Throughout the Democratic primaries, Senator Bernie Sanders was enormously popular, and all polls showed that he was in a better position to beat Donald Trump than was any other candidate. The signers of this petition absolutely do not want to risk a Trump presidency, and therefore we feel it is crucial that Sen. Sanders be the replacement candidate, should Hillary Clinton need to step down as the Democratic candidate, due to health or any other reason.

Our outrage goes beyond how Hillary is being treated by the media. It’s also about how the women of America are treated — and like it or not, the way the media reports on women leaders has an impact on how we treat each other, including wage and hiring discrimination. This is a big deal. The truth of the matter is that women (and men) across the United States get sick and power through their responsibilities all the time without anyone calling into question their fitness to do their jobs — they have to, since the United States is the only industrialized country in the world where not everyone has access to paid sick days and paid family and medical leave. While both men and women get sick, the data shows that women are disproportionately put in the penalty box for getting ill. To be blunt, women and mothers are often “damned if we do and damned if we don’t” when it comes to how we’re perceived in the workplace. If we need time off, we’re considered weak. If we show up as Clinton did even though she’s sick, then we’re also considered weak. It’s a no-win situation. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has yet to even release his health records! He sleeps four hours a night, never exercises and maintains a high-cholesterol, high-calorie diet. But where’s the outcry questioning his fitness to serve based on his health? This election is too important to let the news media continue to take every opportunity to paint Hillary Clinton, our first major woman presidential candidate, as weak. It’s time to call out the news media on its biased, sexist reporting.

I am tired of turning on news channels and seeing constant bashing of Hillary Clinton while continuing to see interviews with Trump while he spouts his lies and inuendos and is rarely challenged.

My petition is to have a fair and equitable debate between the two candidates. There appears to be a bias of how the candidates are interviewed and treated.

During this week’s NBC News Commander in Chief Forum--the first joint forum for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump--moderator and "The Today Show" host Matt Lauer failed to do his job as a journalist by not correcting Donald Trump’s lies about never supporting the Iraq War and continuing to ask the Republican candidate soft, open-ended questions. During the forum on military issues and foreign policy, NBC’s Matt Lauer: > Failed to hold Donald Trump accountable by allowing him to repeat his lie that he always opposed the Iraq War. (NBC News later fact-checked the comment after the forum and deemed it false.) > Failed to ask Donald Trump any serious questions about some of the candidate’s most troubling foreign policy comments-- neglecting to address Trump’s attack on Gold Star parents Khizr and Ghazala Khan, his attack on Senator John McCain’s prisoner-of-war status, Trump’s multiple deferments from the Vietnam War, > Spent one-third of Secretary Clinton’s time pressing her on her use of a private email server--and then asked her to be “brief” responding to questions on ISIS. Leading journalists agreed that Lauer and NBC failed to give Americans a well-moderated forum by failing to fact check basic falsehoods, mainly Trump’s Iraq War assertion: "This #NBCNewsForum feels like an embarrassment to journalism.” – New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof “How can someone like @MLauer not set the record straight on Trump's bogus claim of being against the war in Iraq?” – Washington Post’s Fact Checker Glenn Kessler "Lauer has done great interviews. But that's one of the weakest, least incisive performances I've seen from a presidential forum moderator.” – Slate’s Will Saletan “Matt Lauer never challenged Trump's claim he opposed Iraq war in 2002 (which he did not). @chucktodd would not have let that go by.” – New York Times’ Trip Gabriel “‘I was totally against the war in Iraq,’ Trump says, saying something that is not true. Matt Lauer offers no follow up.” – BuzzFeed Politics’ Andrew Kaczynski "Trump lies about opposing Iraq war. Lauer lets it go. No follow up. Unreal.” – New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait Americans rely on moderators of presidential forums and debates to hold candidates accountable and correct blatant lies like Trump’s Iraq War statement. Already, one of the four debate moderators, Fox News’ Chris Wallace, said it’s “not my job to be a truth squad” and correct any “falsehoods or unfounded accusations,” on which Trump’s campaign has been built. Tell NBC News’ Lester Holt — and other presidential debate hosts Martha Raddatz (ABC News), Anderson Cooper (CNN), and Chris Wallace (Fox News) — to commit to asking serious, substantial questions of all candidates and hold candidates accountable for misinformation.

Here we are again with Riders to defund Planned Parenthood and fly confederate flags in Veterans' cemeteries so a desperate situation with the zika virus can be funded. STOP this madness!

