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Politics: 2024Talks - September 24, 2024

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Politics and views in the United States.

Audio file

Trump says no more presidential runs, Nebraska is unlikely to change its Electoral College rules, Washington's new 'ballot curing' law has impacts on a close race, and Ohio will vote on changes to how districts are drawn.

TRANSCRIPT

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

No, I don't.

No, I don't.

I think that that will be that will be it.

I don't see that at all.

I think that hopefully we're going to be successful.

For the first time, former President Donald Trump says he won't run for president again.

Previously, Trump described his victory as inevitable.

But Sunday on Sinclair Broadcasting's Full Measure, he was much more restrained.

Prosecutors plan to charge Ryan W.

Ruth with attempted assassination.

The man arrested after waiting with a rifle near where Trump played golf left a letter in his car saying he tried his best to kill the former president.

He's being held without bond.

Critics of an Israeli intelligence operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon say it would be illegal under U.S. law, which forbids using civilian items as weapons of war.

On CBS, former CIA Director Leon Panetta calls booby-trapping pagers and walkie-talkies to explode terrorism.

I don't think there's any question that it's a form of terrorism.

And when you have terror going into the supply chain, it makes people ask the question, what the hell is next?

Nebraska looks less likely to start awarding its electoral college votes, winner take all.

Maine and Nebraska are the only states that award electoral college votes by congressional district.

The crucial Republican state senator representing Omaha says it's too close to the election to change that.

Washington's new ballot-curing law had an impact in the primary.

State Director of Elections Stuart Holmes says voters being able to more easily fix mismatched ballot signatures might have tipped the photo finish race for public lands commissioner.

There was thousands and thousands of ballots that were initially challenged that were cured by voters through returning the cure form or submitting a alternative identification through these new reforms.

And every one of those mattered.

Federal workers are voicing concerns about Project 2025, the hard right roadmap for a second Trump term.

Trump denies involvement, but Jacqueline Simon with the American Federation of Government Employees says Trump allies helped write the Heritage Foundation document.

She says privatizing government agencies and making tens of thousands of federal workers political appointees would have nationwide impacts.

There's a misconception that most federal employees live and work in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

And the truth is that 85 percent of federal employees work elsewhere around the country.

In Ohio, campaigning's underway over Issue 1, which would take the power to draw district maps from lawmakers and give it to a bipartisan citizen commission.

Supporters say the current system lets politicians protect their seats with unconstitutional gerrymandering.

But Mark Weaver with Vote No on Issue 1 says Ohio already has reforms in place.

We should allow them to work.

They're relatively new.

But Issue 1 would strip out the anti-gerrymandering provisions that Ohio voters put in.

I'm Farah Siddiqui for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.