhen Google tuned a AI chatbot to answer common medical questions, doctors judged 92.6% of its answers rightIt also passed the Official medical examBraced pistols now regulated under same rules as SBRsSexy News Update - more than 75% of casual sex isn't ONS, it's an extended sexual relationship with a friend/acquaintance. Ecuadorian man changes gender to route around sexist lawsHappy News!South Carolina court found right to abortion in Constitution up to 20 weeksFDA lifted rule banning mifepristone (abortion pill) from being sold in pharmaciesTom Lehrer put all of his music in the public domainThe End Poem of Minecraft is too!FTC is (probably) banning non-compete clauses!!Counterpoint from Tyler CowenJapan is NukeMaxxing!DUKE NUCLEAR!In big New Atheist win, Congressman Was Sworn Into Office With Rare Superman ComicEneasz crossed a bridgeGot something to say? Come chat with us on the Bayesian Conspiracy Discord or email us at themindkillerpodcast@gmail.com. Say something smart and we'll mention you on the next show!Follow us!RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/themindkillerGoogle: https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Iqs7r7t6cdxw465zdulvwikhekmPocket Casts: https://pca.st/vvcmifu6 Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-mind-killer Apple: Intro/outro music: On Sale by Golden Duck Orchestra This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mindkiller.substack.com/subscribe

This past Friday marked two years since the attack at the United States Capitol in which rioters attempted to block votes which certified Joe Biden as President.  As part of the massive Omnibus spending bill Congress just passed the Electoral Count Reform Act, which lawmakers hope will make challenging election certification results more difficult and prevent a similar event as we witnessed on January 6th, 2021. Last week, Managing Editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics Kyle Kondik joined the Rundown's Dave Anthony to explain why the law will be helpful.  The two also discussed the ongoing challenges of America's Electoral College system and the effort to pick a President via a national popular vote. Kondik, who has written about the subject extensively, explained some of the intended and unintended consequences of enacting such a change. Due to time limitations, we could not include all of the conversations in our original segment. On the FOX News Rundown Extra, you will hear our entire interview with the Managing Editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics Kyle Kondik and get a better understanding of America's election system and the debate over the Electoral College. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This past Friday marked two years since the attack at the United States Capitol in which rioters attempted to block votes which certified Joe Biden as President.  As part of the massive Omnibus spending bill Congress just passed the Electoral Count Reform Act, which lawmakers hope will make challenging election certification results more difficult and prevent a similar event as we witnessed on January 6th, 2021. Last week, Managing Editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics Kyle Kondik joined the Rundown's Dave Anthony to explain why the law will be helpful.  The two also discussed the ongoing challenges of America's Electoral College system and the effort to pick a President via a national popular vote. Kondik, who has written about the subject extensively, explained some of the intended and unintended consequences of enacting such a change. Due to time limitations, we could not include all of the conversations in our original segment. On the FOX News Rundown Extra, you will hear our entire interview with the Managing Editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics Kyle Kondik and get a better understanding of America's election system and the debate over the Electoral College. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This past Friday marked two years since the attack at the United States Capitol in which rioters attempted to block votes which certified Joe Biden as President.  As part of the massive Omnibus spending bill Congress just passed the Electoral Count Reform Act, which lawmakers hope will make challenging election certification results more difficult and prevent a similar event as we witnessed on January 6th, 2021. Last week, Managing Editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics Kyle Kondik joined the Rundown's Dave Anthony to explain why the law will be helpful.  The two also discussed the ongoing challenges of America's Electoral College system and the effort to pick a President via a national popular vote. Kondik, who has written about the subject extensively, explained some of the intended and unintended consequences of enacting such a change. Due to time limitations, we could not include all of the conversations in our original segment. On the FOX News Rundown Extra, you will hear our entire interview with the Managing Editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics Kyle Kondik and get a better understanding of America's election system and the debate over the Electoral College. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Do not just show up at the border, stay where you are and apply legally," President Biden announced on Thursday, as the White House revealed he will make a visit to the US southern border this weekend. This trip comes amid heavy criticism of the Biden administration for its handling of border and immigration policy. In his Thursday speech, he revealed there will be a tougher crackdown on illegal crossings made by migrants coming from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti and Cuba—an expansion of a previous policy that has proven effective. FOX News Sunday Host Shannon Bream joins the Rundown to discuss what the White House is hoping to accomplish with Biden's visit to the border, disagreement in Congress about legislative priorities on the issue of immigration, and the uncertain future of student loan debt cancellation.   Today marks two years since the attack at the United States Capitol in which rioters attempted to block votes which certified Joe Biden as President. As part of the massive Omnibus spending bill, Congress just passed the Electoral Count Reform Act, which lawmakers hope will make challenging election certification results more difficult. Managing Editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics Kyle Kondik joins the Rundown to explain why the law will be helpful. He also discusses the ongoing challenges of America's Electoral College system.   Plus, commentary from co-host of Fox & Friends Weekends and Host of ‘The Will Cain Podcast' Will Cain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Do not just show up at the border, stay where you are and apply legally," President Biden announced on Thursday, as the White House revealed he will make a visit to the US southern border this weekend. This trip comes amid heavy criticism of the Biden administration for its handling of border and immigration policy. In his Thursday speech, he revealed there will be a tougher crackdown on illegal crossings made by migrants coming from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti and Cuba—an expansion of a previous policy that has proven effective. FOX News Sunday Host Shannon Bream joins the Rundown to discuss what the White House is hoping to accomplish with Biden's visit to the border, disagreement in Congress about legislative priorities on the issue of immigration, and the uncertain future of student loan debt cancellation.   Today marks two years since the attack at the United States Capitol in which rioters attempted to block votes which certified Joe Biden as President. As part of the massive Omnibus spending bill, Congress just passed the Electoral Count Reform Act, which lawmakers hope will make challenging election certification results more difficult. Managing Editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics Kyle Kondik joins the Rundown to explain why the law will be helpful. He also discusses the ongoing challenges of America's Electoral College system.   Plus, commentary from co-host of Fox & Friends Weekends and Host of ‘The Will Cain Podcast' Will Cain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Do not just show up at the border, stay where you are and apply legally," President Biden announced on Thursday, as the White House revealed he will make a visit to the US southern border this weekend. This trip comes amid heavy criticism of the Biden administration for its handling of border and immigration policy. In his Thursday speech, he revealed there will be a tougher crackdown on illegal crossings made by migrants coming from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti and Cuba—an expansion of a previous policy that has proven effective. FOX News Sunday Host Shannon Bream joins the Rundown to discuss what the White House is hoping to accomplish with Biden's visit to the border, disagreement in Congress about legislative priorities on the issue of immigration, and the uncertain future of student loan debt cancellation.   Today marks two years since the attack at the United States Capitol in which rioters attempted to block votes which certified Joe Biden as President. As part of the massive Omnibus spending bill, Congress just passed the Electoral Count Reform Act, which lawmakers hope will make challenging election certification results more difficult. Managing Editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics Kyle Kondik joins the Rundown to explain why the law will be helpful. He also discusses the ongoing challenges of America's Electoral College system.   Plus, commentary from co-host of Fox & Friends Weekends and Host of ‘The Will Cain Podcast' Will Cain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Among Growing Anti-Voter Legislation, There Were Some Democracy Reform Successes in 2022Today's LinksArticles & Resources:Brennan Center for Justice - Americans rejected election denial and adopted reforms. Let's build on that in 2023NPR - 2020 changed how America votes. The question now is whether those changes stickAlaska Bulletin - Five takeaway lessons from Alaska's first ranked choice electionRoll Call - At the Races: What pushing for voting rights accomplishedCity & State NY - What you need to know about New York's new statewide public campaign finance program 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.While many states implemented intentional barriers to voting and ignored partisan gerrymandering, some forward-looking states enacted pro-voter democracy reforms, helping to make voting accessible to all of their citizens.On the federal front, while the Freedom to Vote and For the People acts failed in the U.S. Senate, the Electoral Count Reform Act passed, helping to prevent another election subversion.  Approving ballot questions, Connecticut and Michigan added more in-person early voting in 2022.   Georgia begrudgingly allowed early voting for the U.S. Senate runoff election, after democracy advocacy groups filed suit.  And despite the Georgia legislature's anti-voter SB 202 implementation, advocacy groups mobilized record turnout. Massachusetts formalized on-demand mail-in voting, where voters can request electronically to be added to an ongoing vote-by-mail list.  Nevada implemented a permanent mail-in voting program in 2022, and took its first step toward single ballot open primaries and ranked choice voting.   Alaska debuted its “top four” open primary and ranked choice voting system in June for a special election, and 85% of voters thought it was simple to use.Just after the November midterm, New York State implemented a small-donor campaign financing system, where candidates can earn matching funds by seeking out smaller contributions, reducing influence and enabling less affluent candidates to run.  And Arizona banned dark money in state elections.Read more at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.   For the American Democracy Minute.   I'm Brian Beihl.

