Voices 4/21/09

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Contributors: Linda Washburn, Anneli Sundqvist
Segment 1: Making Every Vote Truly Count: A States’ Compact For Electing The President By National Popular Vote. What is it? Will it Work? Can the Electoral College process be replaced by a truly popular vote for President and Vice-President? Can a compact among States authorize a popular vote for President and Vice-President and will this means be more successful than a Constitutional Amendment to eliminate the Electoral College? What would be the pros and cons for having an Interstate Compact for the National Popular Vote?
Guest: Ann Luther, Co-President of the League of Women Voters Maine
For more information about a national popular vote:
www.lwv.org
www.nationalpopularvote.com
Cato Institute http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9708
Common Cause
http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=1695007 and
Fair Vote http://www.fairvote.org/?page=1950.
(This segment originally aired on Women’s Windows, a program that airs every Sunday evening from 8-10pm)
Segment 2: Anneli Sundqvist, now the manager of the Deer Isle hostel, embarked on an overland journey from the middle east to her childhood home in Sweden a few years ago, and along the way she recorded her observations. These segments originally aired on public radio in Sweden, and we’ve been re-airing them here on Voices with Anneli’s permission

One thought on “Voices 4/21/09”

  1. Thank you for such a wonderful presentation on the subject..

    77% OF MAINE VOTERS FAVOR A NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE FOR PRESIDENT

    A survey of 800 Maine voters showed 77% overall support for a national popular vote for President.

    By political affiliation, support for a national popular vote was 85% among Democrats, 70% among Republicans, and 73% among others.

    By gender, support for a national popular vote was 82% among women and 71% among men.

    By age, support for a national popular vote was 79% among 18-29 year olds, 67% among 30-45 year olds, 78% among 46-65 year olds, and 82% for those older than 65.

    By congressional district, support for a national popular vote was 78% in the First congressional district and 76% in the Second district.

    By race, support for a national popular vote was 79% among whites (representing 94% of respondents) and 56% among others (representing 6% of respondents).

    In a follow-up question presenting a three-way choice among various methods of awarding Maine’s electoral votes,

    * 71% favored a national popular vote;
    * 21% favored Maine’s current system of awarding its electoral votes by congressional district; and
    * 8% favored the statewide winner-take-all system (i.e., awarding all of Maine’s electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most votes statewide).

    More details of the poll results, and loads of information, can be found at http://www.NationalPopularVote.com

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