Democracy Forum

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Michael Fisher, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, emerita, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, and Linda Washburn. Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics This month: We’ll talk about book banning in an historical and political perspective: tensions between First Amendment rights and rights of parental control; whether and how book bans reflect the tip of the iceberg of other coercive ambitions: controlling ideas, controlling culture, controlling people, etc. What is happening in Maine and around the country? Guest/s: 1. Lindsay Decker, Librarian at the Fogler Library at the University of Maine and also a member of the Maine Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC). 2. Kasey Meehan, Program Director, Freedom to Read, PEN America. 3. Jason Stanley, Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. To learn more about this topic: Banned Books Week (October 1 – 7, 2023) | ALA LIVE from NYPL and The Atlantic | Banned: Censorship and Free Expression in America, October 5 Books Unbanned | The Seattle Public Library (spl.org) Books Unbanned | Brooklyn Public Library (bklynlibrary.org) Intellectual Freedom – Maine State Library Florida schools got hundreds of book complaints — mostly from 2 people, August, 2023 Twenty-two challenges to school library books have been filed in Maine since January 2022. Just one book has been removed. | Maine Monitor, August, 2023 The Book Banners on the Left – by Cathy Young | The Bulwark, August, 2023 Inside Moms for Liberty’s summit: Big money and money even bigger conspiracy theories | Media Matters for America, July 2023 You can’t tell the truth about the Holocaust in Poland. Could that happen in the US? | USA Today, July, 2023 How book-banning campaigns have changed the lives and education of librarians – they now need to learn how to plan for safety and legally protect themselves | The Conversation, July. 2023 About the host: Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

The post Democracy Forum 9/15/23: Book Banning: The Tip of the Iceberg? first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Michael Fisher, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, emerita, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, and Linda Washburn. Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics This month: Ballot Questions: Whose Initiatives Are They? We’ll talk about the citizen initiative process in Maine: the sheer number of them, the money behind them, their strengths and shortcomings, home-grown vs. “from away.” How does the initiative process work, and how is it working for Maine? Can ordinary citizens can still run a ballot question? Guest/s: Shenna Bellows, Maine Secretary of State Todd Donovan, Professor of Political Science, Western Washington University To learn more about this topic: As Abortion Measures Loom, GOP Raises New Barriers to Ballot Initiatives | The Pew Charitable Trusts, February, 2023 Missouri House Passes Bill Making It Harder for Voters To Amend State Constitution – Democracy Docket, February, 2023 Policy Matters: Ballot initiatives – Press Herald, November 17,2022 League Study On Maine’s Citizens’ Initiatives And People’s Veto Referenda, Fall, 2020 Initiatives without Engagement: A Realistic Appraisal of Direct Democracy’s Secondary Effects, Joshua J. Dyck & Edward L. Lascher, Jr., Jr., 2019 Democracy Forum – Citizen Initiatives: The Devil’s in the Details, April 19, 2019 Initiative and Referendum Overview and Resources | NCSL Citizen Initiatives & Peoples Veto | Maine Secretary of State Citizens as Legislators: Direct Democracy in the United States, Todd Donovan and Shaun Bowler, 1998 About the host: Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

The post Democracy Forum 8/18/23: Ballot Questions: Whose Initiatives Are They? (REBROADCAST) first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Michael Fisher, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, and Linda Washburn. Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics This month: We’ll talk about whether modern polling techniques have been good for democracy. Is polling a reflection of public opinion; is it shaping public opinion; or is it distorting public opinion? Who is it helping? And how can we be responsible consumers of polling information? Guest/s: Ashley Koning, Assistant Research Professor and Director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Dan Shea, Chair and Professor of Government at Colby College. To learn more about this topic: Public Opinion Polling Basics | Pew Research Center Two Schools of Polling Are Converging: Reflecting on a Tumultuous Decade | The New York Times, May, 2023 How Public Polling Has Changed in the 21st Century | Pew Research Center Methods, April, 2023 Polls’ Representative Samples Often Merit Skepticism | WSJ, April, 2023 The Polls Were Historically Accurate In 2022 | FiveThirtyEight, March, 2023 Some midterm polls were on-target – but finding which pollsters and poll aggregators to believe can be challenging | The Conversation, November, 2022 Seven Ways to Evaluate a Poll | FiveThirtyEight, August, 2021 Harvard experts weigh the good and bad of political predictions | The Harvard Gazette, November, 2020 The Problems Inherent in Political Polling | The New Yorker, March, 2020 Can We Trust the Presidential-Election Polls? | The New Yorker, March 2020 About the host: Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

