They're ERASING 71% of the Vote: How Maine Democrats Replace Graham Platner | EP48

They're ERASING 71% of the Vote: How Maine Democrats Replace Graham Platner | EP48

Graham Platner won Maine's Democratic Senate primary with 71% of the vote and record turnout - and none of it matters anymore. Cara, Shawn, and Ethan break down how an obscure section of Maine election law lets 600 party delegates in Bangor erase the biggest primary win in state history. After a barely-there vetting process collapsed under press scrutiny, Platner withdrew - and now the Maine Democratic Party has until July 27 to hand-pick his replacement, with no ranked choice voting and no input from the independents who helped elect him. The crew digs into who's really pulling the strings, why Troy Jackson ("the Johnny Cash of the Allagash") could become the only working-class senator out of 100, and what this saga says about anti-establishment energy from Obama to Trump to the DSA. Then the conversation takes a turn: the sudden death of Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell's "proof of life" photo, and whether it's finally time for an age limit on every federal job. Plus a lingering question about Graham's final trip to Ukraine that the hosts can't quite shake. The Independent Voter Podcast now has its own YouTube channel! If you enjoy these conversations, subscribe to our dedicated channel for full episodes, interviews, and future content: https://youtube.com/@IndependentVoterPodcast [https://youtube.com/@IndependentVoterPodcast] Listen to more episodes and read in-depth coverage at: https://ivn.us [https://ivn.us] https://independentvoterproject.org [https://independentvoterproject.org] Follow and subscribe on audio platforms: https://open.spotify.com/show/1VnqtqjZh9EbmDtVxvHF3R [https://open.spotify.com/show/1VnqtqjZh9EbmDtVxvHF3R] https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/independent-voter-podcast/id1680559155 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/independent-voter-podcast/id1680559155] Chapters: 00:00:00 – Power, Parties, and What Your Vote Really Means 00:00:24 – Graham Platner: How a Lobsterman Search Found an Oyster Farmer 00:02:41 – The Vetting Failure That Exposed a Campaign 00:06:28 – When Your Vote Only Counts If the Party Allows It 00:07:33 – California vs. Maine – Two Elections, Two Very Different Systems 00:09:29 – Who's Running to Replace Platner — and Who's Pulling the Strings 00:11:21 – Troy Jackson – The Only Working Class Candidate in the Senate 00:21:26 – Lindsey Graham's Death and the McConnell Proof-of-Life Mystery 00:22:50 – Should There Be an Age Limit on Federal Government? 00:30:09 – Lessons from the Platner Collapse – What Democrats Should Do Next Support the show: https://ivn.us/podcasts/ [https://ivn.us/podcasts/] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Why Latino Voters Backed Trump - Then Mamdani (NOT What You Think) | Mike Madrid - EP47

The same young Latino voters who swung to Donald Trump in 2024 just handed New York to Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani - and no, they haven't changed their minds about anything. Strategist Mike Madrid explains why the fastest-growing bloc in American politics is walking out on both parties at once.  Madrid - author of The Latino Century - joins the show to blow up the way both parties read the Latino vote. His case: what looks like voters lurching right, then left, then right again is actually a dealignment - a conscious rejection of the entire two-party system, driven by class and generation far more than ethnicity. The crew digs into California's Latino turnout surge behind Becerra, why New York's closed primaries produced a dismal 9% turnout, and what really went down at the first-ever National Latino Summit in D.C. Stick around for his blunt advice on how voters can break the cycle of partisanship. Listen to more episodes and read in-depth coverage at: https://ivn.us https://independentvoterproject.org 00:00:00 – The Latino Vote: America's Most Misunderstood Bloc 00:01:04 – Dealignment, Not Realignment: Leaving Both Parties 00:03:00 – It's Not Ethnic — Latinos Vote Their Class 00:04:44 – The Turnout Story: California Surges, New York Flatlines 00:09:32 – Inside the First-Ever National Latino Summit 00:13:24 – Conscious Disaffiliation and the Under-30 Surge 00:16:24 – Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, and Starving Voters 00:18:06 – Are Latinos Really Going Socialist? 00:20:22 – Adams to Trump to Mamdani in Four Years 00:23:24 – The Fix Nobody Wants to Hear: Leave Your Party 00:30:04 – The Voting-Rights Case Headed to Court 00:34:06 – Mike's Book, Substack, and Where to Follow Support the show: https://ivn.us/podcasts/ [https://ivn.us/podcasts/] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

