Voting rights and a constitutional battle over emergency spending authority are the timely topics on this week’s episode. Guests include Rep. Mary Jane Wallner, who just this morning filed a lawsuit in Hillsborough County Superior Court charging Governor Chris Sununu with trying to ignore the lawful authority of the Joint Fiscal Committee, which Rep. Wallner chairs. We also spoke with Executive Council Debora Pignatelli, who raised concerns about voting access at last week’s Council meeting. We spoke with her, and also with Kyri Claflin and Louise Spencer of the Kent Street Coalition, about the “guidance” published Friday by the Attorney General and Secretary of State, which says all voters can claim to be disabled by the pandemic and thereby qualify for absentee ballots.
On the theme of voting rights, our musical selections were Kim Harris’ version of “If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus” and a rousing version of “Woke Up This Morning” led by the immortal Fannie Lou Hamer. And since it spoke to the times in which we live, we played a reggae tune by Quito Rymer, “Mixed Up World.”