Electoral Count Reform Act Passes; ADM Reviews Democracy Wins & Losses for 2022Today's LinksArticles & Resources:CNN -  Congress passes first legislative response to January 6 Capitol attack Center for Public Integrity - A headlong rush by states to attack voting access — or expand itThe Guardian/Reveal - New US state voting laws present most intense voter suppression threat in decades Associated Press - No major problems with ballot drop boxes in 2020, AP findsGroups Taking Action:League of Women Voters US,  When We All Vote, Mi Familia Vota, Protect Democracy 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.First, a headline:   Congress has passed the Electoral Count Reform Act as part of the $1.7 trillion dollar federal spending bill awaiting President Biden's signature this week.  This is the most significant democracy reform of the year, and helps prevent another subversion attempt in our Presidential election process.This week, we're going to recap some of the 2022 democracy wins and losses around the U.S.   The Center for Public Integrity reports that 26 states, quote “worsened equity in voting and representation.   Twenty states and Washington, DC improved access to elections, and four other states didn't change much. Among the states adding restrictions, 14 added enhanced election policing, with Florida adding an election division to their state police force, and several other states elevating voting infractions to felony offenses.   New Hampshire passed legislation to investigate election officials for misconduct.   Texas has already proposed a 2023 bill for its own election police force.Ballot drop boxes and dropping off another person's ballot also came under attack in several states, mostly due to former President Trump's accusations and a debunked documentary called 2000 Mules, which suggested that drop boxes were used to drop fraudulent ballots.    Nineteen states restricted who could drop off a ballot.   In a multi-state investigation, the Associated Press reported that no significant voter fraud occurred as a result of the use of drop boxes.  Articles & details at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.   More tomorrow on the American Democracy Minute.   I'm Brian Beihl.

In an impromptu episode, Marc and Paige discuss the status of the five Republican election contests in Arizona and Kari Lake's trial. Plus, get Marc's thoughts on Congress passing the Electoral Count Reform Act in the omnibus spending bill. Send us a question via voice message! Make sure you're following us on all platforms: Twitter Post Facebook Instagram TikTok Mastodon Subscribe to our free newsletter | Support our work Related links: Alert: Arizona Court Dismisses GOP Lawsuit Asking to “Annul” Election Results Alert: Arizona Judge Dismisses Finchem Election Contest Alert: Arizona Judge Dismisses Majority of Kari Lake's Claims in Gubernatorial Election Contest Alert: Kari Lake's Governor Election Contest Completes First Day of Trial Alert: U.S. Senate Passes Electoral Count Reform Act Read: “It Is Time to Reform the Electoral Count Act” by Marc Elias Kari Lake's Governor Election Contest Completes First Day of Trial Kari Lake's Governor Election Contest Completes Second Day of Trial Josh Barnett's Election Contest Case Page Mark Finchem's Election Contest Case Page Sonny Borrelli's Election Contest Case Page Kari Lake's Election Contest Case Page Abe Hamadeh's Election Contest Case Page

Electoral Count Reform Act Attached to Spending Bill and Likely to PassToday's LinksArticles & Resources:Politico - What's in and what's out of Congress' $1.7T spending billWashington Post (paywall) - Congress moves ahead on Electoral Count Act reforms in response to Jan. 6The Hill - Electoral Count Act set to deliver another blow to TrumpECRA-Sponsor U.S. Senator Susan Collins - ELECTORAL COUNT REFORM ACT OF 2022Groups Taking Action: Democracy 21,  Protect Democracy, ACLU,  Brennan Center for JusticeToday'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've had numerous reports on the Electoral Count Reform Act, the legislation updating the 1887 rules & procedure after a Presidential election to help prevent another subversion of the election.   Tuesday, the Act was attached to the omnibus spending bill expected to pass before the holiday break.  That's good news for those who care about protecting Democracy.The $1.7 trillion dollar federal spending bill extends financing of the federal government until September 2023 and has bipartisan agreement in the Senate.   Attaching the Senate's version of the Electoral Count Reform Act, which has the support of Senate leaders Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, makes it likely to pass both the Senate and the House.The ECRA defines the role of the Vice President in the counting of electoral ballots as ceremonial, raises the threshold to object to a count to one-fifth of the members of each house, defines how electors are selected and submitted, and allows for expedited review by the courts.The Senate version also removes an 1845 law which could be used by state legislatures to override the popular vote and declare a “failed election.” While democracy advocates still have some concerns about potential loopholes, most believe the Senate's version of the Electoral Count Reform Act will help to protect our next election from another subversion attempt.Find links to more on the Act at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.   For the American Democracy Minute, I'm Brian Beihl.

In today's episode:Update from Kari Lake on her lawsuit in AZChuck Schumer attempts to push the Electoral Count Reform Act through in the lame duck sessionMitch McConnell negotiates against Republican voters to pass a Democrat spending bill before the new Congress is seatedTwitter Files drop #5.Connect with Be Reasonable: https://linktr.ee/imyourmoderatorHear the show when it's released. Become a paid subscriber at imyourmoderator.substack.comOther ways to support the work:ko-fi.com/imyourmoderatorbtc via coinbase: 3MEh9J5sRvMfkWd4EWczrFr1iP3DBMcKk5Merch site:https://cancelcouture.myspreadshop.com/Follow the podcast info stream: t.me/imyourmoderatorOther social platforms: Twitter, Truth Social, Gab, Rumble, or Gettr - @imyourmoderator Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/be-reasonable-with-your-moderator-chris-paul. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's episode:Update from Kari Lake on her lawsuit in AZChuck Schumer attempts to push the Electoral Count Reform Act through in the lame duck sessionMitch McConnell negotiates against Republican voters to pass a Democrat spending bill before the new Congress is seatedTwitter Files drop #5.Connect with Be Reasonable: https://linktr.ee/imyourmoderatorHear the show when it's released. Become a paid subscriber at imyourmoderator.substack.comOther ways to support the work:ko-fi.com/imyourmoderatorbtc via coinbase: 3MEh9J5sRvMfkWd4EWczrFr1iP3DBMcKk5Merch site:https://cancelcouture.myspreadshop.com/Follow the podcast info stream: t.me/imyourmoderatorOther social platforms: Twitter, Truth Social, Gab, Rumble, or Gettr - @imyourmoderator Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/be-reasonable-with-your-moderator-chris-paul. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will House & Senate Differences on the Electoral Count Reform Act be Resolved in Time?Today's LinksArticles & Resources:The Bulwark - Clock Is Ticking on Chance to Fix the Electoral Count Act Roll Call - Schumer says he expects omnibus to include electoral count overhaulAssociated Press - What's in the House, Senate bills overhauling Jan. 6 countBrennan Center for Justice - How to Fix the 1887 Electoral Count ActFind Law - Explaining the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022Groups Taking Action:ACLU, League of Women Voters, The Leadership Council on Civil and Human Rights, Declaration for American DemocracyToday'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.With only a handful of days left in the 117th Congress, there is a scramble to work out House & Senate differences for a high-priority reform to protect our Presidential elections from another January 6th.The Electoral Count Reform Act seeks to close loopholes in our Presidential election certification process, exploited by allies of former President Trump.   Both versions define the Vice President's role in the certification process, increase the threshold for objecting to a state's count to one fifth of each of the U.S. House and Senate chambers, and to honor the popular vote by not allowing a state legislature to override that vote.The Bulwark reports that differences between the House & Senate versions have hung up the bill.   The Senate version has the votes it needs to overcome the filibuster, with 16 GOP Senators backing it, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Reps. Liz Cheney & Zoe Lofgren, sponsors of the House version, cite two deficiencies in the Senate version.  Two terms for objecting to the certification are not defined – a potential loophole – and past court cases don't allow the courts to be involved in vote count disputes.  The House version writes that court review into its process. The good news? Both Senate and House leadership are optimistic the reform will be passed before the end of the year.We have details on each version and groups taking action at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.   For the American Democracy Minute, I'm Brian Beihl.

Will the aftermath of Herschel Walker's defeat in Georgia create a rare window for Republican introspection? And can the infotainment right be part of the solution? Sarah, David, Jonah and Steve also discuss what we know (and don't know) about the Hunter Biden scandal, wonder what ever happened to the Electoral Count Reform Act, and catch up on what's going on in the rest of the world.Show Notes:-The Twitter thread that caught Steve's eye

Is Bipartisanship Possible in the United States? | The 2020 Presidential Election clarified the need for a unified, authoritative understanding of elections and election systems in the United States. In recent weeks, Democratic legislators have been working to pass the Electoral Count Reform Act to update outdated systems and clarify the role of the Vice President in electoral proceedings. Simultaneously, the Republican-backed Moore v. Harper case will be heard before the Supreme Court to determine how much power states can have over voting access and election results. Will it ever be possible to have a bipartisan, unified approach to voting rights in the United States?    Michael Thorning is the Director of Governance at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank in Washington, DC, that seeks to foster bipartisanship in American politics. In this episode of How to Fix Democracy, he joins host Andrew Keen to discuss the implications for the current and upcoming voting rights legislation, as well as the need for bipartisanship in order to defend democracy in the United States.

