Speaker 1: My name is Alex, and I've actually experienced voter suppression firsthand. No,
Speaker 1: be all right, no, alright, no it will be alright forever.
Speaker 1: No alright, No, well be all right for ever. All right.
Speaker 1: So let's rewind the clock. We're about a few years ago.
Speaker 1: I can't remember. It was a local election for here
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles, and I remember it's a busy day.
Speaker 1: But we were in a post Trump elected era, so
Speaker 1: I knew the value of voting was even more than
Speaker 1: it was before. And so I like carved out the day.
Speaker 1: I knew I wanted to go and vote. Um, but
Speaker 1: as my career does, you know, I had a session
Speaker 1: that came up and I and it was a big session.
Speaker 1: I really wanted to go to it. And you know,
Speaker 1: work is work is work for me, and I gotta
Speaker 1: go and I gotta you know, get the work in.
Speaker 1: And so I remember getting in line, and I remember
Speaker 1: when I pulled up, I was like, bro, this line
Speaker 1: better go fast, like this line better be like in
Speaker 1: and out fast. And at this point, my voter experience
Speaker 1: was still very little, so I had no you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't have a real big idea of like is
Speaker 1: this something that takes a long time, and it did.
Speaker 1: I literally felt like I stood in the same exact spot,
Speaker 1: didn't even move, you know, it would be twenty minute
Speaker 1: periods of time and I and I come to find
Speaker 1: out now that it was because many of the polling
Speaker 1: places had actually been shut down and they had started
Speaker 1: having less polling places for my district. I actually had
Speaker 1: to wait so long that my session was getting ready
Speaker 1: to start and I couldn't wait anymore. So I got
Speaker 1: out of line, got in my car, and went. And
Speaker 1: it's interesting because literally, up until now, I just thought
Speaker 1: it's not a big deal, Like the world didn't explode,
Speaker 1: so it doesn't matter. But the thing about voter depression
Speaker 1: that I've learned is that it happens to millions of people,
Speaker 1: especially people in low income communities, and especially in the
Speaker 1: black community. I found more realization in all of this
Speaker 1: because Catherine, my producer, who's gonna get a lot of
Speaker 1: shout outs in this episode, sent me a link to
Speaker 1: a video on vox dot com and it's it was
Speaker 1: called what Voter Suppression looks Like Online, and it was
Speaker 1: all talking about targeting on social media, especially in the
Speaker 1: tactics of the election, where Russian operatives were posing as
Speaker 1: Americans on social media to discourage Black Americans from voting,
Speaker 1: encouraging them to vote for even um third party candidates,
Speaker 1: to dilute the vote for Hillary Clinton. Everything from you
Speaker 1: know ads on Facebook that said text Hillary to a
Speaker 1: certain number to cast your vote by text, or even
Speaker 1: accounts posing as black political pages that people can turn
Speaker 1: to and look to for guidance, talking about how the
Speaker 1: election is rigged and it doesn't matter, and kind of
Speaker 1: trying to influence people to not vote. So many things
Speaker 1: that I never thought of for voter suppression and and
Speaker 1: it's very shocking and it's scary and it makes you
Speaker 1: hate politics. But at the same time it it reminds
Speaker 1: me the importance to be a voice to stand up
Speaker 1: and talk about the importance of voting, especially in this
Speaker 1: election where it is so imperative that we make the
Speaker 1: right decision as a country this election. I also have
Speaker 1: been thinking a lot about something that we've touched on
Speaker 1: quite a bit for the last episode in the episode
Speaker 1: before that, which is the importance of the ballot even
Speaker 1: past the presidential election. It made me so excited for
Speaker 1: this episode because we're gonna have a candidate for the
Speaker 1: l A City Council District for here as a guest today,
Speaker 1: and it's just gonna be a good episode. This is
Speaker 1: the last episode before the election, so I want to
Speaker 1: do everything I can to for myself to stay educated
Speaker 1: and the most educated I can, and also for you
Speaker 1: as my listener. The reason why these last three episodes
Speaker 1: were so important to me is because I look at
Speaker 1: the news, I look at media, and I swear on
Speaker 1: Renews outlet they're going to be trying to convince you
Speaker 1: why the sky is a different color, and and there's
Speaker 1: so much misinformation that's out there. And I just wanted