TRUTH: 40% of NYC Democrats Aren't Really Democrats | Jeremy Gruber - EP46

We sit down with Jeremy, Senior VP of Open Primaries, to dig into a new IVP/Open Primaries poll of registered NYC Democrats - and what it reveals is wild. Jeremy lays out "the big lie" about open vs. closed primaries, why ~40% of NYC Democrats (and two out of three Latino Democrats) don't identify with the party they're registered in, and how a 10% turnout primary ends up deciding who actually runs the city. Then Jeremy lays out why almost everyone - the media, secretaries of state, even civil rights groups - has the importance of primaries exactly backwards. This episode is sponsored by the Independent Voter Project [https://independentvoterproject.org] and produced by Olas Media [http://olasmedia.com].  🎙️ The Independent Voter Podcast now has its own YouTube channel! If you enjoy these conversations, subscribe to our dedicated channel for full episodes, interviews, and future content:  https://youtube.com/@independentvoterpodcast? [https://youtube.com/@independentvoterpodcast?si=QLxhmGkgsLUZJ7T_] Listen to more episodes and read in-depth coverage at: https://ivn.us [https://ivn.us] https://independentvoterproject.org [https://independentvoterproject.org] Follow and subscribe on audio platforms: https://open.spotify.com/show/1VnqtqjZh9EbmDtVxvHF3R [https://open.spotify.com/show/1VnqtqjZh9EbmDtVxvHF3R] https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/independent-voter-podcast/id1680559155 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/independent-voter-podcast/id1680559155] Chapters: 00:00:00 – Independent Voters: The Largest Group Nobody Knows 00:00:49 – Introducing Jeremy Gruber & the NYC Poll 00:01:37 – The Big Lie About Open Primaries 00:02:37 – Why Democrats Register as Democrats Without Being Democrats 00:04:27 – Low Turnout and Who Actually Wins 00:07:35 – When the System Opens But Voters Still Don't Know 00:10:01 – Two-Step Reform: Policy Change and Voter Education 00:12:33 – How the System Is Stacked Against Primary Awareness 00:15:35 – Independent Organizing and What Comes Next 00:17:59 – Open Primaries' Litigation, Wins, and Where to Follow Support the show: https://ivn.us/podcasts/ [https://ivn.us/podcasts/] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

She Quit Her Party. Then She Couldn't Vote. | Lisa Rice. - EP45

Lisa D.T. Rice, the driving force behind DC's Initiative 83 to permit ranked choice voting and open primaries, joins the show to explain how a missing ballot turned her into one of the most relentless reformers in the country. She breaks down why closed primaries are really a voting-rights problem, how she took on two fights at once - open primaries and ranked choice voting - in the heart of a 95% one-party city, and how rooting reform in everyday issues like food deserts is what actually wins elections. Then comes the gut-punch: voters passed her initiative with 73%, and she still couldn't cast a ballot. Stick around for the protest she threw in response, the go-go song she commissioned to troll the city council, and the lawsuit threat she says she "wouldn't put past someone."  This episode is sponsored by the Independent Voter Project [https://independentvoterproject.org] and produced by Olas Media [http://olasmedia.com].  Listen to more episodes and read in-depth coverage at: https://ivn.us [https://ivn.us]  and https://independentvoterproject.org [https://independentvoterproject.org]  Follow and subscribe on audio platforms: https://open.spotify.com/show/1VnqtqjZh9EbmDtVxvHF3R [https://open.spotify.com/show/1VnqtqjZh9EbmDtVxvHF3R]https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/independent-voter-podcast/id1680559155 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/independent-voter-podcast/id1680559155] Chapters: 00:00:00 – Why Independent Voters Are Shut Out of Elections 00:01:07 – Meet Lisa Rice and the Fight for DC Reform 00:03:10 – Discovering the Cost of Leaving a Political Party 00:04:21 – Open Primaries as a Voting Rights Issue 00:06:10 – Taking on Washington, DC’s Political Establishment 00:07:35 – How Initiative 83 Won with 73% of the Vote 00:09:47 – Connecting Election Reform to Community Needs 00:11:20 – Court Battles, Ranked Choice Voting, and What Comes Next 00:13:24 – The “Picket at the Thicket” Protest for Voter Access 00:15:28 – Building a Movement for Independent Voters and Reform Support the show: https://ivn.us/podcasts/ [https://ivn.us/podcasts/] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Trump Says Fraud. Here's What ACTUALLY Happened in California. - EP44

This week, Chad, Shawn, and Cara break down the five-day vote count that knocked Spencer Pratt out of the LA mayoral runoff - and why "fraud" is the wrong story. Cara walks through her viral article on Tom Steyer's $216 million spend, the DSA/progressive turnout machine, and how legal ballot harvesting in high-density neighborhoods delivered the late surge for Nithya Raman. Then the crew zooms out to the California governor's race, the bad-faith attacks on top-two primaries, and the record independent (NPP) turnout nobody's covering. Plus: Maine's remarkably civil ranked-choice governor's primary, a fight over slow vote counts that even the New York Times is picking, and a court challenge that could revive open primaries in Oklahoma.  This episode is sponsored by the Independent Voter Project [https://independentvoterproject.org] and produced by Olas Media [http://olasmedia.com].  Listen to more episodes and read in-depth coverage at: https://ivn.us [https://ivn.us]  and https://independentvoterproject.org [https://independentvoterproject.org]  Follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Chapters: 00:00:00 – Ballot Harvesting, Fraud Claims & the LA Mayor's Race 00:04:38 – How Ballot Harvesting Works & the Steyer Ground Game 00:09:25 – Progressive Alliances, Nonprofits & Unreported Spending 00:13:27 – NPP Voters Surge & the Real Purpose of Top Two 00:17:34 – California Governor's Race: Becerra & Hilton Advance 00:20:14 – Party Operatives, Media Bait & the Top Two Debate 00:24:50 – Maine Ranked Choice Voting & the Governor's Race 00:29:53 – California's Ballot Counting Timeline & the Postmark Debate 00:34:46 – Election Suspicion, Transparency & the Nine-Day Window 00:36:45 – Oklahoma's Open Primary Signature Fight Support the show: https://ivn.us/podcasts/ [https://ivn.us/podcasts/] See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.