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Americans Elect Hopes to Bring Voting into "21st Century"

A national group that hopes to give voters more choices in this year's presidential election is bringing its campaign to Kentucky.

Americans Elect wants to field a presidential ticket in all 50 states. The group will nominate a candidate through a primary online at AmericansElect.org. The group will soon petition to get a candidate on the ballot in Kentucky.

?We will begin collecting signatures for shortly, probably in a month, we will collect 10,000 signatures and the requirement is 5,000,? says Spokeswoman Ileana Wachtel.

So far, the group has put a candidate on 27 state ballots, including Ohio's. Another border state, Tennessee, is currently reviewing the group?s petitions. The candidate is unlikely to win the race, but Wachtel says Americans Elect hopes to weaken the two-party system.

?And this is about creating a unity ticket and getting out of that duopoly that really the stranglehold on our nation,? she says.

National Campus Director Blake Wright joins Chad Lampe to talk about how the whole thing works.

 

Chad Lampe, a Poplar Bluff, Missouri native, was raised on radio. He credits his father, a broadcast engineer, for his technical knowledge, and his mother for the gift of gab. At ten years old he broke all bonds of the FCC and built his own one watt pirate radio station. His childhood afternoons were spent playing music and interviewing classmates for all his friends to hear. At fourteen he began working for the local radio stations, until he graduated high school. He earned an undergraduate degree in Psychology at Murray State, and a Masters Degree in Mass Communication. In November, 2011, Chad was named Station Manager in 2016.
Kenny Colston is the Frankfort Bureau Chief for Kentucky Public Radio (a collaborative effort of public radio stations in Kentucky). Colston has covered Kentucky's Capitol and state government since 2010. He is a Louisville native, and a graduate of the University of Kentucky. When he's not tracking down stories about Kentucky politics, you can often find him watching college sports, particularly football.
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