Speaker 1: to use my podcast, which for the most part, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna return to, is talking about personal problems and
Speaker 1: fun stuff and happiness and positivity. For a moment, I
Speaker 1: think I needed to use my platform to just give
Speaker 1: facts and and share my thoughts um that are all
Speaker 1: about inclusivity, acceptance and love across the board. So that
Speaker 1: got me thinking, do you need to be worried about
Speaker 1: voter suppression? And how important is it for you to
Speaker 1: vote in your local election? What is up everybody? This
Speaker 1: is let's get into it. I'm alex Ion Oh and
Speaker 1: this is my podcast and we are proving every single
Speaker 1: episode that we are not afraid to talk about anything,
Speaker 1: even things that I don't know that much about, including
Speaker 1: more pieces of politics that as I'm an adult who
Speaker 1: is late to the politics party, U, I'm learning a
Speaker 1: little bit more about. And I have some amazing guests
Speaker 1: today with us. I have Nithia Rahman. She is a
Speaker 1: Harvard and m i T trained urban planner. I had
Speaker 1: to look up what urban planning was. I'm not gonna lie,
Speaker 1: and it's very cool. Uh. She's fought to increase resources
Speaker 1: for slum dwellers in India. She founded a homelessness service
Speaker 1: profit nonprofit in Los Angeles, and she served as an
Speaker 1: executive director of Times Up Entertainment. She's currently a candidate
Speaker 1: for the Los Angeles City Council in District four and
Speaker 1: lives in Silver Lake, California. And Nithia, how are you doing.
Speaker 1: I'm doing I'm I'm doing well. I'm not gonna lie. Um.
Speaker 1: In the preparation for this, for this episode specifically, I
Speaker 1: wanted to do a little bit more research and I
Speaker 1: am just I. I read through your whole bio on
Speaker 1: your website. You are amazing. I'm excited to talk to
Speaker 1: you I'm also excited because we have another amazing guest.
Speaker 1: He is a technology litigator. He has been a voting
Speaker 1: rights activists since college. Since then, he's worked in numerous
Speaker 1: roles as a poll worker, poll monitor, and assistant camp
Speaker 1: paiin director for the d n C and move on
Speaker 1: dot org, as well as working in the Bernie campaign
Speaker 1: as an election protection attorney. And not only does he
Speaker 1: work to protect everything from voter suppression to just kind
Speaker 1: of supporting campaigns in general, but he's also experienced, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna find out through uh this podcast, he's experienced
Speaker 1: voter supression firsthand. His name is Aaron Thompson and he's
Speaker 1: here with us today. Aaron, how are you doing. I'm
Speaker 1: doing great. I'm happy to be here. Great day. I'm
Speaker 1: so happy you're here. Nobody can see our zoom call
Speaker 1: right now. You've got an exercise bike in the back
Speaker 1: behind you. I too have an exercise bike that I
Speaker 1: keep in my room. It's the only way that I
Speaker 1: haven't turned into job of the Hut during the pandemic.
Speaker 1: So it's very, very exciting. We got a great episode today.
Speaker 1: This is the third and final episode before the election,
Speaker 1: and it's going to be talking about things that aren't
Speaker 1: you know. The last two episodes we talked about who
Speaker 1: to vote for or kind of mainly directing towards voting
Speaker 1: in general, and it's more specifically voting for um, your
Speaker 1: presidential candidate that you would like to to be the
Speaker 1: president of United States. This episode is gonna be way
Speaker 1: cool because we're gonna be talking about voter suppression and
Speaker 1: why we should be thinking about it. That's what Aaron
Speaker 1: and I are going to talk about, the nipia. You
Speaker 1: and I are gonna be talking about local elections and
Speaker 1: taking down the giant um. And then lastly all three
Speaker 1: of us will be talking together about what else we
Speaker 1: should know before November three. This is the last episode
Speaker 1: of Let's get into It before the election. There's gonna
Speaker 1: be two weeks, I guess of no episodes, and I
Speaker 1: want you to just go back and really listen to
Speaker 1: these last three episodes during that time. UM. But before
Speaker 1: we get into this, this is now the third episode
Speaker 1: of Politics. Usually I asked my guests what you're doing
Speaker 1: to improve yourself this week? But with the politics leaning episodes,
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask a different question that was leaning
Speaker 1: more towards this election and it was why do you vote?
