WEBVTT - Stacey Abrams: How to be a Changemaker 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:04.960 On March five, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed a ninety 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:09.000 eight page elections bill that, among many other measures, dramatically 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:12.840 restricts absentee voting limits, the number and location of ballot 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:16.520 drop boxes, gives the legislature the power to replace local 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:19.759 election boards, and makes it a crime to provide water 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:22.880 or food to those waiting and long lines to vote. 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:26.680 Passed on a party line vote by both Republican control 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:30.320 chambers of the state legislature and signed by a Republican governor, 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.839 the bill's provisions will have a disproportionate impact on the 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:38.400 state's most heavily democratic urban counties, already notorious for their 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:41.479 long lines on election day, and the law that was 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.159 signed in Georgia is just one of more than two 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:48.120 hundred fifty bills in forty five states that have been 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:54.160 introduced to restrict voting access since last November's election. So 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:56.680 why am I telling you this? Because the right to 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:59.880 vote is both fundamental to individual liberty and to the 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:04.880 opper functioning of representative democracy. When voting rights are denied, deluded, 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:08.440 or restricted, the ability of our government to solve problems, 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:14.200 seize opportunities, and serve everyone is impaired and its legitimacy 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:18.800 is weakened. And right now all across America, after a 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:23.039 historic ellection with a record turnout, the foundation of our 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:28.080 democracy is at risk. That's why on today's episode, I'm 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:30.440 grateful to be joined by one of our nation's most 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:35.800 effective advocates for free and fair elections. After the Supreme 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:39.240 Court got to the Voting Rights Act in opening the 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:42.959 door to a wide range of discriminatory voting changes that 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:47.920 disproportionately affect communities of color, like precinct closures and elimination 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:51.760 of early voting, Stacy Abrams launched the New Georgia Project 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:56.600 to register voters and protect voting rights. She methodically got 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:59.320 to work registering the very people who are being targeted 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:02.720 by voters of Russian efforts, and advocating for laws that 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:07.760 make it easier, not harder, to participate in our democracy. 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:11.880 In she became the Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia, 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:15.960 but lost the election by fifty five thousand votes, largely 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:19.480 because of voter suppression and the removal of hundreds of 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:23.440 thousands of voters from the rolls. But she channeled her 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:26.000 setbacks and a positive change for the state of Georgia 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:29.639 and for our entire country, doubling down on her efforts 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:33.640 and starting her organization Fair Fight to protect voting rights 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:37.560 in Georgia and across America. Her work resulted in a 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:42.400 national voter protection network amid the pandemic, along with record 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:47.320 turnout in Georgia in the election and the critical Senate runoffs. 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:51.520 My conversation with Stacy was recorded shortly before the signing 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:54.640 of Georgia's new law as part of the annual Clinton 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:57.840 Global Initiative Meeting for University Students c g i U. 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:03.120 Every year, CEU brings together hundreds of young change makers 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:05.720 from around the world who are working to address urgent 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:09.799 challenges on campus, in their communities, and across the lobe. 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:14.960 This year, our virtual host campus was Howard University. I 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:17.160 wanted our c g i USED students to hear from 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:21.920 Stacy because she's provided an incredible blueprint for achieving real, 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:25.960 meaningful change. No matter what you're setting out to do, 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:29.200 you need a clear vision, a realistic plan to get there, 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:32.920 the fortitude to stick with it, and the flexibility to 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:37.400 adapt to changing circumstances. Stacy Abrams has done that as 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:41.080 well as anybody I have ever seen. I hope you 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:47.000 enjoy our conversation. Stacy, thank you for joining us today, 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:49.640 and I think you should take it just a couple 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:52.240 of moments and tell the people who are with us 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:55.840 today how you got interested in this work and what 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:57.800 you would say to young people about what are it's 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:00.760 worth the time and effort and blood, sway tears put 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:02.920 into it. Well, Mr President, first of all, thank you 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:04.640 so much for inviting me to be a part of 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:07.840 this conversation. Like you, I am a child of the South. 