Category Archives: Voting

Large Majority of Americans Want to End Electoral College

The polling follows a Republican push to change Nebraska rules to boost GOP nominee Donald Trump’s chances of winning in November.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 9-26-2024 by Common Dreams

*Electoral College map. Image: GPA Photo Archive/flickr/Public domain*

Polling results released Wednesday, less than six weeks away from November’s Election Day, show that a majority of Americans want to ditch the Electoral College and “would instead prefer to see the winner of the presidential election be the person who wins the most votes nationally.”

Pew Research Center surveyed 9,720 adults across the United States in late August and early September, and found that 63% want to abolish the process outlined in the U.S. Constitution and replace it with a popular vote approach, compared with just 35% who favor keeping the current system.

Continue reading →

How the 14th Amendment prevents state legislatures from subverting popular presidential elections

Leave a reply

By Eric Eisner and David B. Froomkin. Published 8-29-2024 by The Conversation

Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election not only failed, but some of them also rested on a misreading of the U.S. Constitution, as our new analysis argues. The relevant constitutional provision dates back to just after the Civil War, and contemporaries recognized it as a key protection of American democracy.

In November 2020, as it became clear that Trump had lost the popular vote and would lose the Electoral College, Trump and his supporters mounted a pressure campaign to convince legislatures in several states whose citizens voted for Joe Biden to appoint electors who would support Trump’s reelection in the Electoral College votes.

Continue reading →

US Voter Registrations Surge as Republicans Try to Limit Ballot Access

Leave a reply

One group said it has registered over 100,000 new voters since U.S. President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race.

By Brett Wilkins Published 7-26-2024 by Common Dreams

*Voting rights activists participate in a voting rights rally in Washington DC on 8-27-2021. Photo: Edward Kimmel/flickr/CC*

The group behind a popular get-out-the-vote technology platform said Friday that it’s registered more than 100,000 new U.S. voters since President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race, a surge that came amid mounting Republican efforts to make it harder to register and vote.

Vote.org said that 84% of voters registered in the new wave are under age 35. Nearly 1 in 5 new registrees is 18 years old. Andrea Hailey, the group’s CEO, said that “since 2020, we have led the largest voter registration drive in U.S. history,” with more than 7.8 million people registered.

Continue reading →

Until 1968, presidential candidates were picked by party conventions – a process revived by Biden’s withdrawal from race

Leave a reply

By Philip Klinkner, Hamilton College. Published 7-21-2024 by The Conversation

*President Joe Biden address the crowd and nation during the 59th Presidential Inauguration ceremony in Washington, Jan. 20, 2021. Photo: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff/flickr/CC*

Now that Joe Biden has dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the nominee, it will ultimately be up to Democratic National Convention delegates to formally select a new nominee for their party. This will mark the first time in over 50 years that a major party nominee was selected outside of the democratic process of primaries and caucuses.

Many Democrats had already begun discussing how to replace Biden. They worried that having the convention delegates, the majority of whom were pledged at first to Biden, select the nominee would appear undemocratic and illegitimate.

Continue reading →

Macron Calls Snap Election After Far-Right Gains in EU Contests

Leave a reply

“We live in a Europe where neofascism and absenteeism are on the rise—a combination that allows the oligarchs to plunder,” said Yanis Varoufakis.

By Jake Johnson. Published 6-10-2024 by Common Dreams

French President Emmanuel Macron called snap legislative elections on Sunday after his party suffered a major defeat in European Parliament contests, with Marine Le Pen’s far-right, xenophobic National Rally scoring twice the support of Macron’s Renaissance.

In a nationally televised speech following the elections, which saw the far-right make gains across much of the European Union, Macron said that “the rise of nationalists and demagogues is a danger for our nation and for Europe.”

Continue reading →

‘Crucial’: FCC Proposes Forcing Disclosure of AI Use in Political Ads

Leave a reply

“Americans expect and deserve to know whether the content they see on our public airwaves is real or AI-generated content—especially as the technology is increasingly being used to mislead voters,” one advocate said.

By Jessica Corbett Published 5-22-2024 by Common Dreams

Amid the U.S. political primary season and mounting fears of how artificial intelligence can be abused to influence elections, the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday unveiled a proposal to force the disclosure of AI use in campaign advertising.

“As artificial intelligence tools become more accessible, the commission wants to make sure consumers are fully informed when the technology is used,” said FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel in a statement. “Today, I’ve shared with my colleagues a proposal that makes clear consumers have a right to know when AI tools are being used in the political ads they see, and I hope they swiftly act on this issue.”

Continue reading →

Poor People’s Campaign Plans June 29 Mass Assembly, March in DC

Leave a reply

“This is a crisis moment for our democracy,” said one campaigner. “We need for our political leaders to become moral leaders and take seriously the needs and priorities of the millions of people struggling simply to survive.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 4-29-2024 by Common Dreams

*Rev. William J. Barber II at the Democracy Awakening rally at U.S. Capitol in 2018. Photo: Becker1999/flickr/CC*

Leaders of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival on Monday announced plans for the Mass Poor People & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly & Moral March in Washington, D.C. on June 29, just over four months before the U.S. elections.

The aim of the assembly and march is to “mobilize the one-third of the U.S. electorate who are poor and low-wage infrequent voters” as well as to pressure political leaders to embrace a 17-point agenda during the 2024 election cycle and beyond.

Continue reading →

Montana Supreme Court Strikes Down 4 ‘Unconstitutional’ Voting Laws Passed by GOP

Leave a reply

The laws disproportionately impacted the ability of Native people to participate in voting, the court noted.

By Julia Conley. Published 3-28-2024 by Common Dreams

Native rights groups were among those applauding a decision by the Montana Supreme Court late Wednesday as four voting restrictions, passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss, were struck down as “unconstitutional.”

The sweeping 2021 laws had ended same-day voter registration, eliminated the use of student ID cards as a form of identification for voters, banned the distribution of absentee ballots to teenagers who would turn 18 by Election Day, and prohibited third parties from collecting ballots and returning them on behalf of voters.

Continue reading →

Legislative inaction and dissatisfaction with one-party control lead to more issues going directly to voters in ballot initiatives, with 60% of them in six states

Leave a reply

By Thom Reilly, Arizona State University. Published 3-21-2024 by The Conversation

Recent polls show Americans are increasingly dissatisfied with their system of representative democracy, in which they choose candidates to represent their interests once in office.

When available, voters have bypassed their elected representatives and enacted laws by using direct democracy tools such as ballot initiatives and veto referendums. Ballot initiatives allow citizens or legislatures to propose policies for voter approval, while veto referendums permit challenges to legislative action.

Continue reading →

Biden 2025 Budget Would Offer ‘Welcome Relief,’ But Not Enough

Leave a reply

One expert said that enacting his reforms “will begin to reverse the 40-year one-way ratchet of falling taxes for the wealthy and corporations and instead invest in workers and families.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 3-11-2024 by Common Dreams

*Photto: U.S. Secretary of Defense/flickr/CC*

On the heels of delivering the latest State of the Union speech and signing a package of funding bills, U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday unveiled his budget blueprint for fiscal year 2025, a proposal praised by congressional Democrats and progressive advocates who want him to go even further.

The $7.3 trillion budget comes as the divided Congress is still sorting out funding for the current fiscal year. Given those divisions—and that the Republican House majority is already advancing its own budget resolution for the fiscal year that begins in October—the Democratic president’s plan is widely seen as a statement of priorities going into the November election.

Continue reading →

Occupy World Writes

The Movement Continues – Globally

Category Archives: Voting