Speaker 1: Like I said in my story earlier, I watched this
Speaker 1: video that um Catherine, my producer, sent me, that said
Speaker 1: what voter suppression looks like online, And I didn't even
Speaker 1: realize that. For years I have been seeing acts of
Speaker 1: of attempted voter suppression, and luckily for me, it never
Speaker 1: processed as that, but everything from tweets to two you know,
Speaker 1: paid posts and promotions. And so I want to vote,
Speaker 1: especially this year, especially this election, I'm standing up against
Speaker 1: voter suppression and really nailing it into the idea that
Speaker 1: the power is in the people and we have to vote.
Speaker 1: It is not only our our right, but it's actually
Speaker 1: our duty as people to keep the power in our hands.
Speaker 1: So that's why I'm voting. Eron, do you have an
Speaker 1: answer for why you are voting this election? Uh? And well,
Speaker 1: this election and almost every election, it's like it's just
Speaker 1: one of the best ways to make sure that our
Speaker 1: elected officials are really listening to us. When they're up
Speaker 1: for election, it's one they're the most engaged and when
Speaker 1: they're the most in tune with what the people that
Speaker 1: they're supposed to represent want, and by by voting, you
Speaker 1: show that you pay attention, you show that you know
Speaker 1: what's going on, and you show that they need to
Speaker 1: respond to what you want. And so it's just critical
Speaker 1: on that piece. It's not the only thing you should
Speaker 1: be doing, but it's it's absolutely one piece of a
Speaker 1: whole puzzle and making sure our society works for us.
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that, Niffya. Your answer is
Speaker 1: actually gonna be interesting because not only are you even
Speaker 1: are you allowed to vote if you're if you're running
Speaker 1: for an office? Oh yeah, you definitely are. That's so cool.
Speaker 1: Can I actually ask you a two part questions though,
Speaker 1: and you can give me a short answer because we're
Speaker 1: gonna really get in, Like, I have so many questions
Speaker 1: that I just want to ask you because I've never
Speaker 1: had like a candidate for any form of office on
Speaker 1: my show before. But I would love to hear why
Speaker 1: you vote, and then I would also love to hear
Speaker 1: why you're running for a local office. Well, I vote
Speaker 1: because I am an immigrant to America. I moved here
Speaker 1: when I was six years old. I am a naturalized citizen.
Speaker 1: I got my citizenship in America when I was twenty two,
Speaker 1: I believe one or twenty two, So it took me
Speaker 1: a while to get my green card and then to
Speaker 1: get my passport and to be, you know, really be
Speaker 1: an American. And so for me, voting is a really
Speaker 1: important way of taking that responsibility seriously of being an
Speaker 1: American and of trying to have an input into what
Speaker 1: my life here looks like. And I take that responsibility
Speaker 1: really seriously. I love that. I love that. Okay, now
Speaker 1: I want to hear and and we might not even
Speaker 1: put this in. I just want to know, like, what's
Speaker 1: your one hitter quitter, Like what is your what is
Speaker 1: your your single sentence that makes people just go wow?
Speaker 1: That's all order for why you're running for for local
Speaker 1: to be a local official? Well, can I be honest
Speaker 1: with you, Yeah, of course I'm running because I'm really angry.
Speaker 1: We have a really powerful city council and they don't
Speaker 1: do enough to make our city better for everyone who
Speaker 1: lives in it, especially the most vulnerable. And I know
Speaker 1: I will try my hardest to do that. So that's
Speaker 1: why I don't know if I want to do a
Speaker 1: slow clap or do like ao. But that was that
Speaker 1: was There's nothing more that like I think embodies especially me,
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of US citizens right now.
Speaker 1: It's like we're just mad, like nothing's working and we're
Speaker 1: like we're old people on a brand new MacBook and
Speaker 1: we're just like it doesn't turn on. If not, it
Speaker 1: won't take a charge. Um, but I can't wait to
Speaker 1: hear more because I'm really so excited and and this
Speaker 1: is kind of for the last three episodes in general,
Speaker 1: being somebody got into politics late. It's amazing that we
Speaker 1: were able. And I give a big shout out to
Speaker 1: Catherine and my Heart team for gathering amazing guests. Like
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm Anderson Cooper. I don't even know,
Speaker 1: like I'm like I really feel I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: I'm heavy hit her out because I got some amazing guests.