With the 2022 midterm elections mostly over, members of Congress are back on the Hill to wrap up loose legislative ends. One of the bipartisan bills floating through the lame-duck session is the Electoral Count Reform Act, a bill that would add protections to the presidential transfer of power. So, what exactly does this legislation do to protect elections, and is it enough?  Hosts: Jonquilyn Hill (@jonquilynhill) Credits: Sofi LaLonde, producer Cristian Ayala, engineer Libby Nelson, editorial adviser A.M. Hall, editorial director of talk podcasts Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What Happens if the SCOTUS Majority Embraces the Independent State Legislature Theory in Moore v. Harper?Today's LinksArticles: Brennan Center for Justice - Moore v. Harper, ExplainedThe Atlantic - Is Democracy Constitutional?PBS NewsHour - How the outcome of Moore v. Harper could impact federal electionsLeague of Women Voters US - State Legislature Seeks Unchecked Power over Elections in Moore v. HarperBrookings / Democracy 21 - Democracy on the ballot—the “independent state legislature theory” will not empower state legislatures to override presidential election resultsArizona Mirror - Brnovich joins 12 other GOP AGs in ‘independent state legislature' caseGroups Taking Action:League of Conservation Voters NC, Common Cause NC, Democracy Docket, Campaign Legal Center, Declaration for American Democracy (DFAD)DFAD Rallies on Moore v Harper - "Hands Off Our Vote"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.December 7, the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Moore vs. Harper, a case testing the “Independent State Legislature” theory.  So, what could happen if the majority embraces this theory?At stake is whether state legislatures have ultimate authority over elections:  Higher authority than the U.S. Constitution & statutes, higher than state supreme courts and constitutions, and higher than a Governor's veto.   The U.S. Supreme Court has already said in 2019 that only state courts have the authority to decide partisan redistricting cases.  That decision essentially greenlighted the widespread gerrymandering we saw in the 2020 redistricting process.The Brennan Center for Justice and other scholars suggest citizen ballot initiatives could be nullified.  State legislatures could ignore the U.S. or state constitution's voting rights provisions and establish unchecked barriers to voting.  Existing state laws like early voting or voting by mail could be repealed without the check of a gubernatorial veto.   Some scholars have suggested that legislatures could change the electors for a Presidential election, or overturn election results.   Democracy 21's Fred Werthheimer says this is unlikely, but  Congress should pass the Electoral Count Reform Act to close that loophole.   In short, the impact of Moore v. Harper could reshape American democracy, and it could be one of the most consequential and destructive Supreme Court decisions of our time.Find out more at American Democracy Minute.org.  For the American Democracy Minute, I'm Brian Beihl.

Trump wants to run for President (and announce this week) but that announcement may begin a process of destroying the GOP. Gary Dietrich offers thoughts and analysis. Meantime, key Senate wins change Democrat arithmetic. Volatile post-election GOP House...Battle for control linger.. Meantime, Dems need legislative agenda pushed through to prevent another election steal attempt. We'll explain the Electoral Count Reform Act.MARK'S MURDER MONDAY... Courtney joins with another murder caseJeopardy Tournament of Champions has been quite the ride and continues... Guest is the Prince of Jeopardy, Buzzy Cohen #Trump #GOP #election #electoral #results #Jeopardy #champion #49ers #murder

The crew discusses how hurricanes shape political perceptions, whether 52 Democrats senators would be all that different from 50 and how the Electoral Count Reform Act could prevent future attempts to meddle with American elections. Tickets to the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast live show in Washington, DC on October 25th can be found here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

(0:25) Intro(2:00) CBO Releases Cost Estimate of Loan Forgiveness Program(4:58) Agreement on Last Minute Interim Spending Bill to Avoid Government Shutdown(8:46) GOP Announces Commitment to America Agenda Ahead of Midterms(15:56) Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022Links to sources can be found at www.jordanismylawyer.com. This episode is sponsored by Good Party: https://goodparty.org/?utm_source=pod&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=sep_2022_jordan-is-my-lawyer_independent_general&utm_content=independent_general&utm_term=general

The Electoral Count Reform Act is a bipartisan response to the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol where rioters and the former president attempted to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence into subverting the election count. But some critics think it doesn't go far enough and argue that real reform would mean making significant changes to the Electoral College and to the winner take all allotment of electoral votes. Host Michel Martin talks to Stanford Historian Jonathan Gienapp about the origins of the Electoral College, and Elie Mystal, justice correspondent at The Nation. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

 Electoral Count Act Versions Moving in the U.S. Senate, Passed in the HouseToday's LinksArticles: Democracy Docket - Senators Introduce Amendment to Electoral Count Act Reform BillDemocracy Docket - U.S. House Passes Bill to Reform the Electoral Count ActDemocracy Docket - Comparison table of Senate & House versions of the Elector Count Act reform bills The Hill - Trump-McConnell feud takes new turn with Electoral Count ActPolitifact - Electoral reform: What would updating the Electoral Count Act do?Groups Taking Action:Protect Democracy, Brennan Center for Justice,  Business for America, Campaign Legal CenterYou're listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.There's more action on reforming the Electoral Count Act, with one amended bill pending in the U.S. Senate, and one bill now passed in the House.  Senator Mitch McConnell has now signaled his support for the Senate bill, so how soon could it be passed?We've been reporting since June on the Electoral Count Reform Act, which tries to prevent the overthrowing of a legitimate election by expanding definitions of who makes certification decisions, the role of the Vice President and correcting other vagaries in the Electoral Count Act of 1887.  This week, the Senate's version passed out of the Senate Rules committee, with an amendment proposed by Senators Amy Klobuchar and Roy Blunt,  by a vote of 14-1.   The bill had already lined up 10 Republican votes when it received the endorsement of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.    The Hill reports Sen. Rob Portman's prediction that 20 to 30 Republicans will vote for the bill.  September 21, the House passed its own version, put forward by Reps. Liz Cheney and Zoe Lofgren, both members of the January 6th Committee.  The bill passed 229-203, with all Democratic votes, and only nine Republicans supporting the bill.   Democracy Docket reports that the Senate's Version of the Electoral Count Reform Act will come up for a floor debate after the midterm election.  We have links to articles and a great comparison of the Senate and House versions at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.Granny D said, “Democracy is not something we HAVE, it's something we DO!”  For the American Democracy Minute, I'm Brian Beihl.