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.480 I was technically born in Wisconsin, but I grew up 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:15.280 in Mississippi, and my parents were both civil rights activists 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:18.120 when they were teenagers. So by the time I came along, 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:21.200 I was part of the whole history of people who 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:23.680 had been fighting for the right to vote, the right 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:27.440 to have access to democracy. And as you know, Jim Crow, 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:30.600 the system in the South that denied access to the 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:34.080 right to vote to black Americans existed from the end 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:37.800 of slavery basically through nineteen sixty five, and so my 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:40.960 parents were teenagers in sixty five. My dad was actually 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:44.960 arrested helping register black people to vote. We tease him 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:46.720 that my mom was doing the same work. She was 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:49.599 just smart enough not to get caught. But I came 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:52.800 of age knowing that the right to vote wasn't just 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:55.960 about casting a ballot. It was the only way to 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:59.320 tackle the poverty we lived in. And my parents both 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:02.880 worked full time, and still we barely made ends meet. 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:06.400 We were what they called working poor. And so my 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:09.039 parents took us with them to volunteer because they wanted 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:11.840 us to work our hands to make people's lives better. 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:14.200 But they also took us with them to vote because 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.239 they said, individually, we can make a little bit of change, 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.920 but when we vote, we make collective change. Society changes 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:23.400 when you vote. So when I was seventeen, I was 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.039 a student at Spellman College. I set up my first 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:29.279 table to register my fellow students to vote. And in 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:31.840 nineteen ninety two, I got to work on my first 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:36.680 major campaign, and that was for then Governor of Arkansas, 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:39.360 Bill Clinton. And so the very first campaign I was 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:41.919 old enough to vote in, I voted in a primary. 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:44.599 And I've worked to get people to vote in the 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:48.640 nine two presidential election. And I used that one not 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:50.640 only is an example of how long I've been at this, 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:54.080 because that was thirty years ago. I also lifted up 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:57.960 because it is a part of who I am. I've 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:00.760 never stopped working on the right to vote. When I 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:05.000 was seventeen and eighteen, I was trying to expand access, 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:08.080 trying to make sure more people could vote. By the 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.080 time I was in my forties, I was fighting to 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:14.240 protect the right to vote because of the harm that 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:17.040 had been done by the Supreme Court to the Voting 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:21.400 Rights Act, the law that basically said states couldn't hurt 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:24.039 the right to vote in the United States. And so 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:26.360 I say all of this to say that, to answer 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:30.040 your second question, it's worth doing this work because I've 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:33.240 seen what happens when the right to vote is made real. 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:36.839 When I was working on that campaign in ninety two, 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.520 I got to see Bill Clinton become the President of 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:42.120 the United States and start to address some of the 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:46.080 terrible challenges, especially that we're facing poor people in the South. 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.560 And in two thousand and twenty and twenty one, I 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:54.000 helped elect Joe Biden and Raphael Warnock and John ass Off, 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:56.680 and now we have a plan, the American Rescue Plan, 0:06:57.120 --> 0:07:00.200 that will lift half of the children in poverty out 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:03.800 of poverty. And that's because of voting. It's because when 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:06.599 we fight for our democracy, when we do the work 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:10.280 not only to protect democracy but to encourage people to 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:12.640 participate in it. We've got to do both. You can't 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:14.720 do one and not the other. But when we do 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:20.560 both together, real progress does happen. It's slow, it's sometimes plotting, 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:25.440 it sometimes feels ineffective. But I know where I could 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:28.280 be but for the times I voted, at the times 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:31.160 my parents voted, and I know where we are, and 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:34.520 I am very grateful that democracy can work. When you 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:38.119 are the leader of the Democrats in the Georgia House, 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:43.400 you ran for governor and you lost by volts, even 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:45.560 though you got more votes than a Democrat ever had. 