April 6, 2023 • 22 mins
Dr. Leroy travels to Hawaii to chat with Dan Howle. He shares about the Independent Voter Project as well and the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers and How Independent Voters and Statewide Initiatives are Revolutionizing Cannabis and Elections.
(Originally aired April 6/23)
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S1 (00:00):
The views and opinions expressed in this program are those
of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views
or positions of any entities they represent, including, Olas media.
S2 (00:12):
Olas Media. Olas media presents cannabis Enlightened produced in San Diego, California.
Now here's your host, Dr. Leroy Brady.
S3 (00:24):
You know, this is a dream come true. I am
in Hawaii, Maui, at the Fairmont Hotel, and I am
just having a wonderful time. The room I'm staying in
is so nice. Everyone so nice that I took pictures
and I sent it back to my relatives. So I
(00:47):
am down to earth person. I'm not used to this
kind of thing, but Hawaii is absolutely beautiful, absolutely beautiful,
and I love it. And I'm already planning to come back.
This special edition of Cannabis Enlightened as I am, your host,
Doctor Leroy, is extra special because we're going to be
(01:08):
talking about the importance of voting with this and I'm
attending a conference, believe it or not. I have a
people have a hard time believing that I am at
a conference in Hawaii. But I tell them, yes, I'm
at a conference in Hawaii and it's being sponsored by
the Independent Voter Project, Independent Voter Project. And the head
(01:32):
of that project, the executive director, is Dan Howell. And
I have Dan here with me. And Dan, would you
come on introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about,
you know, how you came about being the executive director?
S4 (01:48):
Well, I'm Dan Howle. I'm the as Dr. Leroy said,
I'm the executive director of the Independent Voter Project. It's
an organization that was founded in 2006 by former state
Senator Steve Peace and myself and and another individual, David Takashima.
David and I were both chiefs of staff to Senator Peace.
(02:10):
And we had we had all left the legislature in
the in in the very early part of the 21st
century between 2001 and 2003, we all left the legislature.
And in the ensuing 2 or 3 years, we started
to talk to each other about when when we were
(02:34):
in the legislature and the way the legislature operated and
the value of it. I started I started working in
the California legislature in 1974. So by the time you
got to to the year 2000, I'd been there for
a long time. Right. Same thing with Senator Peace and
same thing with David Takashima. And one of the things
(02:55):
that we felt sort of a responsibility for was that
over the tenure that we were there, the legislature became
much more partisan and it became much more it was
not it didn't have the depth that it used to have.
S3 (03:12):
And then when we talk about partisan, we're saying that
people would vote only one way, vote only Republican or
only Democrat.
S4 (03:21):
Well, yes, that's that's what's happening now. But it didn't
used to be that way.
S3 (03:26):
Regardless of the issue.
S4 (03:27):
Regardless of the issue, the legislature in the in the
70s and the 80s and into the 90s, the legislature
in California was, I think, on par with Congress. There
were substantive, really substantive hearings on issues. There was great
deal of bipartisanship. There was camaraderie where it didn't matter
(03:51):
what party you were, you remained friends even when you
disagreed and you argued you didn't take it home with you.
And over the course of time, it became more and
more and more partisan. And we thought that it was
it was getting to a point where voters were really
dissatisfied and disenfranchised. And we sat and we thought about
(04:14):
what are the things that we can do to improve
politics in California. And one of the things we focused
on was that California's elections in California weren't competitive. They
were being decided and primary elections were the fewest number
of people voted. So you had a smaller universe of
(04:34):
people who were determining who the nominees were. And because
of of closed primaries, Democrats who won the primary were
automatically elected in November. There really wasn't any competition. And
so Steve piece in I think in the late 90s,
there was an initiative or there was a for for
(04:57):
one term, there was an open primary law. And Steve,
as a member of the legislature, remarked how the behavior
of legislators changed remarkably when when there was open primaries led.
Slaters became aware that they couldn't just go back to
their district and just focus on their own political party.
(05:21):
They had to do something to appeal to independent voters
and they had to do something to to appeal to
the voters of the opposite party. Because in an open primary,
if you don't appeal to everyone, then your opponent may
do that and you may win the vote in your
own party, but lose the independents and lose the opposite
party and not be successful, not get reelected so you.