Christopher M. Tuttle, senior fellow and director of the Renewing America initiative at CFR, leads the conversation on the U.S. midterm elections and beyond. FASKIANOS: Thank you, and welcome, all, to today's session of the Fall 2022 CFR Academic Webinar Series. I'm Irina Faskianos, vice president of the National Program and Outreach here at CFR. Today's discussion is on the record. The video and transcript will be available on our website at CFR.org/academic, and as always, CFR takes no institutional positions on matters of policy. We're delighted to have Christopher Tuttle with us today to talk about the U.S. midterm elections and beyond. Mr. Tuttle is senior fellow and director of the Renewing America initiative at CFR. He's also a managing director of CFR's Corporate Affairs Program and a senior adviser for the Council's external affairs efforts in Washington. From 2015 to 2019, Mr. Tuttle served as policy director of the majority staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations under Chairman Bob Corker, and prior to that, he was director of CFR's Washington Program and Independent Task Force Program. So, Chris, thank you very much for being with us today. It would be great if you could talk a little bit about the Renewing America initiative, and also, talk a little bit about the midterm elections. We are about forty days and a few hours out from the elections on November 8, and we would love to hear from you your analysis of the lay of the land and what it portends for governance in the U.S., as well as how we will be viewed in the world. TUTTLE: Absolutely. Thanks, Irina. It's great to be here. Great to be speaking with you all today. As Irina mentioned, I'm Chris Tuttle, and before digging in on today's specific topic, I would like, as Irina mentioned, to begin with a plug for the program I run at CFR, the Renewing America initiative. But you all know the Council on Foreign Relations is obviously a foreign policy organization, but we have a keen understanding of the reality that U.S. power, our place in the world, and our upward trajectory over the past century have been powered by our domestic strengths. And right now, some of our most important national security threats come not from without, but from within. So we're looking at nine specific domestic issues that underpin our strength and our power in the world—and really the future of the United States in the twenty-first century—and the future of how the world's going to look in the twenty-first century with a strong U.S., hopefully, still leading the way. So the nine issues are democracy and governance, education, energy and climate, the future of work, immigration, infrastructure, social justice and equity, and trade and finance. And I'd commend to you our website, please check it out. We've got a Twitter feed as well that just went up yesterday, actually, so please follow us on Twitter. And we're going to post the website to the chat, or you can just google, CFR Renewing America. So thanks, Irina, for indulging that pitch and now onto today's topic, the midterm congressional elections and beyond. I thought I'd start with the House of Representatives. Right now, the partisan balance in the House is 221 to 212—that's 221 Democrats to 212 Republicans. That's a very tight—very tight—very tight margin, and that's not much of a majority, historically speaking, in terms of party breakdown. What that means, though, for midterms is that Republicans need to gain only six seats to take control of the House, and Democrats are facing some pretty heavy headwinds, which I'm sure you've been reading about, as people have been covering, sort of, the horse race. The first headwind is structural. On average over the past seventy years or so, a sitting president's party has lost an average of more than two dozen house seats during the midterms. On top of that, inflation has been at forty-year highs. The economy has had two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth, and certainly related to this, President Biden's job approval rating right now is at a pretty dismal 43 percent. Also, many Democrats are retiring leaving open seats that are always more difficult to defend than if an incumbent were still running. But interestingly, it's not just national issues as a factor coming into play this year. Many voters are also concerned about local issues. Crime, the way COVID and other issues have been handled in the school districts are a couple of examples, and those are also likely to weigh on the Democrats in a way similar to the dynamic that put Glenn Youngkin into office as governor of Virginia last year. But for the Democrats, it's not all bad news. Biden's approval rating, though still pretty problematic, is actually up about six points from where it stood in July, and there are indications that abortion, in the wake of the Dobbs decision, may be a more significant factor than many prognosticators first guessed. For the House, this all adds up to basically kind of the following: the red wave that everybody was talking about during the summer—saying that the Republicans were going to be swept into control of the House with a twenty-five- to thirty-five-seat pickup—may not, in fact, materialize. Regardless, however, the numbers are still not great for Nancy Pelosi's hopes for her House team. Right now, The Cook Political Report, which I commend to you—if you follow elections closely you may already be aware of it—but The Cook Political Report right now rates 192 seats as solidly, likely, or leaning Democratic. Conversely, it rates 212 seats as solidly, likely, or leaning Republican. That leaves 31 seats as toss-ups. Assuming those numbers hold, Republicans only need to get six of those seats to gain control, which is a pretty likely scenario. Moving onto the Senate, it's a little bit different story. As you all know, the Senate is split right now fifty-fifty. Senate races tend to be more candidate-based than House races, which are often more party or national dynamics-based. In the—if you want to do the math on this, Democrats are defending fourteen seats this year and two are rated as toss-ups—that's Rafael Warnock in Georgia—and he's currently leading well within the margin of error about 0.3 percent over Herschel Walker—and Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada, where the Republican is leading just by 1.7 points. Republicans are defending twenty-one seats in the Senate. One of those is rated as a toss-up—that's Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, and he's ahead just slightly 1.5 percent—that's based on the RealClearPolitics polling average. And one of the Republican seats is rated to lean Democratic. So that's the seat in Pennsylvania where Senator Pat Toomey retired. And right now, you're probably seeing Dr. Oz and Fetterman going at it regularly. Right now, Fetterman is up by about 4.7 percent. So you can game out all the possibilities alike based on that, but it's going to be a dog fight for the Senate, and we could very well end up exactly where we are today at fifty-fifty when all is said and done. So one note about the rest of this Congress, you know, it's—time is growing short, and the Congress is about to go home to spend time with their constituents as the election approaches. But there is an order of business that may actually end up getting done that's pretty important before the end of this year. It may—it, likely, will not be before the election. It will likely be in a lame duck session after the elections. But I think that it's worth mentioning— probably the most important couple of pieces of legislation, I think, that could move in this Congress are a couple that reform presidential elections and transitions. As I mentioned, they're just about done for this two years, but they've got a couple of bills pending to change current statutes to prevent what happened in late 2020 and early 2021, where we came close to the invalidation of a presidential election, which would have created a full on constitutional crisis. The House passed its version of this legislation last week, and the Senate has similar legislation that was—it was negotiated on a much more bipartisan basis in the House, but it's very similar. The cosponsors in the Senate are wide ideological range. Chris Murphy of Connecticut sort of on the left to Lindsay Graham of South Carolina on the right, and this just—Mitch McConnell just signaled his support for this legislation, as did Chuck Schumer, yesterday. And it passed the Senate Rules and Administration Committee yesterday by a wide bipartisan margin. So this will likely—the Senate version—also known as the Electoral Count Reform Act—will likely pass during the lame duck session that'll be held probably sometime in November, early December, and then, it will mean—because the House has passed its version; the Senate will pass its version—they'll have to get together in a conference committee to come up with a compromise version, but it's actually something that can move. And I'd be happy to go into further detail about that, but it's a very important piece of legislation. You may have read—I wrote a piece on this. I think it was in the read ahead, but I encourage you to follow this because it really is an important piece of reform legislation that's got bipartisan support, and it can actually move the ball forward. And it is potentially an existential issue for the country. So moving onto the Congress yet, we're just getting ready to conclude the 117th Congress. We're going to be going into the 118th Congress in January. What's in store? I thought I'd start—because we're the Council on Foreign Relations—with foreign and international policy. If you are a fan of bipartisanship, there is a lot to like about the incoming Congress and about this current Congress. When you look at issues—when it comes to China, when it comes to Russia/Ukraine—there is wide bipartisan agreement on how to handle those issues. On trade, there's wide bipartisan agreement. Now those of you who might be supportive of freer trade may not like what that bipartisan agreement is, but right now we've got both parties who are pretty—they have pretty skeptical views of trade, and that's anomalous. In the past you've had Democrats, who have been in Congress anyway, broadly pretty skeptical of trade. You've had Republicans who have been more supportive of free trade agreements. That all changed with the onset of sort of the new Republicans, Donald Trump, that kind of thing. So there's widespread skepticism on trade, and I'd be happy to talk about that during the Q&A. Bipartisanship, for better or for worse, is alive and well in foreign policy, and there are some notable exceptions. You can—we can roll through those if you would like. But really, on the great big issues that are confronting the United States, there's widespread agreement. So assuming we have a Republican House, legislatively there's not much in the realm of what might get done. Republicans are likely going to pass Republican bills like those proposed in their newly released Commitment to America, which Kevin McCarthy introduced last week. It's sort of their agenda for Republican control—their legislative agenda. But they're likely to pass Republican bills, bipartisan majorities, and they'll die in the Senate. Even if Republicans do win the Senate, they won't have sixty votes to overcome a legislative filibuster that would be by the Democrats. One can also expect with the Republican House takeover a multitude of congressional investigations into the COVID pandemic, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the FBI's handling of recent matters, among many others. Senate Democrats, should they keep their majority, will continue to face an uphill climb to get much of anything through. Not only will they not have the votes to overcome a Republican filibuster—or even if they are able to go nuclear and eliminate the legislative filibuster entirely, which is unlikely, most legislation they pass will not move in the House. Even using the budget reconciliation process, which requires only fifty votes in the Senate, Democratic moderates like Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona may not be supportive. As far as the political dynamics are concerned—so what is this sort of portend for our politics? I'm afraid they're unlikely to improve any time soon. I've written about this. If you'd like, you can go to, again, Renewing America. I think they're likely to get worse. I think that Republicans may take from these midterm elections the message that Trumpism remains their path to victory. And some Democrats, in the wake of losses, may push for the party to live its values and go further left. Similar to the way that we saw on the Republican side, when Republicans who were losing elections—say after 2012 when Mitt Romney lost—a lot of Republicans said, well, we just didn't run far enough to the right. We need to go further to the right in the future in order to win. So you may see a similar dynamic emerging more and more. The nascent sort of harder left edge within the Democratic Party could actually take on more power, and that will probably be a pretty tough dynamic because you've got Trumpy Republicans and a further left Democratic Party. So the clashes will continue and are likely to get worse. So if you combine this with what likely will be actions by the president to try and do by executive fiat what he probably won't be able to do legislatively, and the reality that the presidential campaign will begin de-facto the day after the midterms conclude—and we have a recipe for a pretty tough time ahead, I'm afraid. So with that, I'd be happy to talk about any of these issues and beyond, and would also be pleased to provide advice on Washington careers, political work, anything else you'd like to discuss. So thank you. FASKIANOS: Great. And I do think we should take you up on that at the end of this, but we will first go to questions. Thank you, Chris, for that overview—I think, a little depressing—just the conflict will continue, but good news that there's bipartisanship on foreign policy issues, for sure. So, to all of you now, if you can click the raised hand icon on your screen to ask a question on your iPad, or you click the more button to access the raised hand feature. So when you're called upon, accept the unmute prompt, and please state your name and affiliation followed by your question. You can also write your question in the Q&A box. If you do that, please include your affiliations so it gives us context as to where you are in the world. OK, so I'm going to go first to a written question from David Caputo, who is the president emeritus of Pace University. Please comment on the apparent under polling of uneducated white males and what it means for the races you've cited. TUTTLE: Yeah, it's a good question. I think that there is a dynamic within certain parts of the polling public, where they just don't want to talk to pollsters, you know. They watch cable news. They think, boy, these people do not understand me, and I don't want—there's a certain social stigma attached to some of what they may think about certain issues. So I think that that is a potentially real issue out there. Polling has become enormously more complicated than it used to be. It's tough to reach people. The proliferation of cell phones and getting rid of landlines, it has become harder and harder to poll, and I do think that that is potentially a real issue—where you could see some surprises based on that under polling of those populations, where, actually, the numbers that I read off earlier in some of the close races and some of the others could actually turn out being some surprises—probably more likely for the Democrats. The Democrats would probably be more likely to be surprised. Republicans are talking about this as a potential factor—that there is under polling of certain populations that tend to vote more Republican. So that would be my comment on that. FASKIANOS: Thank you. Let's go to Babak Salimitari, who has a raised hand. Q: Hello, can you hear me? TUTTLE: Hi, Babak. FASKIANOS: We can, Babak. Please state your affiliation. Q: Hi. My name is Babak. I'm from UCI. I'm a master's student there now. My question is pertaining to immigration and the situation at the border right now, and what affect that would have on congressional races in the border states like Arizona and Texas? Right now, there's, like, 8,000 illegals crossing the border every day, and the Democratic Party has been pretty mum about this situation until, say, like, Ron DeSantis buses them over to Martha's Vineyard, and then that's when the headlines come out on MSNBC and whatnot over the situation at the border. Why isn't the party taking a stronger stance on confronting this situation and preventing people from crossing the border illegally? TUTTLE: Let's see. As far as why the party isn't taking a stronger stand, they're in a tough spot. They've got, I think, broad swaths of Democratic base voters who think that the Republicans are overdoing the illegal immigration thing and are generally supportive of immigrant communities that make up a sizeable chunk of not necessarily their voters, but a sizeable constituency for their—for Democratic base voters. So in other words, Democratic base voters, the people who are going to turn out during midterm elections, tend to be more concentrated, and they tend to be more to the left. And they have pretty much been reluctant to take actions that they view as unfair to various people who are coming to the United States to seek asylum, that kind of thing. It's a big motivator for Republican voters, particularly in voter states—or in border states. They see—they see illegal immigration as a real problem. You could see that during the Trump era. That was a big issue for Republican voters. But I think that the Democrats are in a tough spot when they've got a lot of their base voters and a lot of their members of Congress who think that U.S. immigration controls have been too stringent, I think, in the past, and sympathize with a lot of the folks who are crossing the border illegally. That's sort of my take on it. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to go next to Amalia Frommelt, who is a graduate student at NYU—New York University. In the context of the most recent attempt to overturn the presidential election and also recognizing America's historical disenfranchisement of voters that are not white men, what is the greatest threat to the future of free and fair American elections? And have these historical and contemporary events influenced these threats? TUTTLE: Yeah, I think they have influenced these threats. My concern—my biggest concern is that we've got not just sizeable, but a majority of Republicans who still think that the election was invalid. But we also have, on the flip side—and you saw this in 2016—significant parts of the Democratic Party in 2016 said that Donald Trump was not a legitimate reelected president. And I do have concerns that this fall may see the same with—the Democrats have been very, very concerned and very public about some of the different laws that have been passed in different states when it comes to voting, and ballot access, and that type of thing. I am not convinced that that will have a major—that those will play a major role in the midterm elections, but that won't, I don't think, stop some within the Democratic Party claiming that the elections this fall are not legitimate. So the biggest threat I see is that you have potentially both major political parties claiming illegitimate elections, and once you start claiming illegitimate elections, people—it's less surprising when people use undemocratic means to accomplish their ends. And that's enormously problematic for the United States. There has been a lot of talk about potential civil war and that kind of thing. I don't think we're there, but I do think that these elections stand to continue not just sort of the political discord, but also for people to sort of step out of the margins of political discourse in a way that is potentially quite dangerous for the United States. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to take the next question from Michael Leong, a graduate student at the University of Arizona who has his hand up. Q: Hi, there. TUTTLE: (Inaudible)—your profile picture. Q: Oh, sorry about that. TUTTLE: No, it's OK. Q: All right, so hi there. So I just have a question because, as you discussed, with the Republican Party taking that message that Trump is and remains their path to victory, and because of that, potentially Democrats moving further to the left, that means the polarization is going to become more severe. But is there going to be a path for both parties where basically American political—the political sphere to move back towards the center where it's not so polarized? TUTTLE: Yeah, so I'm hopeful on that front. I wouldn't call myself optimistic, but I am hopeful. There are signs within the Republican Party that maybe the Trump era is just beginning to sunset. There are some indications of that. For example, if you look in New Hampshire, there was a sort of more moderate—I wouldn't even say more moderate because I don't think the Trump phenomenon is necessarily political so much as it is rhetorical and personality based. But you had a Republican who was not a Trump Republican; in fact, you had several in the primary, and what occurred was Trump—one of the candidates was very pro-Trump, and if you took the candidates who were not, you know, Trumpy candidates and you added up all their numbers, they actually—if it had been a single sort of non-Trump Republican, that person would have won. The leading non-Trump Republican also received a lot of funds from various Democratic senatorial—or Democratic committees to—or excuse me—the leading non-Trump candidate was sort of torn down by an ad campaign by some of the Democratic committees, and that put the Trump person in the best place to win. So, in other words, those two bits of sort of—those two problems where you had several non-Trump candidates plus the Democratic Party acting to try and get—to knock down the leading non-Trump candidate in order to get—to be able to run against the Trump candidate. So I think there are signs. That's kind of a long way of getting to I think there are signs within the Republican Party. And you saw this in some other areas as well. You saw it in Maryland where the Democratic Party, the various Democratic entities were supportive of the—in one way or another, supportive of a Trump candidate getting the nomination because, you know, politics—you knew that person is easier to run against. I don't think we're there yet, though, on the Republican side. On the Democratic side, I think it's a little bit tougher. It is, I think, hard to see a Democratic Party that doesn't continue moving leftward, and you—I think that Joe Biden, although he ran very much as sort of a moderate, uniting figure, that governance has not really been that way. And I think that he is having to cater to his left flank pretty often. So he has sort of become an outsider, I think, within the base of the Democratic Party, and I see that as continuing to be a rising force within the Democratic Party. Younger voters, if you look at polling, tend to be more supportive of the issue set of sort of the hard left, and the sort of Democratic Party of prior administrations. If you look at sort of some of the economic policy, you look at some of the former Treasury secretaries, for example, in the Democratic Party; their style of sort of governance, their style of managing the economy, that kind of thing, are going away in favor of a more left-trending line. So I think there are signs of hope on the Republican side—small signs—of getting sort of out of the Trump era. But I think the Democratic Party is probably, for the next several years, going to continue to trend leftward. FASKIANOS: Thank you. A question from Todd Barry, who is an adjunct professor at Hudson County Community College in New Jersey. What is the likelihood that Republicans, in