From sunlight.com concerning candidate transparency and tax returns "Unlike Congress, Presidents are exempt from conflict of interest laws. This makes disclosure of income tax returns especially important to shed light on areas of possible conflicts of interest. Yearly salaries are often reported in the news but tax returns reveal so much more about the character of the candidate. Their debts give us a broader sense of the state of their finances, and perhaps more importantly an idea to whom they could feel beholden. We learn how much (or little) they paid in taxes, and whether they utilized loopholes in tax law to avoid paying those taxes. It sheds light on whether they conducted activity that they have criticized on the campaign trail. Learning about candidates businesses, business partners and the state of those activities can help understand how their judgment might be affected by their financial transactions and debts. We learn their values and priorities from learning which charities they support." After reading this and other articles on candidate transparency, I believe the least a candidate can provide the electorate is full financial disclosure.

The power of money in our political system—who has it, who doesn’t, and what it's buying--has been a central theme throughout this presidential election season. In the Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders animated millions of Americans by mobilizing individual $27 donations to effectively match the power of millionaires and billionaires. Donald Trump dispensed with his opponents by calling them puppets of big donors while committing to being “unbought” by lobbyists and special interests. Hillary Clinton has said reforming the way our elections are financed will be a “top priority” if she’s elected. At the same time, debate has raged from state houses to courthouses about voting laws, who should have access to the ballot, and whether our congressional districts should be fairly drawn. These issues go to the very heart of who we are as a country – so many Americans are losing faith in our institutions and public trust in elected officials is at a record low. Americans deserve to hear the candidates’ positions on the power of money in politics, how they’ll eliminate barriers to civic participation and their visions for how we will take a step toward achieving the promise of our democracy, a vision of political equality for all Americans.

This petition is about challenging fear rhetoric and using reason to stop any single person from having unchecked unilateral nuclear authority. Whether you are afraid that Clinton will nuke Iran or Trump will nuke the world, it would seem logical to take steps now to pass legislation to remove the threat rather than harp on a threat that can be remedied through legislative action before inauguration day. I encourage everyone who believes that unchecked unilateral nuclear authority is a serious threat to national security to sign and share this petition. I also encourage you to contact your representatives, senators, and President Obama, demanding this issue be addressed before they leave office in January. I also encourage all to vote their conscience and for the best candidate and party that represents their interests. We only change things by changing things. And that sometimes requires thinking outside the box, as Rep. Ted Lieu has done in proposing this legislation.

The FBI recently announced that foreign hackers infiltrated election databases in Arizona and Illinois, warning election officials in all 50 states to be vigilant against cyber attacks. This is the latest report in a wave of election-related security breaches this year. Earlier this summer, hackers released thousands of emails from major Democratic Party organizations and officials. But the White House could choose to act right now to improve the integrity of our voting systems. In response to recent attacks, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is now considering classifying election systems as "critical infrastructure," which would grant special security assistance and bring in more federal resources. This is an important step to ensure we hold our voting systems up to the security standards of banks or the private grid. But this isn't enough. The U.S. government must invest in our voting infrastructure and take further action now to protect against attacks, such as mandating pre-election testing for voting machines and making emergency paper ballots available as backups to electronic voting machines, among other measures.

We people of the state of Maine are requesting the immediate resignation of Governor Paul LePage.

On August 8, the Obama administration notified Congress [1] of intent to sell $1.15 billion of weapons to Saudi Arabia, including tanks that would replace tanks destroyed in Saudi Arabia's war against Houthi rebels in Yemen. We urge Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Ed Markey to oppose this deal and to co-sponsor a resolution of disapproval against it. Past Congressional concerns about Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen have not been addressed. In October, Members of Congress wrote to the Administration [2] urging greater efforts to avoid civilian casualties in Yemen and achieve a diplomatic solution to the conflict. In June, 204 Members of the House, including 40 Republicans and all but 16 Democrats, voted to block the transfer of cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia after reports of their use in civilian areas in Yemen. [3] Yet, since the proposed arms deal was announced, a Saudi airstrike on a school in Yemen killed 10 children [4] – some as young as 6-years-old – and a Saudi airstrike on an MSF hospital in Yemen killed 11 people. [5] Urge Senator Warren and Senator Markey to cosponsor legislation to oppose the Saudi arms deal by signing our petition. References: 1. http://www.dsca.mil/major-arms-sales/kingdom-saudi-arabia-m1a2s-saudi-abrams-main-battle-tanks-and-m88ala2-heavy 2. https://debbiedingell.house.gov/sites/debbiedingell.house.gov/files/documents/151014_Yemen%20Airstrike%20Letter.pdf 3. http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2016/roll327.xml 4. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/yemen-school-airstrike_us_57b1938fe4b007c36e4f2f67 5. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-idUSKCN10Q1E0