The post Democracy Forum 6/16/23: Public Opinion Polling: Is It Good for Democracy first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Michael Fisher, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, and Linda Washburn. Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics This month: We’ll talk about how young people are engaging politically nationwide and here in Maine. What motivates them? What challenges do they face? What can the larger community do to support their efforts? Why is it important to the future of democracy? Guest/s: Cole Cochrane, Co-founder, Maine Youth Action Mahnoor Hussain, Program Director, CIRCLE Anna Siegel, founding member of Maine Youth Climate Justice and co founder of Maine Youth Action To learn more about this topic: The teen brain: Mysteries and misconceptions | Knowable, April 2023 24 Ways to Grow Voters Before 2024 | CIRCLE, April 2023 The Youth Vote in 2022 | CIRCLE, April 2023 LWVME Youth Voting Age Study Info Session, April, 2023 How the Youth Vote Is Being Suppressed – Long Story Short | The Daily Show – YouTube, March, 2023 Making our ‘civic deserts’ more fertile – Island Institute, April, 2023 GOP lawyer Cleta Mitchell decries ease of ‘campus voting’ in private RNC pitch – The Washington Post, April, 2023 About the host: Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

The post Democracy Forum 5/19/23: Young Change Makers: Owning the Future first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Michael Fisher, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, emerita, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, and Linda Washburn. Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics This month: Ballot Questions: Whose Initiatives Are They? We’ll talk about the citizen initiative process in Maine: the sheer number of them, the money behind them, their strengths and shortcomings, home-grown vs. “from away.” How does the initiative process work, and how is it working for Maine? Can ordinary citizens can still run a ballot question? Guest/s: Shenna Bellows, Maine Secretary of State Todd Donovan, Professor of Political Science, Western Washington University To learn more about this topic: As Abortion Measures Loom, GOP Raises New Barriers to Ballot Initiatives | The Pew Charitable Trusts, February, 2023 Missouri House Passes Bill Making It Harder for Voters To Amend State Constitution – Democracy Docket, February, 2023 Policy Matters: Ballot initiatives – Press Herald, November 17,2022 League Study On Maine’s Citizens’ Initiatives And People’s Veto Referenda, Fall, 2020 Initiatives without Engagement: A Realistic Appraisal of Direct Democracy’s Secondary Effects, Joshua J. Dyck & Edward L. Lascher, Jr., Jr., 2019 Democracy Forum – Citizen Initiatives: The Devil’s in the Details, April 19, 2019 Initiative and Referendum Overview and Resources | NCSL Citizen Initiatives & Peoples Veto | Maine Secretary of State Citizens as Legislators: Direct Democracy in the United States, Todd Donovan and Shaun Bowler, 1998 About the host: Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

The post Democracy Forum 4/21/23: Ballot Questions: Whose Initiatives Are They? first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Michael Fisher Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Judith Lyles, Rick Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, emerita, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor Linda Washburn Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics This month: If Small States Rule, Why Are They So Angry? Does this small-state bias in the federal government equate to overrepresentation of rural interests? Does it translate to policies that help rural areas thrive? Are communities in small or rural states actually thriving? Do people in those communities feel like they’re thriving? Or does “rural resentment” account for minority rule at the federal level? Senators from small states hold outsize sway in government to the point where they can block measures that the majority of Americans want. How are they using that power? What does it mean for Maine? Guest/s: Amy Fried, John Mitchell Nickerson Professor or Political Science, UMaine Michael Podhorzer, Chairman of the Board of the Analyst Institute; Assistant to the President for Strategic Research at the AFL-CIO To learn more about this topic: Paul Ryan Says Even MAGA Diehards Believe Trump Can’t Win in 2024 – The New York Times, March, 2023 Most Rural States 2023 | World Population Review The Resentment Fueling the Republican Party Is Not Coming From the Suburbs – The New York Times, January, 2023 Rural Americans aren’t included in inflation figures – and for them, the cost of living may be rising faster | The Conversation, January, 2023 Opinion | Can Anything Be Done to Assuage Rural Rage? | The New York Times, January 2023 Opinion | How to fix American democracy during a ‘Great Pulling Apart’ – The Washington Post, January, 2023 Opinion | This Is How Red States Silence Blue Cities. And Democracy |The New York Times

The post Democracy Forum 3/17/23: If Small States Rule, Why Are They So Angry? first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics This month: Compared to their population, rural states are over-represented in the federal government, from the U.S. Senate to the Electoral College, the Supreme Court, and possibly even the U.S. House. How has the come about; how far can it go? How does this affect Maine? Where is this heading, and what can or should be done about it? Guest/s: Mark Brewer, Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Maine Alexander Keyssar, Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School To learn more about this topic: U.S. Senate: Origins and Foundations | Senate.gov The Senate: From White Supremacy to Governmental Gridlock – UVA Press The Senate: Threat or Backbone of American Democracy? | Divided We Fall June, 2021 The Electoral College and the Rural-Urban Divide – The Aspen Institute, February, 2021 Two Senators per State: A Recipe for Minority Domination | Second Rate Democracy, 2020 The history of the Electoral College and our national conversation about race | Harvard Kennedy School, August, 2020 Alexander Keyssar — Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College? | Politics and Prose, November, 2020 The Stubborn Survival of the Electoral College – WSJ, August 2020 American democracy’s Senate problem, explained – Vox, December, 2019 Here’s How to Fix the Senate – The Atlantic, January, 2019 The Founder’ monumental constitutional mistake; 2 senators from each state | NationofChange, October, 2018 Misrepresentation in the House of Representatives | Brookings, February 2017 The electoral college badly distorts the vote. And it’s going to get worse | The Washington Post, November, 2016 As American as Apple Pie? The Rural Vote’s Disproportionate Slice of Power – The New York Times, November, 2016 Sizing Up the Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation, Lee, Oppenheimer, 1999 When Adding New States Helped the Republicans – The Atlantic, September, 2019 About the host: Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

