Tag: elections

Talk of the Towns 11/9/18

Producer/Host: Ron Beard, University of Maine Cooperative Extension
Engineer: Denis Howard

Community concerns and opportunities: 2018 Post Election Reflection

Key Discussion Points:
How would you characterize the 2018 elections… any general observations about the election process this year and any results you would like to highlight?
Review results known in Maine (Governor, Congress, Senate seat, make-up of the new legislature)… What stands out for you in these results?
Review results of Congressional Mid-Term elections (Control of House, Senate) What stands out for you?
Though he wasn’t running, President Trump seemed to be a factor in these mid-terms, highlighting some of the stark differences between Republicans (under Trump) and Democrats. How did this seem to play out? Was it unusually polarizing? How did Trump seem to influence the results?
In the wake of the Women’s March, the Me-Too movement, the Kavanaugh hearings, the Parkland student’s leadership of the March for our Lives demonstrations in March, Pantsuit Nation, Indivisible, outrage ties to white nationalism and racism, shootings and bombings… we saw impressive attempts to engage women, people of color, young-people? Any obvious results that affected this election cycle?

Guests:
Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine, host of Democracy Forum that airs the third Friday of the month at 10 AM on WERU
Jamie McKown, James Russell Wiggins Chair in Government and Polity, College of the Atlantic

Democracy Forum 9/21/18

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine
Engineer: Amy Browne

Elections in Maine: Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Key Discussion Points:
what citizens need to know about the conduct of elections in Maine:
what are the opportunities for citizen participation and observation;
what aspects are conducted by the State with regard to the security and integrity of the process and the electronic components;
what role do the town clerks play in making sure things run smoothly, etc.

Guests:
Patti Dubois, Waterville City Clerk www.waterville-me.gov/clerk/
Julie Flynn, Deputy Secretary of State, Maine Secretary of State’s Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions. www.eac.gov/testing/staff-modules/julie-l-flynn/

To learn more about this topic:
History of the Municipal Clerk, September, 2014, at the International Institute for Municipal Clerks
Maine Town and City Clerks Association
Maine Secretary of State Elections Division
U.S. Elections Assistance Commission

The all-volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes:
Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Sheila Kirby, Ann Luther, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Leah Taylor, and Linda Washburn

FMI re League of Women Voters of Maine: www.lwvme.org

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 9/13/18

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Voting Security

Voting security in the digital age is much in the public eye these days, especially with an important election coming up. The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine just released a Consensus Report entitled “Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy”(https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25120/securing-the-vote-protecting-american-democracy). It’s definitely worth a read. Just in case you don’t have a chance to read it, here are some of the highlights from that report. They deserve our attention – and our action.

Democracy Forum 4/20/18

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine  
Engineer: Amy Browne

Ranked Choice Voting: How Will it Work In Maine

-How ranked choice voting is moving forward for the June primary
-What the Secretary of State is planning
-What voters need to know as they head for the polls.

Guests:
John Brautigam, a public interest attorney, senior adviser and strategist to the project, Maine Uses Ranked Choice Voting. www.mainecleanelections.org/who
Grace Ramsey, deputy outreach director for FairVote, a national electoral reform advocacy group. www.fairvote.org/grace_ramsey

To learn more about this topic:

Maine Uses Ranked Choice Voting
Fair Vote
League of Women Voters of Maine

The all-volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes:

Starr Gilmartin
Maggie Harling
Linda Hoskins
Sheila Kirby
Ann Luther
Maryann Ogonowski
Pam Person
Leah Taylor
Linda Washburn

FMI re League of Women Voters of Maine: www.lwvme.org

Democracy Forum 3/16/18

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine  
Engineer: Joel Mann

Gerrymandering: What’s the Big Deal?

How redistricting has changed over the last 50 years
Thee emergence of extreme partisan gerrymandering
Court cases pending before the U.S. Supreme Court
Why it matters in Maine.

Guests:
Matt Dube, Assistant Professor in Computer Information Systems at the University of Maine in Augusta www.uma.edu/directory/staff/matthew-p-dube/
Elaine Kamark, Senior Fellow in the Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution www.brookings.edu/experts/elaine-kamarck/

To learn more about this topic:
Gerrymandering and how to fix it, from Elaine Kamark at Brookings.
The new front in the gerrymandering wars, from the New York Times Magazine, August, 2017.
We Drew 2,568 Congressional Districts By Hand. Here’s How., from the 538 Gerrymandering Project, January 25, 2018.
Mathematical Characteristics of District Boundary Lines as Indicators of Partisan Gerrymandering in U.S. House Elections, Richard J. Powell, Matthew P. Dube, and Jesse T. Clark, April, 2017.
Assessing the Causes of District Homogeneity in U.S. House Elections, Richard J. Powell, Matthew P. Dube, and Jesse T. Clark, August, 2017

Maine Currents 11/9/16

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Studio Engineer: John Greenman

The Day After. Reaction to the outcome of the elections from our multi-partisan panel of local community members and listeners. The panel reflects on several months of civil discussions despite political differences in this last program of the series that start in March 2016.

Guests: Trump supporter Thomas White of the Maine Maritime Academy Republicans; Former Libertarian/Johnson supporter (now undecided) Renee Trust; Democrat/Clinton supporter Ken Gleason; Green/Stein supporter Betsy Garrold; and “3rd degree Berner” now planning to vote for Stein, Tim Wilson.