Speaker 1: So thank you guys for coming on. Let's let's get
Speaker 1: into it. Let's go straight into it, and Iffia will
Speaker 1: be with you in just a second. But Aaron, you
Speaker 1: and I are going one on one right now. Let's go. Um,
Speaker 1: we're talking voter suppression, and we typically think of like
Speaker 1: I don't know, like I guess in my mind, I
Speaker 1: only thought of voter suppression up until really until I
Speaker 1: saw this video that that Katherine sent me. I only
Speaker 1: thought of voter suppression is like a big kind of
Speaker 1: like bouncer, as if it's like a bouncer at the club,
Speaker 1: standing outside like a polling place and being like, nah,
Speaker 1: you can't come, and that I thought that that was it,
Speaker 1: Like I thought that that's what voter supresstion is. Ever,
Speaker 1: we're going to find out, especially through this episode as
Speaker 1: we're unraveling at all, voter suppression comes in so so
Speaker 1: many ways. Um we usually think of voter suppression only
Speaker 1: happening in underprivileged communities, black communities, and so I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people can naturally be like, well, it's
Speaker 1: not happening to me, so like I'm I'm good, I
Speaker 1: should I don't have to worry about it. But why
Speaker 1: does the average American need to be concerned about it?
Speaker 1: No matter where they are, no matter you know, what
Speaker 1: race they are, what what community they live in. Um So,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think your first sort of instinct is
Speaker 1: right that there's like the sort of notion of this
Speaker 1: bouncer is for preventing people from voting, and that's what
Speaker 1: voter suppression and actuality in this election. There might be
Speaker 1: a little bit of risk in that, but as of
Speaker 1: what Trump is doing with calling out the proud boys
Speaker 1: and asking them to attend the polls and even uh,
Speaker 1: just a few weeks ago, early voting started in Virginia
Speaker 1: and there were some people, some Trump supporters with flags
Speaker 1: standing out inside the polling place, really preventing people from
Speaker 1: sort of getting in or feeling intimidated. But you're right
Speaker 1: that it's also a concern for areas just where the
Speaker 1: stereotypical view of voter suppression isn't what you really believe
Speaker 1: what would happen. It's often times sort of willful neglect
Speaker 1: or unintentional neglect. But sometimes this intentional neglect which where
Speaker 1: you sort of get like suppression, which happens indirectly. It's
Speaker 1: like closing polling places. And what happens is you try
Speaker 1: to go vote and the line is three hours long.
Speaker 1: And if you're a working person, uh, and you have
Speaker 1: to work that day, you can't stand in a three
Speaker 1: hour long line. So maybe you go to vote before
Speaker 1: you go to work. You stand in this line, you
Speaker 1: can't get in in time, you have to go to work,
Speaker 1: and you try to come back later and this another
Speaker 1: three hour long line, and you have kids at home
Speaker 1: to take care of, and so that also happens. And
Speaker 1: it's not just in poor communities, it's not just in
Speaker 1: marginalized communities. It happened here in l A, which is
Speaker 1: not like a battle ground state and most instances for
Speaker 1: these types of issues, but it happened through sort of
Speaker 1: like wilful neglect. I don't know if you know this.
Speaker 1: During the March two thousand election, we had a ton
Speaker 1: of super long lines, three hour lines at polling places
Speaker 1: in a place which we're a big, big county with
Speaker 1: with resources that we should be able to put towards this,
Speaker 1: and it happened places like u C. L A and
Speaker 1: Santa Monica College, and that just prevents people from voting.
Speaker 1: I mean, we don't even have to go back to
Speaker 1: two thousand. I want to address something that I that
Speaker 1: I came to my knowledge today, which is what's going
Speaker 1: on in Texas right now. Um the governor of Texas
Speaker 1: that narrowed drop vote drop off locations to one per county,
Speaker 1: which he says it's for added security or out it
Speaker 1: really does feel like voter suppression. UM. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of counties that have such a large population. Harris County,
Speaker 1: for example, has five million people in it, so for
Speaker 1: having only one drop off location, it's going to be
Speaker 1: exactly what you said. It's it's it's literally that's the
Speaker 1: size of Rhode Island, and and some people are going
Speaker 1: to have to drive hours just to drop off their vote.