control of Congress, would cut off funding for Ukraine, and that this would lead to a peace agreement? TUTTLE: Great question. I actually think—and this speaks to my bipartisanship question in terms of Russia-Ukraine. You are seeing signs among some of the sort of harder right members of Congress to pull funding from Ukraine and not support—not continue to support Ukraine. They are not within sort of the mainstream foreign policy leaders within the—with the Republican Party. I don't think they are going to get much in the way of traction. If you look at those who are really sort of foreign policy leaders within the party and have influence on sort of the party—the party leadership in the House and in the Senate, I don't see that happening any time soon. Mitch McConnell, I think, is committed to continuing funding for Ukraine. Jim Risch—there was just a hearing this morning where he's the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—is all in favor of continuing to support Ukraine. And like I said, foreign policy leaders in the House—folks like Mike Gallagher—very much are supportive of continued funding for Ukraine. So I think there are signs of that, but I think it's premature to think that there is going to be any massive erosion of Republican support for Ukraine and continuing to stick it to Russia. That's an excellent question. FASKIANOS: Great. Next question, I'm going to go Isaac Alston-Voyticky, who is a graduate student at CUNY School of Law. Q: Hello. So I already—I already had my introduction. My question is how do you feel the delegitimization of election results immediately prior to and during the election process will have an effect on election turnout for the two major political parties in the upcoming midterms as well as the current tertiary parties? TUTTLE: So give me a little bit more on that. Q: So a good example was the—in California, probably the most prominent one. He called it like twenty-four hours that he was—that he—because he knew he was going to lose, so he said, oh, the election result, it was fake, right? Obviously, this is, you know, like a fraudulent election, and the—the tempo out there is that when that happens on a consistent basis, it effects the electoral—kind of election results because like in turnout it says, well, if it's already fraud, why am I going? TUTTLE: Yeah, yeah. So I think it remains to be seen, Isaac. I don't know that there's a—and we'll need some empirical data, I think, to really be able to judge that. I will say that there is a lot more absentee, and a lot more early voting than there has been in the past. That certainly weighs in favor of it having a lesser effect. But without empirical data, it's hard to know. Those are individual decisions that people are going to—to be making, and I would hesitate to sort of weigh in on that without a closer look at—a closer specific look at that dynamic. FASKIANOS: Great. So we have a written question from Mike Nelson who is an affiliate adjunct professor at Georgetown University who is noting that digital technologies have transformed our elections over the past fifteen years. Obama beat Hillary by using MeetUp to organize at the grassroots. Trump weaponized Twitter. Biden used Zoom from his basement. (Laughs.) I like that characterization. And what's new this year, do you think? What will it be? Will it be disinformation? TV—will TV be a critical factor? Are you hearing anything on that front? TUTTLE: I'm not—not specifically. I mean, TV is always a critical factor in elections. I think that you can look at—I remember looking at polling numbers for various members of Congress I've worked for, and you can actually see, if we do a line, of when they went up on TV and the numbers go way up. So I think TV continues to be powerful. And I think social media—that's probably, I'm guessing—the trend of the line is downward for TV; more for various social media—type stuff that you mentioned. I don't know that there is anything particularly new for the midterms, but social media is always evolving. It's always seemingly gaining more and more influence, but it's also becoming more diffuse. So the platform of yesterday is no longer the platform of today because it has been—you know, there are two or three more platforms. So I'm not aware of anything particularly new. You may be, and I'd be happy to talk about that. But I don't have any sense of what sort of the new thing is, the thing that we're going to refer to as sort of the big thing in 2022—what was able to move a particular election. And I think 2024, it remains to be seen. It's possible that there is a social media platform out there that I haven't heard of that may actually be the next big thing. And right now, it's not much, but two years from now it might be the next big thing. FASKIANOS: Right. Is there concern about interference from Russia, China in the midterms? TUTTLE: There's always concern about that. We have, I think, done a reasonably good job with our intelligence agencies, with different efforts that have been undertaken to protect our elections. It's still tough, though, because you have elections that are administered not just at the state level, but at the local level. Now that makes it tough for us to sort of harden our targets because they are so diffuse. But it also makes it harder for the other side because the targets are so diffuse. But I think that's always a concern. It will continue to be a concern, and it's not just Russia and China; it's the Iranians, the North Koreans. There are any number of state threats out there, and if you put a state threat up against a county clerk in Wausau County, Wisconsin, that is—or Marathon County, Wisconsin—excuse me—that's pretty asymmetric. The question is whether or not they can do that wholesale, and the question also is how much are we digitalized, and how much do we rely on internet for our elections. And that is why paper ballots are still important because they are really hard to—they are really hard to mess with if you are a state actor. So I think those are critical questions and one that our intelligence agencies and FBI, and others, and state officials in particular are—and state and county officials are looking at very carefully and working hard to harden themselves against potential attacks. FASKIANOS: Thanks. I'm going to go next to Fordham University. I don't know who has the raised hand, so please announce yourself. Q: Yes, good afternoon. My name is Javier Mendez. I'm from Fordham University. I'm a first-year undergraduate studying business administration. And my question would be regarding the impact that the natural disasters had on the Caribbean Basin, for example Hurricane Fiona's devastation in Puerto Rico—and the subsequent congressional debates regarding an amendment to the Jones Act, and the near future of—twelve hours—Hurricane Ian's impact on the west coast of Florida, and the subsequent government reaction to that devastation. How would that affect the results of the upcoming midterms, specifically in these states and regions where the Hispanic population is so great and they tend to—(inaudible)? TUTTLE: Right. So the question is how will the—the more specific question or the more current question is what effect might the natural disaster that's heading toward Florida right now have on the midterms? Q: Yes, and—between that and the debate regarding an amendment to the Jones Act stemming from Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico. TUTTLE: OK. So on the hurricane that's heading toward Florida right now, I think that, obviously, the response is going to be critical. We saw the reaction during the hurricane that hit New Orleans back in 2005 that that provoked a lot of sort of—that provoked people to take action politically—basically saying the Bush administration had mishandled it. The story was a lot more complicated than that; I mean, any federal disaster is going to be the responsibility of the federal government, but primarily the state and local governments. But I think that if it is perceived as being mishandled, and there is sort of a blame game on what happens there, it could potentially have some marginal impact on the midterm elections. I'm not as familiar with the Puerto Rico case, so I'm a little reluctant to weigh in on that and the Jones Act. But I'd be happy to look into it if you wanted to send me a note. My email is on the CFR website. I'd be happy to look into it further. But I'm sorry that I don't have a great answer for you at the moment. FASKIANOS: But I would note that we are seeing cooperation between—at the federal and obviously the state and local level with President Biden and Governor DeSantis. I think that they are working together on this issue. TUTTLE: Yeah, it appears—it appears that way, so, that will—but if things really go south, sometimes the blame game commences, and you could see some potential political conflict come from that. FASKIANOS: Yes. So the next written question from Hannah-Grace Henson, who is an undergrad student at Drexel. If the Supreme Court rules that election results can be overturned by state electors, what do you see happening during the next presidential election in 2024? TUTTLE: Good question. (Pause.) I think it is—it's an—it's an open question. The answer is I don't know. I think that over the past—even during the Trump period when it came down to it, there weren't state officials who were willing to bite the bullet and send forward electors who were not reflective of the popular vote. I think that is likely to hold with maybe an anomaly or two, but I don't—from my vantage point, I don't see state officials who will be willing to do that. Trump—the Trump in 2020 worked mightily on state officials to do so, and they did not. And when they didn't, Trump and his supporters tried to put forth slates of alternate electors. That's one of the things that is addressed in the Electoral Count Reform Act and the legislation that's moving through the House. But I actually am not as worried about that as some. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I'm going to go next to Arjun Chawla. Please pronounce your name for us since I did not do so correctly. Q: So are you able to hear me? FASKIANOS: Yes. TUTTLE: Yes. Q: Thank you both for the time. My name is Arjun Chawla. I'm a graduate student at Georgetown University. My question is I'd love to get your thoughts on—and if you look back at 2016, there was potential for an interference in the United States presidential election, and then ahead to the 2020 presidential election, there was potential news coming out about Hunter Biden, and that was not announced until after the election if—whatever those investigation findings were. Now coming up to the midterms—still this is not a presidential election—there is the lawsuit against—well, New York against Trump as well as the January 6 hearing going on. I'm curious. I know this is not a presidential election but in regards to the midterm, what effects do you think both of these events would have on the midterms? TUTTLE: Yeah, so on the Hunter Biden stuff and—wait, what was the second you mentioned? Q: The Trump lawsuit from New York— TUTTLE: You're talking about the lawsuits as well as the January 6. Q: And the—sorry, and the— FASKIANOS: Right, the New York State— Q: Correct, in relation— TUTTLE: The Letitia James, right, yeah. Q: Exactly. Ahead of the midterms. TUTTLE: So, yeah. So I think that it may have some marginal impact, but I don't think—I think a lot of the people who are voting in midterm elections have already sort of—are already part of a camp, OK? So if you are part of the Republican camp, you are seeing this Hunter Biden stuff, and it may intensify your feelings about how this wasn't reported, and you are concerned about what's on the laptop. If you are part of the Democratic camp, you see the January 6 stuff, and you see the January 6 committee hearings as well as the Letitia James actions up in New York, and you are already in that Democratic camp, and it may harden—it may intensify your feelings. How much effect that actually has on the independent voters that vote in midterms, and they're typically—it's typically a smaller number than would vote in a presidential election, I think it's hard to say. I think that of those three, I think the January 6 committee, for those who are paying attention to it and to news surrounding it, is probably the most persuasive in terms of changing your opinion, one way or another. But it may have just changed your opinion on Trump. And part of the effectiveness of those hearings was you had a lot of people testifying who were long-term Republicans who had been staff for Donald Trump. And so it wasn't necessarily—it was harder to make the case that this was entirely cooked up by the Democratic Party because you did have all these Republicans testify. So the question is, how much January 6—the January 6 committee and their actions might actually be able to steer independent voters? I think it remains to be seen. I think the numbers are probably fairly small. Q: Thank you. FASKIANOS: Thank you. Mark Diamond, who's a senior lecturer at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Do you see any shifts in voting patterns of faith-based communities such as Evangelical Christians, Orthodox Jews, Muslim-Americans, and others? TUTTLE: What were the groups? FASKIANOS: I think— Evangelical Christians, Orthodox Jews, Muslim-Americans, and others, so really just faith-based communities. I think those were examples. TUTTLE: Yeah. I have not seen numbers on this. My guess is of those groups the one most likely in a midterm to shift a bit I think may be the Evangelicals. I think that there are some probably—like I said, I don't have polling numbers on this, but anecdotally speaking, I think that Evangelicals in some cases have been increasingly skeptical of Trump and I think everybody on my side of the aisle—I was a longtime Republican staffer—were quite surprised when the Evangelical community turned out pretty strongly for Trump. So the question is, is that population moving? My guess is there are signs of that. And the other question is, does it affect their vote in midterm elections? I think probably in a lot of cases—Trump is not on the ballot and Evangelicals tend to vote pretty widely for Republicans, so they're going to probably continue to vote for Republicans. So I don't think it's going to necessarily change their voting patterns during a midterm election, but I could see potentially some shifts when it comes to a general election and a primary in two years, for the Republican presidential primary. FASKIANOS: Great. I'm going to go to Derek Kubacki. TUTTLE: Hey, Derek. Q: Good afternoon, sir. How are you doing? TUTTLE: I'm OK. How are you? Q: All righty. Derek Kubacki, academic adviser at UTSA, coming back for another master's as well, in global affairs this time around. Question is—it goes back to—it's not necessarily with the midterms themselves but it goes back to what you talked about with the Electoral Count Act that they're looking at doing. The House side include provisions for up to one-third of both chambers. The Senate bill is one-fifth, or essentially twenty senators. When we look at the likelihood of any potential challenge to a future election, which could conceivably come from either side of the spectrum, are those numbers really worthwhile? Do they really mean a thing when you're going to have some sort of majority that's going to be able to hit that threshold—I believe it's eighty-seven in the House and twenty in the Senate—or is this simply just a speed bump or—to potentially looking for an amendment to the Constitution to outright abolish the Electoral College? TUTTLE: Yeah. So I think that changing the Electoral College, for a wide variety of reasons, is not in the cards, so I would set that aside. I will say that the House version does have that higher threshold of one-third; the Senate has a one-fifth threshold. I don't have any inside information on this but they knew that they were going to have to go to a conference committee and it's awfully convenient—(laughs)—that there's one-fifth and there's one-third; meeting in the middle might mean a quarter, OK? So I think that it's going to be enormously challenging. I don't think it's a speed bump, but I think it's going to be very challenging to get those kinds of numbers to object to the certification of a state's results. There was only—basically there were two objections I think that were raised—I think it was Arizona and Georgia in 2021—and the pressure was huge. You saw it—you've seen different efforts both in the House and in the Senate to object, but they haven't been able to find a partner, and that's just with one to one. The last time I think was Barbara Boxer who objected to Ohio's results and she had a variety of Democrats in the House who were willing to go along with that. But I think that's a—it's a pretty heavy threshold. I think it's much more—even at a quarter, it's a pretty high threshold, and I don't think you get there. I think it makes it significantly more difficult to object. FASKIANOS: Thank you. I want to take another question from Todd Barry on—again, from Hudson County Community College. Will the Republicans craft a stimulus bill for the economy? TUTTLE: Unlikely. It remains to be seen what's going to happen with the economy generally, if we are going to tip further into a recession. Now I know there's a question about whether or not we're actually in a recession. Traditionally, the definition has been two consecutive quarters—the traditional shorthand definition has been two consecutive quarters with negative economic growth, but I think it remains to be seen how much the economy is going to slow down based on the Fed's necessary actions to curb inflation. With inflation numbers being what they are, and with Republicans having stated over and over and over again that the COVID stimulus was—and not just Republicans; some Democrats too saying that COVID stimulus was actually enormously problematic in terms of the current inflation picture. I think it's going to be pretty challenging for Republicans to say we need economic stimulus. Inflation is still, I believe, above 8 percent. It's hard to see how Republicans who are big believers that additional government spending can be inflationary, it's hard to see them being supportive of some sort of stimulus package. FASKIANOS: So we are almost out of time, Chris, and I just wanted to draw upon your time working in the Senate. You mentioned that it's unlikely for much to get done with the filibuster in place. Can you talk a little bit, from your perspective having been there, how important it is to have that sixty-vote threshold, and just having worked there back in the teens and now we're in the 2020s, just the comparison of where we are now—(laughs)—and life in Congress from a staffer perspective, and any advice you want to give to students about public service, given this partisan environment that we're in. (Laughs.) TUTTLE: Sure. Well, we have two minutes so I think on the filibuster, the filibuster is a long story, but if you want to take a short snippet of that long story: In 2005, it was Republicans who wanted to get rid of the filibuster in order to get federal judges through, and then in—and that was stopped; there was a bipartisan gang that stopped that effort. In 2013, Harry Reid, because Democratic judges weren't getting through, actually did away with the filibuster for those judges, and then in 2017, Mitch McConnell, previously a strong supporter of the filibuster—Harry Reid had previously been a strong supporter of the filibuster—changed it for Supreme Court nominees. Mitch McConnell and the Republicans changed it for Supreme Court nominees. And now we've got—and during the Trump administration he was constantly calling up Mitch McConnell saying, why can't you get rid of the legislative filibuster? I want to get things done. So the rogues' gallery of people who had been supportive or opposed the filibuster over time has changed based largely on who happens to be in power. I would say that I think the filibuster is an enormously important and positive thing for the country; a lot of people disagree with me. But I think that it is important to consider that we right now have a country that's roughly split fifty-fifty and if you start passing legislation wholesale that 50 percent of the country disagrees with firmly and then it switches to a new Senate and that legislation is then repealed and different legislation is put in, we're going to be whipsawed not just in terms of what laws are on the books but also you'll have the other half of the country dissatisfied with something that's being passed. So I think it's an important moderating influence. I think that a lot of my Democratic friends would have preferred that the filibuster still be in place when Brett Kavanaugh was nominated. So I think that the filibuster—it's a really important part of moderating the actions of government to have more consistency and more incremental change, which ultimately turns out to be more durable and easier to live under for the American people. And I think we're out of time but I'd be happy to talk a little bit about Washington careers. FASKIANOS: Just give us a couple minutes on Washington careers. TUTTLE: Sure. So I would say, in terms of Washington careers, they can be enormously helpful, enormously beneficial not just for you but for the United States. And I think one of the best places to start—and I'm, of course, biased—is in Congress because Congress forces you to work together with folks from the other side. And I don't think there's enough of that in our culture these days. There's not enough—there are not enough Democrats with Republican friends, there are not enough Republicans with Democratic friends. You're forced in Congress to know people and work with people from the other side. The other thing is you're also forced in Congress to deal with people from all over and—I mean your constituents. So if you work for a member of Congress in a good office, the single most important stakeholder, the single most important person is your customer, the constituent. And being in a congressional office and talking to people who are living their lives is really important for connecting our government to the American people. It doesn't sound glamorous to be sitting on the phone listening to somebody tell you about how their Social Security check was $24 short last month and can you help them, but it gives you a really good perspective on why democratic governance is so important. So I would encourage those of you—you have a small window to work on Capitol Hill. Nobody wants to be a thirty-year-old, thirty-five-year-old staff assistant answering phones and writing constituent mail. So you have a narrow window between sort of college graduation, maybe twenty-six, twenty-seven, to get your start on the Hill. So I'd encourage you to take a look at that as a career path. FASKIANOS: Wonderful. Well, I'm sorry we went over a few minutes, but I wanted to close with that, give some people some career advice. So, Chris Tuttle, thank you very much for this hour, and to all of you for your questions and comments. We put in the chat there the link to the landing page for Renewing America; it's CFR.org/programs/renewing-america, and the Twitter is at @RenewingAmerica. So you should follow the work that Chris is doing there on the very important nine pillars of what we need to focus on here at home. And again, I hope you will join us for our next academic webinar on Wednesday, October 12, at 1:00 p.m. (EDT) with Mary Elise Sarotte, who is the Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Distinguished Professor of Historical Studies at Johns Hopkins, on Russia's global influence. You can also follow us @CFR_Academic. Visit CFR.org, ForeignAffairs.com, and ThinkGlobalHealth.org for research and analysis on global issues. Again, Chris Tuttle, thank you very much for this conversation; we really appreciate it. TUTTLE: Thanks, Irina. Always a pleasure. Good luck to everyone. FASKIANOS: Thank you. (END)

