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Politics: 2024Talks - April 4, 2024

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Politics and views in the United States.

Audio file

Nebraska aims to change how it awards Electoral College votes, nearly 50,000 Wisconsin Democrats vote uncommitted to protest Biden's handling of Gaza and voters there approve a ban on private donations for election administration.

TRANSCRIPT

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Welcome to 2024 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

When you look at the map, that one electoral vote really matters in the combination of other things.

Then you need another state.

Former Obama campaign manager, Jim Messina, says President Joe Biden could lose an important electoral college vote if Nebraska changes to a winner-take-all system.

The Republican governor is asking the legislature to do that, saying it would let the deep red state speak with one unified voice.

Nebraska and Maine are the only two states that still split their electoral college votes by congressional district.

Low turnout primaries Tuesday in Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin showed vulnerabilities for both Biden and former President Donald Trump.

The Republican only got around 80 percent in the races, even though he has no serious opposition.

And college student Dalia Saba is one of the nearly 50,000 Wisconsin Democrats voting uncommitted to protest Biden's handling of Gaza.

It is a way for us to quantify, this is how many people care about this issue.

We are Democrats, we are voting in a Democratic primary.

These are your constituents, and your policy is alienating them.

Wisconsin voters also amended the state constitution to ban private donations for running elections, similar to moves in half of the states.

Wisconsin Republican Congressman Brian Stile says without proof that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg used large donations specifically to mobilize Democrats in 2020 battlegrounds.

Elections are partisan, but elections administration should never be partisan.

Zuckerberg did donate hundreds of millions for poll worker training and safety supplies to help local governments run elections during the pandemic.

There is no evidence it was a partisan effort.

Senator Bernie Sanders and President Biden came together Wednesday to tout the progress made to cut the cost of inhalers and to press Congress to do more to lower the cost of prescriptions.

Sanders says Americans still pay the world's highest drug prices.

One out of four Americans cannot afford to purchase the prescriptions that their doctors write, and some of them will die as a result.

Abortion rights measures could be on the ballot in 11 states this fall, including Arizona.

Pro-choice advocates there say they've gotten more than enough signatures to let voters decide if access should be a fundamental right protected by the state's constitution.

Chris Love with Arizona for Abortion Access calls it a bipartisan issue.

And the vast majority of Arizona voters from across the political spectrum trust that we should be free to make our own personal medical decisions without government interference.

Meanwhile, Democrats say Florida could be in play this election thanks to referendums on abortion and recreational marijuana.

The state Supreme Court approved both earlier this week.

I'm Katherine Carley for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.