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:49.440 And most of us who looked at the race or 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:54.960 convinced that you would have won if several hundred thousand 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:59.000 voters hadn't been purged, I think you believe that too. 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:06.160 And UH. Since the election, well over two hundred bills 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:09.760 have been introduced in more than forty states to restrict 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:12.240 the franchise again to make it harder for people to vote, 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:17.640 Some of them overtly targeted at African Americans, others more 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:26.040 broadly targeted at UH, younger voters, disabled voters, lower income voters, 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:30.680 people of color, immigrants. This used to be a by 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:35.160 part of an issue. George W. Bush signed the extension 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:40.360 of the voting rightside. Most Republicans voted for it, and 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:43.800 then they said, we're digging our own graves. We gotta 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:47.040 restrict the franchise again, and all of a sudden it 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:53.520 became party orthodoxy. So what do we do now? And 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:56.640 tell us a little about the John Lewis Voting Rights 0:08:56.640 --> 0:08:59.280 Act and the For the People Act and why you 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:01.920 think it's so report to the president as you you 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:07.079 very clearly laid out the the onslaught isn't new, and 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:08.920 and I want to give just a little bit of background. 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.080 The United States does not have an affirmative right to 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:17.240 vote in the Constitution. What the Constitution lays out is 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:21.640 how voting happens. It says that the Congress gets to 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:25.080 determine the time, place in manner, and it delegates to 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:29.240 each of the individual states and territories that get to 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:33.000 participate in elections that they can administer the election. So 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:35.760 there isn't a unlike in a lot of nations, especially 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:39.960 most democratized nations, where there's a central universe of how 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:45.080 democracy works. And then it plays out locally. Everything for 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:48.720 most American elections happens at the state level, and so 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:51.760 the federal government, like the work that was done under 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:54.720 your administration. We have some laws that say here are 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:58.400 things you can't do. And we have the constitutional amendments, 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:01.559 the fifteenth Amendment that gave black men the right to vote, 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:04.520 the nineteenth Amendment that gave white women the right to vote, 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:08.320 the Amendment that gave young people the right to vote. 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:13.160 And then we have the Voting Rights Act of nineteen five, 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:17.440 which said, no matter where you live, they can't create 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:19.760 laws that block you from voting. And we're going to 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:22.920 make sure that states that have the right to administer 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:27.199 these elections don't try to game the system. Because under 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.640 Jim Crow, that was the most recent example, you had 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:35.160 what we're called racially neutral and facially neutral rules. So 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:39.040 Jim Crow didn't say in law for voting that black 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:43.200 people couldn't vote. It just created restrictions that only applied 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.000 to black people. So it should have applied to everyone, 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:49.360 but they created exceptions so it only applied to black voters. 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:51.880 The reason this is important is that when you look 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:55.840 at what's happening today, they're using the same system you 0:10:55.920 --> 0:11:00.560 hear these very they sound logical, these logical rules like 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:03.680 photo I D or you know, we're gonna limit the 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.120 number of days of early voting. We're gonna end voting 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:09.679 on Saturdays and Sundays, or make it uniform across the states. 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:13.679 We're going to cut off the number of voters who 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:17.800 can vote by mail. It applies to everyone in theory, 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:20.719 but they've targeted these laws so that the people who 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:23.800 are hurt by it are people of color, namely black 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:27.400 people in the South, Latino and Native Americans in the West, 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:31.880 young people across the country. And the intention is to 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:35.400 target these communities because they are the ones who are 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:37.719 the most likely to vote in a way that is 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:41.120 opposite of what Republicans currently want. And let's be clear, 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:44.839 Democrats did it first, and before Democrats, the federalists did it. 