Reps. Liz Cheney & Zoe Lofgren Propose Additional Bill to Fix the Electoral Count SystemToday's LinksArticles:  NPR - The House just passed a bill that would make it harder to overthrow an electionPolitiFact:    Electoral reform: What would updating the Electoral Count Act do?PBS Newshour - House passes electoral law overhaul in response to Jan. 6Text of the Presidential Election Reform Act:   H.R.8873 - Presidential Election Reform ActGroups Taking Action:Protect Democracy, Brennan Center, Business for America, ACLUYou're listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.Earlier this week, we told you about the differences between the U.S. Senate's  Electoral Count Reform Act, and a similar bill in the U.S. House.  September 19th, Representatives Liz Cheney and Zoe Lofgren introduced another version, which has some significant differences.PolitiFact reports that like the Senate and earlier House bill,  Cheney and Lofgren's “Presidential Election Reform Act” defines the role of the Vice President in the process, stops the possibility of an alternative slate of electors, and mandates that electors are definitively chosen before election day.  Both bills further define the certification process, raise the bar for a Senator to object to certification, and limits the certification to the state's chief elections officer, which in most states is the governor or secretary of state.The Cheney-Lofgren bill however, proposes a new way of counting the electoral votes, where the Senate bill tweaks the existing system.  The Presidential Election Reform Act also creates financial penalties to discourage the baseless, frivolous lawsuits seen after the 2020 election.   It also proposes a longer timeline than the Senate's proposal, allowing for proper challenges to be settled before final certification.    Action on the bills in the House and Senate are expected soon.  The Senate bill has its 10 Republican supporters to overcome the filibuster, but it's unclear how much support the two House bills will have when they get to the Senate.   Links to articles, the language of the Presidential Election Reform Act, and groups taking action are at  AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  Granny D said, “Democracy is not something we HAVE, it's something we DO!”  For the American Democracy Minute, I'm Brian Beihl