Speaker 1: Like you said, some people will still have real lives. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: election day is not government holiday, so you can't get
Speaker 1: what you don't get work off. It's it's not a
Speaker 1: day where everybody can dedicate their time solely to voting,
Speaker 1: and so for situations like this, it can definitely be hard.
Speaker 1: What do you what do you think is going on here?
Speaker 1: You think it's just some some good old fashioned suppression. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in in the case like that, usually what you're saying
Speaker 1: is like literal intentional suppression. They know their base. They
Speaker 1: know that their base are older Americans who are retired
Speaker 1: and have lots of time on their hands. They know
Speaker 1: that the people are going to vote for the other
Speaker 1: party are usually younger. They're working class, they have jobs,
Speaker 1: they have kids, they can't take off the time necessary
Speaker 1: to get to the polls. And by making it harder
Speaker 1: to go vote it there's nothing that you can might
Speaker 1: point to on paper, although sometimes there is, but there's
Speaker 1: not you can point on paper saying, oh, look, the
Speaker 1: Republican Party is trying to suppress her vote, but they
Speaker 1: know the impact of making it harder to vote, and
Speaker 1: in those cases it's very likely to be it's sort
Speaker 1: of intentional. Unfortunately. I want to I want to switch
Speaker 1: lanes really quickly, and I actually want to talk. I
Speaker 1: had mentioned before that you have experienced multiple instances of
Speaker 1: voter suppression. I would just love for you to take
Speaker 1: some time and tell us your story with it. All. Um, So,
Speaker 1: I first sort of got into this back when I
Speaker 1: was in college. I ran uh East here buying a
Speaker 1: voter registration campaign. It was a non partisan campaign. We're
Speaker 1: just trying to get students to vote. We want to
Speaker 1: register them. We wanted to get them out to the polls.
Speaker 1: And what Suite did was like nine months before the election,
Speaker 1: we sat down with register voters and we were like
Speaker 1: sitting down with him and we were like, Hey, we're
Speaker 1: running this really cool voter registration campaign. We just want
Speaker 1: to get new voters to the polls. We want to
Speaker 1: get them involved. We think that this is gonna be
Speaker 1: a super high interest campaign that Iraq wars happening. We're
Speaker 1: registering people they're coming in droves. We don't think you're
Speaker 1: going to have enough polling locations on campus or enough
Speaker 1: machines to deal with the demand. And he wasn't interested
Speaker 1: in hearing about that at all. His primary goal when
Speaker 1: he met with us was like, oh, we get a
Speaker 1: lot of students who moved into the dorms, they move out.
Speaker 1: We got to get them off the rolls. That's all
Speaker 1: he cared about. And lo and behold, when the polls closed,
Speaker 1: they were students still in line and they were waiting
Speaker 1: like three hours to vote, and we're begging them to stay.
Speaker 1: We were ordering pizza and some drama friends who are
Speaker 1: like cap dancing for them, trying like just anything we
Speaker 1: could to keep them in line. But you know, there
Speaker 1: were some students who had to leave. They're like a
Speaker 1: finals or at the at the study. It can't stay
Speaker 1: in line. And that has a suppressive effect both in
Speaker 1: that election and just sort of prevents them from wanting
Speaker 1: to go vote in the future. And it's amazing. This
Speaker 1: happened again here in l A County in March two
Speaker 1: thousand twenty when u C. L A and San Marco
Speaker 1: College they're pulling locations were overwhelmed, and you had students
Speaker 1: standing in line for hours and hours just trying to vote,
Speaker 1: and it was entirely predictable. Like we knew that was
Speaker 1: gonna be a problem. We had a switch in the
Speaker 1: voting system here for that election. We went from five
Speaker 1: thousand polling places to nine votes centers. And with that
Speaker 1: sort of change is just inevitable that people are going
Speaker 1: to be confused, they won't know where to vote, they'll
Speaker 1: go to the closest location, and you'll have huge, huge lines.
Speaker 1: All right, right, So can you talk about some more
Speaker 1: ways that we might not immediately think of a voter suppression?