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:50.320 So voter suppression isn't the proxy of the Republican Party alone, 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:54.360 but they are the leaders now, and so any rules 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:57.280 that will mitigate that harm, that will make it better 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:00.520 or that can make it worse, Act Lee tend to 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:02.959 start at the state level. And so, as you said, 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:07.360 in response to more black people, more Latino, more Asian American, 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:12.040 more Native American and more young people voting in one 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:16.000 than in any election. The response has been two hundred 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:20.319 and fifty three bills in forty three different states to 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:23.360 restrict access to the right to vote. And they use 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:28.360 this term of art election integrity, but it is absolutely 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:35.040 this code word for racial and age based discrimination. The 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.640 only way to solve the problem is either to convince 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:41.360 Republicans and the state legislatures that they control to not 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:44.360 be bad people, to not do bad things. But they 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:46.480 believe it's the only way they can win elections. They 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:48.840 don't think they can compete with their ideas, so they're 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:50.680 just going to stop voters they don't want to see 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:53.840 show up at the polls. And that leads to congressional 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:56.680 action that leads to the four The People Act HR 0:12:56.760 --> 0:13:00.840 one slash S one and the John Lewisvoting Rights Advancement 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:04.840 Act h R four. What these bills do for the 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:08.440 People Act for the first time in American history, it 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:12.800 sets a standard for how people register to vote, for 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:16.240 the fact that everyone gets automatically registered if you're a citizen, 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:18.880 and that if you move from place to place, you 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:21.320 can fix it the same day. The day you go 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:23.760 to vote, you can vote, you can register to vote. 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:26.760 It says that everyone gets to have at least two 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:29.760 weeks of early voting because our economy is not the 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:34.720 same economy we had in people who have different kinds 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:37.959 of jobs, they can't all vote on a Tuesday. Number three, 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:41.200 it says that everyone can vote by mail, which in 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:45.840 a pandemic became a really important issue. And then those laws, 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:48.280 those rules become the rules no matter where you live, 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:51.079 So for the first time in American history, there will 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:54.280 be a standardization of who gets access to the right 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:57.560 to vote. The second part, though, is how do you 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:00.520 stop the states that have a history of seeing good 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:03.120 laws and trying to make them worse from doing so. 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:05.920 And that's what the Voting Rights Advancement Act does. It 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:09.080 restores Section five of the Voting Rights Act, which said 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:11.680 that before you could do bad things to election laws, 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:14.600 you have to get permission from the Justice Department. And 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:16.880 it's going to hopefully fix what we know the Supreme 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:19.240 Court is about to break, which is Section two of 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:21.920 the Voting Rights Act, which says you can't do anything 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:24.880 that is going to have an effect of diminishing voters 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:28.200 of color, and what they're arguing with the Republicans are arguing, 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:31.440 and they set it in their presentation that if we 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:35.320 don't stop these communities from being able to vote, Republicans 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:39.360 can't win elections. And so we need both HR one 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:41.800 S one, the four the People Act, and we need 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:45.080 the Voting Rights Advancement Act. We need both pieces because 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:47.400 we have to make sure everyone has the same rights. 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.280 And then we have to have a law that gives 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:52.840 people a remedy to go to court to fix what 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:55.600 they break. And what we have to remember is it's 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:59.960 happening from Republicans right now. But any time a party 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:04.160 gets into power, they are loath to give that power up. 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:07.480 And often the only way to hold onto power when 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:12.400 demographics shift, when ideology shift, you can either change the 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.800 way you run your campaigns and the policies you promote, 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:18.800 or you can block people from voting. And in every 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:22.400 authoritarian or autocratic government we see today that used to 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:25.560 be a democracy, you will find that they started their 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:28.880 dissent by limiting the voices of the minority because the 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:31.240 minority was getting too loud. You know, a couple of 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:37.680 years ago, representative of Attorney General's Office in Texas actually 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:44.200 said in an appeal and his defense of Texas voter restrictions. 