S3 (05:43):
Lose the general.
S4 (05:44):
Yeah, you're losing the general election. And the California Supreme
Court overturned that that open primary law. And they did
it based on the fact that political parties are private
organizations and they have a right to determine who is
affiliated with the political party. So we decided we're going
(06:05):
to redo that. We're going to do the we're going
to write it the correct way this time. So we
we we hired lawyers and spent a lot of money
with lawyers, both constitutional lawyers and political lawyers, so that
we would write an initiative that would stand up to
a constitutional challenge. So one of the big things in
the initiative is that California and California, no one, no
(06:28):
one registers with a political party affiliation anymore. Okay? When
you register to vote, you state a political party preference.
And there's a real distinction between affiliation and preference. With preference,
you're not violating the rights of association of the political parties. Okay.
And so that's the big piece that has stood up
(06:50):
to a number of constitutional challenges. And so what happened
was in 2010, the initiative was on the ballot in California,
and it passed and it passed because independent voters turned
out in record numbers in the primary election because there
was initiative on the ballot that gave them the right
to vote for anybody they wanted to in primary elections.
S3 (07:12):
I was just going to ask you if this new method,
this way of putting forth an initiative, brought more people
out to vote?
S4 (07:21):
It certainly did. In the primary in 2010, we compared
2010 a non presidential year for a primary. Okay, with 2008,
which is a presidential year for a primary. Right. And
we turned out about 400,000 more independent voters in 2010
than in 2008. And it was because there was there
was an initiative on the ballot that was it was
(07:44):
sort of an apolitical issue. It was a voting rights issue,
and it appealed to them. We also knew from from
polling and research and focus groups that about 30% of
the people in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party
really liked the idea of being able to vote for
someone not in that party if they wanted to. And
(08:05):
under the closed primary system, they didn't have that opportunity.
S3 (08:08):
So Democrats would vote. A Democrat could vote for a Republican. Yes,
because possibly they liked what that Republican was backing. Right. Okay.
Not just because well, I can't vote for that person
because they're Republican and I'm a Democrat.
S4 (08:26):
That's right. They may have in a state assembly, they
may have in their in their area. They may have
a congressional race, a state Senate race, a in a
legislative race. And they might think one of the Republican
candidates is more in tune to what their values are.
And in a primary election, they weren't allowed to vote
(08:49):
for a Republican. They had only Democratic choices. And result
of that is California went in one election cycle from
the least competitive legislative and congressional districts in the country
to the most competitive. Wow. That's phenomenal. And all of
a sudden, every voter in California was on equal status. Wow.
S3 (09:10):
Wow. Then did that change the type of politician that
would be coming to Sacramento?
S4 (09:17):
Yes. Yes. Yes. Not universally. And the best way for
me to describe it is we have 52 states and
in a presidential election, 42 of them are pretty much
predetermined because they're either Republican states or. But there's eight
states that are competitive. Well, in the in the in
(09:37):
the election process, there's every two years, there's 100 legislative
seats up for election, 80 in the assembly, 20 in
the Senate. And of that 100, there's probably 95 to
100 that are because of the the registration numbers and
the districting. Those seats are going to be either a
(10:00):
Democratic seat or a Republican seat. Right. And then there's
there's you know, there's 8 or 10 that are just
flat out competitive seats. So in those seats, you know,
anybody anybody can win. And what makes the what makes
a a solid Democratic seat more competitive and a solid
Republican seat more competitive is with the open primary. You
(10:24):
can have two Democrats on the ballot. And and when
you have two Democrats on the ballot, they're both competing
for Democratic votes. But now in order to win, they
have to they have to compete for Republican and independent votes,
whereas in a solid Democratic district, if it was a
Democrat and a Republican on the ballot in the opposite
(10:46):
in a Republican district, a Republican, the Republican or the
Democrat automatically got elected, They didn't have to communicate with
anybody other than the Democrats or the Republicans, their own
political party. And that changed dramatically. So the behavior of
legislators is they have to pay a lot more attention
(11:07):
to the constituents who are not part of the political party,
that they're that they prefer.
S3 (11:14):
They got to pay attention to everybody.
S4 (11:15):
Yes, they have to pay attention to everybody. And so
you get you get a you get a more moderate legislature. Okay.