U.S. House Proposes Counterpart to Senate's Electoral Count Reform Act to Prevent Future CoupsToday's LinksArticles: NBC News - House members roll out bipartisan election bill aimed at preventing future coupsAxios - House members introduce reforms to election billBill Language -  Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act Groups Taking Action:Protect Democracy,  NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Issue One Action, Campaign Legal Center, You're listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.The counterpart to the U.S. Senate's Electoral Count Reform Act was just announced in the U.S. House on September 15th.  The bipartisan legislation is an attempt to prevent future attempted coups, but time is short as the Congressional term nears its end.NBC News reports that Representatives Josh Gottheimer, Democrat of NJ, and Fred Upton, Republican of Michigan, sponsored  Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, which is similar to the Senate's bill.  Both bills attempt to clarify the limited role the Vice President has in the certification process, but the House bill also proposes changes to the Presidential Transition Act, which dictates how an outgoing administration must prepare for a handoff to a newly elected President and his or her administration.   Another, broader bipartisan bill is reportedly being prepared for release this week by Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, which will address a wider scope of transition issues.   And at some future point, the January 6th Committee will report on what changes can be made to prevent any future attempts to overturn an election.   Back in the Senate, the Electoral Count Reform Act, sponsored by Senators Joe Manchin and Susan Collins, just had its tenth Republican Senator sign on, Chuck Grassley of Iowa.  If the coalition holds, the Senate has the 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, assuring the bill's passage.  Links to articles, the language of the new bill, and groups taking action can be found at AmericanDemocracy Minute.org.   