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:47.280 He said, absolutely, we're trying to make it harder for 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:51.320 black and brown people to vote, but it's not race based. 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:53.920 We wren make and harder because they don't vote for us. 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:56.560 If they voted for us, we'd make it easy for 0:15:56.600 --> 0:16:01.520 them to vote. So that's an ultimant anti democratic statement, 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:06.560 small D and I actually appreciated it. I wish I 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:08.480 could meet the guy and thank you for being honest. 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:11.600 I'm sick of all this, you know, sort of smarmy 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:15.040 talk about voter integrity, which doesn't have a look of merit, 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:18.880 and which many of them have already acknowledged about the election, 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:23.120 that it was the election was honestly held and and 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:29.120 the votes were honestly counted. I remember after the election, 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:32.560 I talked to an African American woman who lives in 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:35.000 not very far from me, and she and her husband. 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:39.480 You know, they're wildly successful, they're well educated. And I said, 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:41.360 I bet the place you live as a lot of 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:44.280 people voted for Trump. She said, yeah, they do. And 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:46.600 I said, did you ever ask him why they voted 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:49.120 for him? And she said that they were really honest. 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:51.400 They said, you had it for eight years we want 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:54.440 it back, and he said they weren't talking about party. 0:16:55.480 --> 0:17:00.440 And so I think this is a sort of thing. 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:05.440 You see this in the ethnic and religious and cultural tensions. 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:08.600 We see it in Europe, we see it in Asia, 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:13.320 we even see it in Africa. Sadly, you know, when 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:16.880 people don't want to ever give up their power, they 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:19.760 make up for reasons to hold onto it, and then 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:24.000 they have to have an information system that puts the 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.200 poison into the minds and hearts of the people they're 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:29.720 talking to so they can have a base big enough 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:33.960 to hold on. And this last election was really reassuring, 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:40.440 and partly because the people who weren't with us showed 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.400 up in big number two I think the highest percentage 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:46.760 of registered voters where I saw a study that's at 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:56.200 other registered uh, conservative evangelical Christians and ultra white nationalists voted. 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:01.800 And you know, they didn't win. And I figured, we 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:05.639 can't get higher, man, so we better change the rules. 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:12.359 And the sad thing is that it looks like spring 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.439 Court is going to back them and changing the rules 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:19.400 or as they certainly have to this point, and therefore 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:22.120 Congress is our only hope. Now let me ask you this, 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:27.520 since the Constitution gives the states a lot of leeway 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:33.760 and running these elections. How far can the Congress go 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:38.840 and telling them how to run the elections. There's a 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:42.840 false dispute that's out there. Article one, Section four of 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:48.000 the Constitution says Congress has essentially the ability to set 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.840 the time, place, and manner of elections. It delegates that 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:56.600 to the states to actually administer it. But by and large, 0:18:56.640 --> 0:19:00.679 for federal elections, it is the responsibility of Congress to 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:03.919 do what they think is necessary to set the time, 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:07.000 the place, in the manor. Now they can't do that 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:11.280 for a local election, for a mayor, or for a 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:15.920 state legislative election. But the reality is there's not a 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:20.560 single state that runs two parallel systems, one that's just 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:24.440 federal and one that's just state. There there's some tweaks, like, 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:28.719 for example, Louisiana. The state of Louisiana holds most of 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:33.240 their elections on Saturdays, except for the presidential election because 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:36.520 it has to be held officially on that Tuesday. But 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:38.679 on the rest of their elections they hold it on 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:43.000 Saturday because the federal government lets them do it. What 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:46.320 would happen with HR one with the For the People 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:49.920 Act is that there would be a baseline set where 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:53.359 the federal government, much like the Motor Voter Act, and 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:56.600 like the Act that created Provisional Ballots to Help America 0:19:56.680 --> 0:19:59.920 Vote Act, it would say that as a federal matter, 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.439 we are saying that the time will be that you 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:06.879 will have at least two weeks of early voting. The 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:09.960 place will be that you allow multiple people to vote 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:13.399 on different days, and the manner will be that they 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:16.240 can vote in person early, in person on the day 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:20.080 of or they can vote by mail. It is absolutely 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:25.840 constitutional for the federal government, through Congress to set that up. 