S3 (11:22):
All right. So the Independent Voter Project is not just
interested in getting people to vote. It sounds like it's
much bigger than that.
S4 (11:33):
Oh, yes. In open primaries is just one facet of
what the Independent Voter Project is trying to do. We're
we're part of a national organization. It's called the National
Association of Nonpartisan Reformers. And that that organization supports citizens
redistricting commissions to take the redistricting of congressional and legislative
(11:54):
seats away from the hands of those who do it
in their own self-interest and do it in a much
more fair way. California has a citizens redistricting commission, and
it's it's significantly more fair. And districts are are drawn
more fairly than when the legislature does it. And we've
(12:15):
been able to pass that in a few other states
around the country. And that's part of what we do
is we support that. We support ranked choice voting. And
it's it's getting past the experimental stage ranked choice voting.
And more and more places are choosing the ranked choice
voting method. The state of Maine and the state of
(12:36):
Alaska both have adopted ranked choice voting for all of
their races. Governor, down to the state legislature. Right. Cities
and counties all over the country are choosing ranked choice
voting and gives voters the the ability to choose to
show their preference for more than one person. Right. Because
a lot of times people will go and they'll vote.
(12:57):
But there's somebody whose philosophy is very close to and
they're supportive of.
S3 (13:03):
And so so, Dan, I want to get back to
in our closing minutes, I want to get back to
the fact that. This is the Independent Voter project has
helped to. It sounds like it's helped to reshape the
kind of politician that's going to bring themselves before the public.
S4 (13:25):
In many cases, yes, because there are a lot there
are far more competitive legislative districts than there have been
in the past. You have legislative districts now and congressional districts, too,
where you have more people who are getting elected, who
are forced to, whether they like it or not, appeal
to a much broader range of voters. Right. And I
(13:47):
think it's had a significant impact on a enough of
the politicians so that it makes a difference in how
they vote.
S3 (13:55):
Well, let me ask you this then. I know we're
we at the conference or at the conference here in Hawaii. Right.
Which I know listeners have a hard time believing where
the conference in Hawaii. But you will attest to that, right? Yes, we're.
S4 (14:07):
Here and we're in Hawaii. And we've been we've been
here for 17 years. It's not it's not a new thing.
We've been here for 17 years and.
S3 (14:15):
Educating, trying to help educate.
S4 (14:18):
What we do is we bring public employee unions. We
bring individuals, we bring businesses together with members of the
legislature from multiple states to talk about issues in a
in a very candid conversations. One of the good things
that we have right now, we have legislators here from Texas,
(14:40):
second largest country in city, a state in the United
States and from California, largest state in the United States.
Population wise, if you take a look at the demographics
of those two states, they're virtually the same. Same number,
same percentage of Hispanics and African Americans and Asians and Caucasians.
So they're very, very similar in that way. They're they're
(15:01):
oil producing states. They're big tech states. They're big agriculture states.
So they have lots and lots of things in common.
But politically, there couldn't be more polar opposite. And so
it's very it's very beneficial for the legislators from those
two states to spend time sitting and talking to each
other to see how they solve problems very differently, but
(15:24):
solve problems. Right. And so one of the most popular
things about bringing these people together is the feedback I
get from legislators, from the from these states who say,
you know what, I never thought of it from that
perspective or here's or, you know, how they're solving this
problem in Texas. And we should probably think about doing
that in California and vice versa. Wow. And and it's
(15:46):
also an opportunity for for businesses to sit down and
talk very candidly about what their issues are. Now, I
will say that we have some conditions for that. We
don't allow lobbying. We don't allow conversations about specific legislation.
And we monitor that very carefully because we don't want
(16:06):
this we don't want this to turn into a lobbying exercise.
We want this to be pure public policy discussion. And
we're very, very strict about that. There are been a
few people who haven't been invited back because they because
they they they didn't pay attention and they didn't follow
the rules.
S3 (16:26):
They're not following the rules. That's right. Gotcha. Gotcha. So, Dan,
we've talked here about, you know, the the functioning. And
if I can say the power of the Independent Voter Project,
can you give me an example of a situation in
which it's been very useful to to to have this
(16:46):
organization and to to contact people, to contact lawmakers? Sure.