The post Democracy Forum 2/17/23: Small-state bias in the federal government: is this democracy? first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics This month: A number of towns in Hancock County are doing, have done, or are thinking of doing comprehensive planning. So, what is comprehensive planning, why do Maine towns do it? Why should they do it and how often? What comprises a comprehensive plan? What difference does it make in a community, why should people care? Guest/s: Susan Lessard, Bucksport Town Manager Noel Musson, Principal/Planner with the Musson Group Evan Richert, Former director of the State Planning Office To learn more about this topic: Comprehensive Plans: Municipal Planning Assistance Program: Maine DACF Comprehensive Planning: A Manual for Maine Communities Land Use Planning | National Working Waterfront Network Comprehensive Plan | Town of Orland, December, 2022 Priority Strategy: Increasing Physical Activity Through Community Design | CDC, December, 2022. The Future of the Comprehensive Plan | Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy May, 2022 A New Era of Equity-Based Comprehensive Planning…Finally | GreenLaw, September, 2021 About the host: Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

The post Democracy Forum 1/20/23: Comprehensive Planning: Why Bother? first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics This month: Election Reflections: What Just Happened Here? -A conversation about the election. -Less about how the parties and the candidates performed; more about how democracy performed. -How did the election machinery hold up? -How did our voters and our instituions hold up? -Have our citizens embraced or rejected the legitimacy of the outcomes? -What does it all mean in the context of a bigger conversation about the future of western democracy? Guest/s: Maya Eichorn, Liberal Studies Student York County Community College, and fellow with Maine Students Vote, and affiliate of the League of Women Voters of Maine Elaine Kamarck, Founding Director at the Center for Effective Public Management and Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings Steve Mistler, Chief Political Correspondent and State House Bureau Chief, Maine Public To learn more about this topic: Turnout among young voters was the second highest for a midterm in past 30 years | NPR, November 2022 LePage’s loss leaves Maine Republicans at a crossroads – Portland Press Herald, November 2022 Midterms pose fresh test for American democracy after two years under fire | Washington Post, November 2022 ‘We’re watching you’: incidents of voter intimidation rise as midterm elections near | The Guardian, November 2022 Gen Z voter turnout will show just how influential influencers really are | Washington Post, November 2022 State courts are fielding sky-high numbers of lawsuits ahead of the midterms – including challenges to voting restrictions and to how elections are run | The Conversation, October 2022 The end of the debate? Republicans draw the curtain on political theater | US politics | The Guardian, September, 2022 Can the abortion issue save Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections? | Brookings, Elaine Kamarck, August 2022 About the host: Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

The post Democracy Forum 11/18/22: Election Reflections: What Just Happened Here? first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn Panel moderator: John Brautigam, an attorney and consultant with over 25 years of experience in campaign finance and election law, public policy, advocacy, and legal representation. From 2004 to 2008 he served in the Maine legislature and was House Chairman of the Insurance and Financial Services Committee. Prior to his tenure in the legislature Mr. Brautigam served as Assistant Attorney General. He previously served as legal counsel successfully defending the constitutionality of the 1996 reforms to Maine campaign finance laws, including the Maine Clean Election Act. Brautigam is counsel for the League of Women Voters of Maine. Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics This month: Many legal scholars say that the Supreme Court’s decision in Moore v Harper, involving the Independent State Legislature Theory, could be one of the most important election law cases for the future of federal elections. If adopted by the Court, the most extreme versions of the theory could destabilize elections. But the Court could adopt a more limited, less disruptive version. Or the Court could decide not to adopt any version. We’ll introduce this issue and some of the potential implications of the case Moore v. Harper to be decided in 2023. Guest/s: Derek T. Muller, holds Ben V. Willie Professorship in Excellence at the University of Iowa College of Law Eliza Sweren-Becker, counsel in the Voting Rights & Elections Program at the Brennan Center for Justice To learn more about this topic: There Is Absolutely Nothing to Support the ‘Independent State Legislature’ Theory | The Atlantic, October, 2022 Moore v. Harper, Explained | Brennan Center for Justice, August 2022 State Legislature Seeks Unchecked Power over Elections in Moore v. Harper | League of Women Voters, League of Women Voters blog, August 2022 Unpacking the Left’s Disinformation Campaign about Moore v. Harper | National Review, August, 2022 The Next Big Threat to American Democracy Is Headed to the Supreme Court | The New Republic, August 2022 Is Democracy Constitutional? | The Atlantic, July 2022 Richard Pildes’ on Election Law Blog, July 2022 Derek Muller on Moore v. Harper and Independent State Legislature Doctrine | The Lawfare Podcast: July, 2022 About the host: Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

The post Democracy Forum 10/21/22: What’s At Stake in Moore v. Harper? Gerrymandering and More first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.