In this episode, Nicole and Michael chat with David Leake about the upcoming U.S. elections, politics, news, and more. Listen to the episode here.
Show Notes for Season 3, Episode 10
- Bruce Mehlman – PowerPoint briefings for leaders and businesses, produces breakdowns quarterly
- Should voting be mandatory?
- Compulsory voting does not even bring voter turn out to 100%
- The problem is often voters who are forced just vote randomly – donkey ballots
- Does mandatory voting impinge on the First Amendment?
- How do we punish those people who decide not to vote?
- Voting rights for felons
- Presidential debates
- Machine voting vs paper ballots
- Online voting
- Currently only for military and disabled individuals in select states
- Will it ever be realized?
- Early voting
- Republicans hate it, but they are trying to teach their voters to vote early anyway
- It gives more people more opportunities to vote
- Absentee ballots
- Gives more people the opportunity to vote
- Why do people hate absentee ballots SO much?
- Are third party candidates just making things harder?
- Are third party candidates stealing votes from the two, ‘party’ candidates?
- Which party does the third party candidate take the most votes from?
- Talk about the electoral college
- The number of electors each state has reflects the number of members it has in congress
- Larger the population, larger the number of electors
- Electors vote for the president
- In all states except Maine and Nebraska, electors must vote for the winner of the popular vote
- If no candidate receives a majority vote, the House of Representatives picks POTUS and Senate picks VP
- The popular vote
- Winning the presidency without winning the popular vote – the most votes from the US population
- Swing states
- States with about equal R and D support
- Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin
- What do you think about Allan Lichtman?
- Is the president too old?
- Is age just a number?
- Biden does have speech trouble – he has a stutter
- January 6, 2021 insurrection
- Trump impeachments and trial
- Justice Alito – upside-down flag
- Abortion rights
- War
- I don’t know anything about the war except it is truly awful and inhumane
- Can you tell us, very simply, who is involved, why they are fighting and who is suffering because of it?