S4 (16:51):
Let's talk about cannabis just for a second. Can cannabis
was approved on through a statewide initiative. It was and
it was on I believe it was on the June
June primary ballot. And because the Independent Voter Project changed
the election process, there are a lot more independent voters
voting in primary elections. And so there was a much
(17:14):
higher turnout of and quite frankly, independent voters or independent thinking.
And I think that they had an impact on the
success of that initiative. So what we do at the
Independent Voter Project is we think bottom line is the
best elections are the elections where the most people vote.
(17:37):
And what we've been able to do is increase significantly
increased participation in primary elections. So more people are voting
in California. That's just one example that where the voters
they had they had the opportunity to take a look
at a controversial subject and make the right decision.
S3 (17:58):
And it's a powerful example. Yes. So thank you very much.
S4 (18:01):
So I'm glad that we had a little we were
able to play a little part in the success of
that that initiative.
S3 (18:07):
I think you played more than a little part. But
thank you very much.
S5 (18:11):
You're welcome.
S3 (18:12):
You know, I can I can bet you I bet
you that after listening to this many of my audience,
many of the people in my audience will want to
get in touch with you, will want to get involved
in the Independent Voter Project. How would they do that?
S4 (18:26):
Well, one of the things that first of all, this
event here in Hawaii is it's more than just a
meeting of the minds. Okay? It's a fundraiser. It's we're
we're we're a little bit like public radio, okay? And
public television. We rely on donations for us to operate.
(18:47):
We the Independent Voter Project has an online news site.
It is event us. It's got over 500,000 Facebook followers. Wow. It.
And it is consistently rated by the the rating organizations
that rate news sites as one of the most non
(19:07):
partisan news sites available on the Internet. So we're involved.
The content changes every single day. And we we present
a very broad range of issues. Incidentally, when we were
trying to pass our top two nonpartisan open primary, we
gave the opposition more space and time on our website
(19:29):
than we did promoting the the top two nonpartisan to
make sure to make sure that we that that we
practice what we preached. Wow. Wow. So the conferences has
been very successful. But it's also the way the the
method that we use to raise money to to be
able to operate on a on an annual basis based.
S3 (19:52):
Upon the things you've said. I know there are going
to be people that want to get involved because you're
providing them with a new way to get involved without
being partisan, without having to go down the Republican line
lane or down the Democratic lane. Freer thinking, right?
S4 (20:11):
So event us. Our online news site is an open
platform so anyone can submit an article for us to
consider for publication. We don't we can't publish them all,
but we'll consider everything. We have very strict etiquette guidelines
on our online news site. We don't allow any personal attacks,
(20:31):
which is right at the top of the list, but
we try to maintain a very high level of civility. Absolutely.
So I would recommend that your voters go and visit
our news site, event us so they get a better
idea of what we are and what we're trying to do.
And then also visit our website Independent Voter project.org. And
(20:51):
on that there's there's there's directions and the ability to
contact us. You can reach me at Dan at Independent
Voter Project org and I go through all the email
and I check it all the time and, and I'm
responding to people on a regular basis, some people who
like what we're doing and some people who just really don't.
(21:12):
But wow. But you know that's a life. But but
but you know, I much rather talk to people who
don't like what we're doing so we can have a
conversation about that. Because I with a little bit of
time and effort, I can get them to come around
and see what we're trying to do and see the
value of what we're doing.
S3 (21:27):
I have no doubt, Dan, that you are a very
persuasive individual in a kind civil manner. And on that note,
I want to thank you and give you a deep
thank Thanks for giving up your time because you've been
busy this entire week. That's a busy week. I don't
know if you've slept during this time frame.
S4 (21:48):
2 or 3 hours a night. Okay.
S3 (21:50):
Okay. Well, thank you again. And I really appreciate this
opportunity to chat with you and to bring more information
to listeners about voting and the power of voting.
S4 (22:01):
So thank you for having me. I appreciate.
S6 (22:03):
It. Oh.
S3 (22:05):
This is Dr. Leroy, host of Cannabis Enlightened, which is
brought to you by March and Ash, if you like
this episode and want to listen to other episodes, please
link in to cannabis enlightened.com. And if you'd like to
send me an email, a comment, a question or just
to say hi, you can send it to Dr. Leroy
(22:27):
at cannabis enlightened.com. And remember knowledge is power.