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:28.880 And that's all the Four the People Act does. Now, 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.919 the people pushing back against it don't like it because 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:35.960 they like the fact that in the state of Oregon 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:39.679 you can vote by mail exclusively, and they do an 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:43.200 amazing job, have the single highest voter turnout, I think 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:46.520 in the country. But you get to Mississippi, you can't 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:50.720 vote by mail unless you are disabled, elderly, or you 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:53.320 can prove that you're gonna be out of town. You 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:57.040 don't get to vote early, and you can only vote 0:20:57.040 --> 0:21:00.520 on election day otherwise, And so the that we have 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:05.720 such a disparate methods of voting means that the quality 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:09.119 of your democracy differs depending on the state you live in. 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:13.440 And here in Georgia, until we sued them and forced changes, 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:17.000 you could vote by mail in one county and they 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:19.000 would let you know if they saw a mistake on 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:21.760 your envelope, but if you voted by mail in another county, 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:24.359 they threw your vote out. So we sued them so 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:27.199 that everyone got to be treated the same way. And 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:30.320 that's why the federal action is so important. When the 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:33.680 federal government says you have to vote this way, almost 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:36.879 every state is going to vote using those rules for 0:21:36.960 --> 0:21:39.600 federal elections, but they're not going to change it for 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:42.560 local and state elections because they don't they can't afford to. 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:47.639 Running two separate systems is incredibly expensive, and so not 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:50.240 only as a matter of law, but as a matter 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:56.200 of practicality, Congress taking action will create a safe baseline 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:59.280 for elections for everyone in the United States who is 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:03.640 eligible to vote. Stay tuned for more of the conversation 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:14.320 after this short break. Now we know the Congress is 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:19.479 pretty closely divided in the House and the Senate, and 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:23.120 the two of the Democratic senators have said they won't 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:27.080 vote to abolish the fellow bus are altogether, which requires 0:22:27.680 --> 0:22:33.359 sixty votes to cut off debate on everything except the 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:38.720 fundamental budget. Do you believe that we should say right 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:44.240 now that when it comes two holding elections and who 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:47.639 can vote, and how that's just as fundamental as the 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:51.879 budget to our democracy and that there should also be 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:54.600 a carve out for that. Do you believe that that 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:58.560 we can can we justify if it comes to that, 0:22:59.359 --> 0:23:01.920 Let's say we got to senators that won't repeal the 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:06.360 filipbuster are altogether, or can't we justify saying we got 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:12.399 to protect our democracy here? Do you favor uh a 0:23:12.480 --> 0:23:18.280 specific exemption for election related voting on the grounds that 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:22.479 it's the building blocks of democracy and you shouldn't use 0:23:22.520 --> 0:23:28.600 a procedural vote UH to destroy it. Absolutely, So let's 0:23:28.640 --> 0:23:31.639 start with this number one. The filibuster is not in 0:23:31.720 --> 0:23:38.359 the constitution. It is a rule that has been exacerbated 0:23:38.400 --> 0:23:40.960 over time. But it was a rule that was designed 0:23:40.960 --> 0:23:45.080 to encourage debate. It was designed encourage the minority to 0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:48.240 have a voice and not be overshadowed by the majority. 0:23:48.520 --> 0:23:52.280 But over time it became a procedural tool used to 0:23:52.400 --> 0:23:55.920 stop any bills that people didn't like, and the problem 0:23:56.000 --> 0:24:00.000 there is that when you do so, you not only 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:04.520 shut down debate, you often shut down action against perfecty 0:24:04.560 --> 0:24:08.760 and bad behavior. There are three exemptions exist right now 0:24:08.800 --> 0:24:13.760 to the filibuster. The budget reconciliation one, so essentially, if 0:24:13.800 --> 0:24:16.320 it's needed to fund the government and make the government work, 0:24:16.720 --> 0:24:20.399 you can get around the filibuster. The second is for 0:24:20.520 --> 0:24:24.400 judicial appointments. If you look at Articles three of the Constitution, 0:24:24.600 --> 0:24:28.280 we have to have judges. Congress has the responsibility to 0:24:28.440 --> 0:24:32.240 confirm the judicial appointments of the president. So they said, okay, 0:24:32.280 --> 0:24:34.280 we're gonna carve that one out that won't be subject 0:24:34.280 --> 0:24:39.200 of filibuster. The third is cabinet appointments. They were blocking 0:24:39.240 --> 0:24:42.400 cabinet appointments, and it's the application of the president, which 0:24:42.400 --> 0:24:45.800