Politics and views in the United States.

Republicans may use the phantom of noncitizen voters to overturn the election, Supreme Court Justice Alito's display of an upside-down American flag reignites calls for an ethics code, and Missouri Dems filibuster for abortion rights.

TRANSCRIPT

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

It's like hygiene.

You got to brush your teeth every day.

Elections administrators should be working on list maintenance every day of the week as well.

Republican Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose says a recent check of the 8 million names on the state's voter rolls found fewer than 140 non-citizens.

He says they likely registered by accident.

According to an analysis by the conservative Cato Institute, laws already on the books barring non-citizen voting work well, so it almost never happens.

But critics say even looking for it perpetuates the conspiracy theory that non-citizen voting could rig the presidential race.

New York Democratic Congressman Joe Morelli says right-wing extremists and supporters of former President Donald Trump are laying the groundwork to try to overturn the 2024 election.

They want Americans to be afraid.

They want Americans to believe Donald Trump's inevitable excuses, his torrent of lies about fraud, when he once again leads the Republican Party down a path of insurrection.

Democrats in Congress want Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself from two election cases after the public display of an upside-down American flag at his home ahead of President Joe Biden's inauguration.

Alito has so far refused and blames his wife for displaying a signal used in the January 6th insurrection.

Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin says without a binding ethics code, change is up to the public.

We're going to have to try to deal with this through elections and the assertion of popular power because we have a completely corrupt governing class going right up to the Supreme Court.

Democrats are also calling on Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself because his wife was involved in efforts to overturn Biden's win.

A 50-hour filibuster by Missouri Democrats has ended a Republican push to make it harder to amend the state's constitution.

Supporters of abortion rights say they've collected enough signatures for a ballot measure to restore access.

Democratic State Representative Crystal Quaid says the Republican bill would have required both a statewide majority and majorities from five of Missouri's eight districts to pass it.

We have abortion access on the line this year and so we know that the Republicans absolutely want to make it harder for citizens' voices to be heard to try to stop that.

Since the overturning of Roe, ballot initiatives to restore abortion rights have passed in seven states.

Finally, four states hold primaries today - Georgia, Kentucky, Oregon and Idaho.

A ballot initiative aims to get rid of Idaho's closed primary system.

Margaret Kinzel with Mormon Women for Ethical Government says that would improve civil discourse and give moderate candidates a better chance.

You have to appeal to a broader range of voters in order to make it through both the primary and the general election and we're just hoping that that's going to create more conversations between candidates and their constituents.

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

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