S2 (22:38):
Olas Media.
The views and opinions expressed in this program are those
of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views
or positions of any entities they represent, including, Olas media.
S2 (00:12):
Olas Media. Olas media presents cannabis Enlightened produced in San Diego, California.
Now here's your host, Dr. Leroy Brady.
S3 (00:24):
You know, this is a dream come true. I am
in Hawaii, Maui, at the Fairmont Hotel, and I am
just having a wonderful time. The room I'm staying in
is so nice. Everyone so nice that I took pictures
and I sent it back to my relatives. So I
(00:47):
am down to earth person. I'm not used to this
kind of thing, but Hawaii is absolutely beautiful, absolutely beautiful,
and I love it. And I'm already planning to come back.
This special edition of Cannabis Enlightened as I am, your host,
Doctor Leroy, is extra special because we're going to be
(01:08):
talking about the importance of voting with this and I'm
attending a conference, believe it or not. I have a
people have a hard time believing that I am at
a conference in Hawaii. But I tell them, yes, I'm
at a conference in Hawaii and it's being sponsored by
the Independent Voter Project, Independent Voter Project. And the head
(01:32):
of that project, the executive director, is Dan Howell. And
I have Dan here with me. And Dan, would you
come on introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about,
you know, how you came about being the executive director?
S4 (01:48):
Well, I'm Dan Howle. I'm the as Dr. Leroy said,
I'm the executive director of the Independent Voter Project. It's
an organization that was founded in 2006 by former state
Senator Steve Peace and myself and and another individual, David Takashima.
David and I were both chiefs of staff to Senator Peace.
(02:10):
And we had we had all left the legislature in
the in in the very early part of the 21st
century between 2001 and 2003, we all left the legislature.
And in the ensuing 2 or 3 years, we started
to talk to each other about when when we were
(02:34):
in the legislature and the way the legislature operated and
the value of it. I started I started working in
the California legislature in 1974. So by the time you
got to to the year 2000, I'd been there for
a long time. Right. Same thing with Senator Peace and
same thing with David Takashima. And one of the things
(02:55):
that we felt sort of a responsibility for was that
over the tenure that we were there, the legislature became
much more partisan and it became much more it was
not it didn't have the depth that it used to have.
S3 (03:12):
And then when we talk about partisan, we're saying that
people would vote only one way, vote only Republican or
only Democrat.
S4 (03:21):
Well, yes, that's that's what's happening now. But it didn't
used to be that way.
S3 (03:26):
Regardless of the issue.
S4 (03:27):
Regardless of the issue, the legislature in the in the
70s and the 80s and into the 90s, the legislature
in California was, I think, on par with Congress. There
were substantive, really substantive hearings on issues. There was great
deal of bipartisanship. There was camaraderie where it didn't matter
(03:51):
what party you were, you remained friends even when you
disagreed and you argued you didn't take it home with you.
And over the course of time, it became more and
more and more partisan. And we thought that it was
it was getting to a point where voters were really
dissatisfied and disenfranchised. And we sat and we thought about
(04:14):
what are the things that we can do to improve
politics in California. And one of the things we focused
on was that California's elections in California weren't competitive. They
were being decided and primary elections were the fewest number
of people voted. So you had a smaller universe of
(04:34):
people who were determining who the nominees were. And because
of of closed primaries, Democrats who won the primary were
automatically elected in November. There really wasn't any competition. And
so Steve piece in I think in the late 90s,
there was an initiative or there was a for for
(04:57):
one term, there was an open primary law. And Steve,
as a member of the legislature, remarked how the behavior
of legislators changed remarkably when when there was open primaries led.
Slaters became aware that they couldn't just go back to
their district and just focus on their own political party.
(05:21):
They had to do something to appeal to independent voters
and they had to do something to to appeal to
the voters of the opposite party. Because in an open primary,
if you don't appeal to everyone, then your opponent may
do that and you may win the vote in your
own party, but lose the independents and lose the opposite
party and not be successful, not get reelected so you.
S3 (05:43):
Lose the general.