Will Congress pass bipartisan legislation to fix the Electoral Count Act, that Donald Trump tried to exploit in 2020? Is the new Electoral Count Reform Act the right way to go to stop election subversion? Are there ways of improving the act before Congress may pass it as soon as this fall? On Season 4, Episode 1 of the ELB Podcast, we hear a recent conversation that I moderated with Norm Eisen, Ned Foley, Rebecca Green, J. Michael Luttig and Janai Nelson.

John Howell speaks with Dr. Robert Alexander, Director of the Institute for Civics and Public Policy at Ohio Northern University. Dr. Alexander speaks about faithless electors and why it's far past time to modify the electoral system and eliminate this possibility. They also discuss the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Howell speaks with Dr. Robert Alexander, Director of the Institute for Civics and Public Policy at Ohio Northern University. Dr. Alexander speaks about faithless electors and why it's far past time to modify the electoral system and eliminate this possibility. They also discuss the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

President Biden signs an executive order calling for Medicaid waivers for abortion travel, state election officials testify about harassment and threats, and senators tout the bipartisan Electoral Count Reform Act.

President Biden signs an executive order calling for Medicaid waivers for abortion travel, state election officials testify about harassment and threats, and senators tout the bipartisan Electoral Count Reform Act.

President Biden signs an executive order calling for Medicaid waivers for abortion travel, state election officials testify about harassment and threats, and senators tout the bipartisan Electoral Count Reform Act.

Electoral Count Reform is imminent! This week, Kaleb, Torence, and Terrell discuss the details of the Electoral Count Reform Act and if it goes far enough in securing our elections. They also discuss the Respect for Marriage Act currently going through Congress, the Monkeypox outbreak, and the latest Jan. 6 Committee Hearing. Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol | (house.gov). Here's how you can help the people of Ukraine: NPR Weekly episodes every Thursday. Have any questions or comments? Email us at dangerouslylikely@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram (@Dangerously_Likely) and on Twitter (@DngerouslyLikly). Please leave a review if you enjoy the show! Music produced by Rebbel. News articles sourced by: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/21/us/jan-6-hearing-takeaways-trump.html https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-votes-protect-sex-marriage-case-supreme-court-rescinds-rcna38990 https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/06/27/world/russia-ukraine-war-news?name=styln-russia-ukraine®ion=TOP_BANNER&block=storyline_menu_recirc&action=click&pgtype=LegacyCollection&variant=show&is_new=false https://www.npr.org/2022/07/20/1105843501/electoral-count-act-changes-pence-january-6th https://www.collins.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/one_pager_on_electoral_count_reform_act_of_2022.pdf

Today's LinksArticles:Statement from ACLU - ACLU COMMENT ON THE ELECTORAL COUNT ACT REFORM PROPOSALStatement from Campaign Legal Center - Senate Introduces Bipartisan Bill Updating the Electoral Count Act Article from the Brennan Center for Justice - How to Fix the Electoral Count ActPolling collected by Protecting Democracy -  Polling shows bipartisan support for critical updates to the Electoral Count ActGroups Taking Action:   ACLU, Campaign Legal Center, Brennan Center for Justice, Protect DemocracyYou're listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people. We're wrapping up our discussion of the proposed, bipartisan Electoral Count Reform Act in the U.S. Senate with what advocacy groups are saying about the legislation. Kary Moss, Acting National Political Director of the ACLU, said in a statement:  “The Senate should closely and carefully review the proposal introduced by Senators to reform the Electoral Count Act. Every American should be confident that the outcome of elections will be honored following a presidential election. It is imperative Americans have confidence in our democratic process, especially after the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6.” The Campaign Legal Center also endorses the fixes to the Electoral Count Act.  Their statement read, “The next presidential election could be one of the most contentious ever. Now is the time for the Senate to move this crucial legislation. Congress must act as soon as possible to pass the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act to protect the will of the people, because elections should be decided by voters, not partisan politicians.” While endorsing the reforms, the Brennan Center for Justice reminds us, “Fixing the Elect­oral Count Act is a neces­sary and import­ant step, but it is no substi­tute for broader national safe­guards.  The Freedom to Vote John R. Lewis Act, which passed the House but was narrowly defeated because of the fili­buster earlier this year in the Senate, would have addressed many of the major prob­lems our demo­cracy faces. Passage of that bill or one like it must remain the long-term goal.Read their full statements at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  Granny D said Democracy is not something we have, it's something we DO.   For the American Democracy Minute, I'm Brian Beihl.

Today's LinksArticles:Lawfare - Correcting Misconceptions About the Electoral Count Reform ActBrennan Center for Justice - How to Fix the Electoral Count ActSlate - The New Bipartisan Bill to Prevent Another Jan. 6 Would Actually WorkYou're listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people. As we noted yesterday, a reform for the Electoral Count Act introduced last week in the U.S. Senate clarifies that the governor must appoint the slate of presidential electors.  But how does this new proposal protect against, theoretically speaking of course, a governor who is an election-denier?  An analysis in the online journal Lawfare, written by former Obama White House Counsel Bob Bauer,  and Harvard Law School professor Jack Goldsmith, argues that the reform does include additional safeguards.  It takes out the vague responsibilities in the 1887 rules about an “Executive of State” and clarifies it to be the Governor or the official responsible for the state's elections.   The Governor must follow state laws enacted before the election.  And now, he or she must complete the certification six days before the electoral college.    Bauer and Goldsmith also say that the reform bill establishes a path for the courts, first state and then federal, should a rogue governor or chief election official stray from the rules. It also specifies that this judicial remedy should be expedited so as to not slow down the electoral college process. While there are criticisms that the reforms could be stronger in some areas of the  Electoral Count Reform Act, Bauer, Goldsmith and the majority of other scholars praise the bipartisan bill and say it would make our elections more resistant to bad actors. Check out more articles on the Electoral Count Act at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.    Granny D said “Democracy is not something we have, it's something we DO.”  For the American Democracy Minute, I'm Brian Beihl.

Welcome back to Frown Town! This week, J goes solo to talk about the bipartisan proposal to update the Electoral Count Act of 1887. Relevant links: A bipartisan Senate group announces a deal on reforming the Electoral Count Act - https://www.npr.org/2022/07/20/1105843501/electoral-count-act-changes-pence-january-6th One Pager on Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 - https://www.collins.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/one_pager_on_electoral_count_reform_act_of_2022.pdf The new proposal to prevent a future coup is surprisingly good - https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/20/new-proposal-prevent-future-coup-is-surprisingly-good/ Bipartisan group of senators cuts deal to change election laws in response to January 6 attack - https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/20/politics/electoral-count-act-reform-january-6-response Presidential Election Process - https://www.usa.gov/election --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

The January 6th Commission will be taking over (most) networks in Primetime tonight (reminding us of that Paul Begala quip; DC is Hollywood for Ugly People) and Joe reminds us that the SOLE purpose of committee's like this it to advise the body at large about possible legislative fixes (for whatever it may be they were convened for) HOWEVER, a bipartisan 'gang' of Senators (incl. VA's Mark Warner) just released their "Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022"... what? (PS; PLEASE stop inferring anything from the use of the "Muppet Show" these here... It's totally coincidental. Really.)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael is joined by Matthew Seligman, a Fellow at Stanford Law School's Constitutional Law Center, as the two discuss the newly introduced Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 and its implications on America moving forward. Later, Michael answers questions and receives comments from callers on the matter. Original air date 22 July 2022.

Rasmussen asks if Clinton, Romney, Cruz, or Sanders should run again and the results will not surprise you. The defense rested Thursday morning in the trial of Bannon without calling a single witness. A bipartisan group of senators (Rinos) are working to reform the Electoral Count Reform Act, and Fridays Fun Fat Fact.