Politics and views in the United States.

Maine votes in support of a national popular vote, Nebraska rejects a "winner take all" system for Electoral College votes and former President Trump says abortion rights should be left to the states.

TRANSCRIPT

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

I think everyone understands the idea of one person, one vote, and this is the time for us to adopt that for voting for our president of the United States.

State Representative Arthur Bell voted for Maine to join a national popular vote compact. 16 blue states and Washington, D.C. have moved toward awarding their electoral college votes to the nation's popular winner.

Democrats say that would weaken smaller states.

Maine's governor hasn't said if she'll sign the bill.

An effort to award Nebraska's five electoral votes, winner take all, failed last week, but supporters say they'll try again during this legislative session.

Nebraska, like Maine, awards delegates by congressional district and gave President Joe Biden a vote from the one including Omaha.

Democratic State Senator Megan Hunt says former President Donald Trump is pressuring lawmakers.

Obviously, he wants this electoral vote because he's so scared he can't win the presidency without it.

He's so scared that the same thing will happen that happened in the last presidential election.

He'll lose.

Meanwhile, Trump announced abortion rights should be decided by the states, with rape, incest and life of the mother exceptions.

And whatever they decide must be the law of the land, in this case, the law of the state.

At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people.

Trump is declining to back a national ban and is trading a tax with supporters over it.

A New York appeals judge has rejected another Trump request to delay and move his first criminal trial.

Jury selection starts in a week on charges the former president paid hush money to a porn star and illegally hid the payments.

President Biden chose the battleground of Wisconsin to announce new student loan debt relief for up to 25 million borrowers.

He says this will especially help the many who owe more than they borrowed due to excessive interest.

I will never stop to deliver student debt relief on hardworking Americans.

And it's only in the interest of America that we do it.

And again, it's for the good of our economy.

This was Biden's second recent trip to Wisconsin, where 50,000 Democrats voted uncommitted in the primary in protest of his handling of Gaza.

The Arkansas Supreme Court says voting machines do comply with state law.

Clint Lancaster with Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative had argued the voters can't verify their ballots because they can't read the barcodes.

We go to great lengths to make our currency secure.

You have special paper, holograms, all this stuff.

But you can go get a ballot down at like FedEx, mark it up and send it in.

The challenge was one of many nationally after Trump claimed without evidence the machines were rigged against him in 2020.

Studies show hand counting ballots is less accurate due to human error.

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

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.