S4 (05:44):
Yeah, you're losing the general election. And the California Supreme
Court overturned that that open primary law. And they did
it based on the fact that political parties are private
organizations and they have a right to determine who is
affiliated with the political party. So we decided we're going
(06:05):
to redo that. We're going to do the we're going
to write it the correct way this time. So we
we we hired lawyers and spent a lot of money
with lawyers, both constitutional lawyers and political lawyers, so that
we would write an initiative that would stand up to
a constitutional challenge. So one of the big things in
the initiative is that California and California, no one, no
(06:28):
one registers with a political party affiliation anymore. Okay? When
you register to vote, you state a political party preference.
And there's a real distinction between affiliation and preference. With preference,
you're not violating the rights of association of the political parties. Okay.
And so that's the big piece that has stood up
(06:50):
to a number of constitutional challenges. And so what happened
was in 2010, the initiative was on the ballot in California,
and it passed and it passed because independent voters turned
out in record numbers in the primary election because there
was initiative on the ballot that gave them the right
to vote for anybody they wanted to in primary elections.
S3 (07:12):
I was just going to ask you if this new method,
this way of putting forth an initiative, brought more people
out to vote?
S4 (07:21):
It certainly did. In the primary in 2010, we compared
2010 a non presidential year for a primary. Okay, with 2008,
which is a presidential year for a primary. Right. And
we turned out about 400,000 more independent voters in 2010
than in 2008. And it was because there was there
was an initiative on the ballot that was it was
(07:44):
sort of an apolitical issue. It was a voting rights issue,
and it appealed to them. We also knew from from
polling and research and focus groups that about 30% of
the people in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party
really liked the idea of being able to vote for
someone not in that party if they wanted to. And
(08:05):
under the closed primary system, they didn't have that opportunity.
S3 (08:08):
So Democrats would vote. A Democrat could vote for a Republican. Yes,
because possibly they liked what that Republican was backing. Right. Okay.
Not just because well, I can't vote for that person
because they're Republican and I'm a Democrat.
S4 (08:26):
That's right. They may have in a state assembly, they
may have in their in their area. They may have
a congressional race, a state Senate race, a in a
legislative race. And they might think one of the Republican
candidates is more in tune to what their values are.
And in a primary election, they weren't allowed to vote
(08:49):
for a Republican. They had only Democratic choices. And result
of that is California went in one election cycle from
the least competitive legislative and congressional districts in the country
to the most competitive. Wow. That's phenomenal. And all of
a sudden, every voter in California was on equal status. Wow.
S3 (09:10):
Wow. Then did that change the type of politician that
would be coming to Sacramento?
S4 (09:17):
Yes. Yes. Yes. Not universally. And the best way for
me to describe it is we have 52 states and
in a presidential election, 42 of them are pretty much
predetermined because they're either Republican states or. But there's eight
states that are competitive. Well, in the in the in
(09:37):
the election process, there's every two years, there's 100 legislative
seats up for election, 80 in the assembly, 20 in
the Senate. And of that 100, there's probably 95 to
100 that are because of the the registration numbers and
the districting. Those seats are going to be either a
(10:00):
Democratic seat or a Republican seat. Right. And then there's
there's you know, there's 8 or 10 that are just
flat out competitive seats. So in those seats, you know,
anybody anybody can win. And what makes the what makes
a a solid Democratic seat more competitive and a solid
Republican seat more competitive is with the open primary. You
(10:24):
can have two Democrats on the ballot. And and when
you have two Democrats on the ballot, they're both competing
for Democratic votes. But now in order to win, they
have to they have to compete for Republican and independent votes,
whereas in a solid Democratic district, if it was a
Democrat and a Republican on the ballot in the opposite
(10:46):
in a Republican district, a Republican, the Republican or the
Democrat automatically got elected, They didn't have to communicate with
anybody other than the Democrats or the Republicans, their own
political party. And that changed dramatically. So the behavior of
legislators is they have to pay a lot more attention
(11:07):
to the constituents who are not part of the political party,
that they're that they prefer.
S3 (11:14):
They got to pay attention to everybody.
S4 (11:15):
Yes, they have to pay attention to everybody. And so
you get you get a you get a more moderate legislature. Okay.
S3 (11:22):
All right. So the Independent Voter Project is not just
interested in getting people to vote. It sounds like it's
much bigger than that.
S4 (11:33):
Oh, yes. In open primaries is just one facet of
what the Independent Voter Project is trying to do. We're
we're part of a national organization. It's called the National
Association of Nonpartisan Reformers. And that that organization supports citizens
redistricting commissions to take the redistricting of congressional and legislative
(11:54):
seats away from the hands of those who do it
in their own self-interest and do it in a much
more fair way. California has a citizens redistricting commission, and
it's it's significantly more fair. And districts are are drawn
more fairly than when the legislature does it. And we've
(12:15):
been able to pass that in a few other states
around the country. And that's part of what we do
is we support that. We support ranked choice voting. And
it's it's getting past the experimental stage ranked choice voting.
And more and more places are choosing the ranked choice
voting method. The state of Maine and the state of
(12:36):
Alaska both have adopted ranked choice voting for all of
their races. Governor, down to the state legislature. Right. Cities
and counties all over the country are choosing ranked choice
voting and gives voters the the ability to choose to
show their preference for more than one person. Right. Because
a lot of times people will go and they'll vote.
(12:57):
But there's somebody whose philosophy is very close to and
they're supportive of.
S3 (13:03):
And so so, Dan, I want to get back to
in our closing minutes, I want to get back to
the fact that. This is the Independent Voter project has
helped to. It sounds like it's helped to reshape the
kind of politician that's going to bring themselves before the public.
S4 (13:25):
In many cases, yes, because there are a lot there
are far more competitive legislative districts than there have been
in the past. You have legislative districts now and congressional districts, too,
where you have more people who are getting elected, who
are forced to, whether they like it or not, appeal
to a much broader range of voters. Right. And I
(13:47):
think it's had a significant impact on a enough of
the politicians so that it makes a difference in how
they vote.
S3 (13:55):
Well, let me ask you this then. I know we're
we at the conference or at the conference here in Hawaii. Right.
Which I know listeners have a hard time believing where
the conference in Hawaii. But you will attest to that, right? Yes, we're.
S4 (14:07):
Here and we're in Hawaii. And we've been we've been
here for 17 years. It's not it's not a new thing.
We've been here for 17 years and.
S3 (14:15):
Educating, trying to help educate.
S4 (14:18):
What we do is we bring public employee unions. We
bring individuals, we bring businesses together with members of the
legislature from multiple states to talk about issues in a
in a very candid conversations. One of the good things
that we have right now, we have legislators here from Texas,
(14:40):
second largest country in city, a state in the United
States and from California, largest state in the United States.
Population wise, if you take a look at the demographics
of those two states, they're virtually the same. Same number,
same percentage of Hispanics and African Americans and Asians and Caucasians.
So they're very, very similar in that way. They're they're
(15:01):
oil producing states. They're big tech states. They're big agriculture states.
So they have lots and lots of things in common.
But politically, there couldn't be more polar opposite. And so
it's very it's very beneficial for the legislators from those
two states to spend time sitting and talking to each
other to see how they solve problems very differently, but
(15:24):
solve problems. Right. And so one of the most popular
things about bringing these people together is the feedback I
get from legislators, from the from these states who say,
you know what, I never thought of it from that
perspective or here's or, you know, how they're solving this
problem in Texas. And we should probably think about doing
that in California and vice versa. Wow. And and it's
(15:46):
also an opportunity for for businesses to sit down and
talk very candidly about what their issues are. Now, I
will say that we have some conditions for that. We
don't allow lobbying. We don't allow conversations about specific legislation.
And we monitor that very carefully because we don't want
(16:06):
this we don't want this to turn into a lobbying exercise.
We want this to be pure public policy discussion. And
we're very, very strict about that. There are been a
few people who haven't been invited back because they because
they they they didn't pay attention and they didn't follow
the rules.
S3 (16:26):
They're not following the rules. That's right. Gotcha. Gotcha. So, Dan,
we've talked here about, you know, the the functioning. And
if I can say the power of the Independent Voter Project,
can you give me an example of a situation in
which it's been very useful to to to have this
(16:46):
organization and to to contact people, to contact lawmakers? Sure.
S4 (16:51):
Let's talk about cannabis just for a second. Can cannabis
was approved on through a statewide initiative. It was and
it was on I believe it was on the June
June primary ballot. And because the Independent Voter Project changed
the election process, there are a lot more independent voters
voting in primary elections. And so there was a much
(17:14):
higher turnout of and quite frankly, independent voters or independent thinking.
And I think that they had an impact on the
success of that initiative. So what we do at the
Independent Voter Project is we think bottom line is the
best elections are the elections where the most people vote.
(17:37):
And what we've been able to do is increase significantly
increased participation in primary elections. So more people are voting
in California. That's just one example that where the voters
they had they had the opportunity to take a look
at a controversial subject and make the right decision.
S3 (17:58):
And it's a powerful example. Yes. So thank you very much.
S4 (18:01):
So I'm glad that we had a little we were
able to play a little part in the success of
that that initiative.
S3 (18:07):
I think you played more than a little part. But
thank you very much.
S5 (18:11):
You're welcome.
S3 (18:12):
You know, I can I can bet you I bet
you that after listening to this many of my audience,
many of the people in my audience will want to
get in touch with you, will want to get involved
in the Independent Voter Project. How would they do that?
S4 (18:26):
Well, one of the things that first of all, this
event here in Hawaii is it's more than just a
meeting of the minds. Okay? It's a fundraiser. It's we're
we're we're a little bit like public radio, okay? And
public television. We rely on donations for us to operate.
(18:47):
We the Independent Voter Project has an online news site.
It is event us. It's got over 500,000 Facebook followers. Wow. It.
And it is consistently rated by the the rating organizations
that rate news sites as one of the most non
(19:07):
partisan news sites available on the Internet. So we're involved.
The content changes every single day. And we we present
a very broad range of issues. Incidentally, when we were
trying to pass our top two nonpartisan open primary, we
gave the opposition more space and time on our website
(19:29):
than we did promoting the the top two nonpartisan to
make sure to make sure that we that that we
practice what we preached. Wow. Wow. So the conferences has
been very successful. But it's also the way the the
method that we use to raise money to to be
able to operate on a on an annual basis based.
S3 (19:52):
Upon the things you've said. I know there are going
to be people that want to get involved because you're
providing them with a new way to get involved without
being partisan, without having to go down the Republican line
lane or down the Democratic lane. Freer thinking, right?
S4 (20:11):
So event us. Our online news site is an open
platform so anyone can submit an article for us to
consider for publication. We don't we can't publish them all,
but we'll consider everything. We have very strict etiquette guidelines
on our online news site. We don't allow any personal attacks,
(20:31):
which is right at the top of the list, but
we try to maintain a very high level of civility. Absolutely.
So I would recommend that your voters go and visit
our news site, event us so they get a better
idea of what we are and what we're trying to do.
And then also visit our website Independent Voter project.org. And
(20:51):
on that there's there's there's directions and the ability to
contact us. You can reach me at Dan at Independent
Voter Project org and I go through all the email
and I check it all the time and, and I'm
responding to people on a regular basis, some people who
like what we're doing and some people who just really don't.
(21:12):
But wow. But you know that's a life. But but
but you know, I much rather talk to people who
don't like what we're doing so we can have a
conversation about that. Because I with a little bit of
time and effort, I can get them to come around
and see what we're trying to do and see the
value of what we're doing.
S3 (21:27):
I have no doubt, Dan, that you are a very
persuasive individual in a kind civil manner. And on that note,
I want to thank you and give you a deep
thank Thanks for giving up your time because you've been
busy this entire week. That's a busy week. I don't
know if you've slept during this time frame.
S4 (21:48):
2 or 3 hours a night. Okay.
S3 (21:50):
Okay. Well, thank you again. And I really appreciate this
opportunity to chat with you and to bring more information
to listeners about voting and the power of voting.
S4 (22:01):
So thank you for having me. I appreciate.
S6 (22:03):
It. Oh.
S3 (22:05):
This is Dr. Leroy, host of Cannabis Enlightened, which is
brought to you by March and Ash, if you like
this episode and want to listen to other episodes, please
link in to cannabis enlightened.com. And if you'd like to
send me an email, a comment, a question or just
to say hi, you can send it to Dr. Leroy
(22:27):
at cannabis enlightened.com. And remember knowledge is power.
S2 (22:38):
Olas Media.
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