Speaker 1: I have a list here for anything that you don't,
Speaker 1: but I would like there are a few different ways
Speaker 1: that I think of it. You sort of mentioned one,
Speaker 1: but it sort of all comes down to, like you
Speaker 1: have two politicians, and one politician knows that their base
Speaker 1: is super solid and will like crawl across glass to
Speaker 1: get to the polls, and then you have another politician
Speaker 1: whose base is a little wishy washy. There may be
Speaker 1: more people that want the second politician. But if you
Speaker 1: can start generally suppress the vote, and and this usually
Speaker 1: happens by just making it a dirty fight. You talk
Speaker 1: about things which people don't want to talk about. You
Speaker 1: make it ugly. People don't want to participate in the
Speaker 1: ugly process, and that sort of overall sort of gets
Speaker 1: people not wanting to vote. But the person with with
Speaker 1: this base that's going to vote no matter what they
Speaker 1: win in that sort of battle. Um, So it's sort
Speaker 1: of like an ugly marketing sort of approach. You just
Speaker 1: make it an ugly market and nobody wants to do
Speaker 1: it except for the the people you know are going to
Speaker 1: show up no matter what. We see that with Trump obviously.
Speaker 1: The other thing is what you mentioned is sort of
Speaker 1: reducing the trusts in the sort of election system, just
Speaker 1: making it seem like the elections them isn't going to
Speaker 1: be valid. The results are kind of be valid. So
Speaker 1: people are more likely to skip voting because they don't
Speaker 1: think that what they're doing counts. And we're also saying
Speaker 1: that just like you said. And then there's just sort
Speaker 1: of like straight misinformation. You've set up a robot call system.
Speaker 1: You call people, tell them if you vote, Uh, you're
Speaker 1: gonna get arrested for outstanding warrants. Um, if you vote,
Speaker 1: you're going to pay your debts. If you vote, we're
Speaker 1: going to investigate your family, and if any of them
Speaker 1: are illegal immigrants, we're gonna arrest them and support them,
Speaker 1: and that that also has a suppressive effect. Those are
Speaker 1: the top three that come to mind. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you have others. I mean, I just have some
Speaker 1: other ones written down, you know, creating new rules, like
Speaker 1: removing the right to vote for people who have been
Speaker 1: convicted of a crime. We've already talked about reducing the
Speaker 1: number of polling places, restricting early voting, enforcing and this
Speaker 1: is kind of on top of what you said, like
Speaker 1: enforcing more rigid I D requirements, restricting alternatives to voting
Speaker 1: in person, like like voting by mail. And we're seeing,
Speaker 1: you know, firsthand, uh, this mail in bad ballot debacle
Speaker 1: that is that is happening, and new information is coming in.
Speaker 1: And I love what Ashanti Golar said about mail in
Speaker 1: ballots two episodes ago, where she said, it's important too,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about this a little later, but important
Speaker 1: to understand every single rule that makes your mail in
Speaker 1: ballot fair, whether it's the color of the ink, whether
Speaker 1: it's you know, making sure you only put it in
Speaker 1: one envelope and not two in a lot of different
Speaker 1: of different ways. But I think all of those ways
Speaker 1: are just situations that I have written down here that
Speaker 1: are also forms of voter suppression. Yeah. Related to that
Speaker 1: last one, UM one one that's actually had a really
Speaker 1: big impact, and I think it was in Georgia. There's
Speaker 1: now a signature match requirement where if you do a
Speaker 1: mail in ballot, your signature has to match the signature
Speaker 1: in which you read sure to vote. I don't remember
Speaker 1: how I signed my signature. I just scribble, and I
Speaker 1: don't even use a signature these days. I just sort
Speaker 1: of scribble, you know. And so that in Georgia that
Speaker 1: there was a huge effort by the then secretaries it
Speaker 1: now governor which actually impacted the results, where they were
Speaker 1: purposefully challenging those signatures to throughout votes. And some people
Speaker 1: think that they were like looking for names that looked
Speaker 1: African American or black to challenge those and keep those
Speaker 1: out so that he would win. I mean, I actually
Speaker 1: have that exact It's crazy that you brought that up,
Speaker 1: because I have that exact situation here. And fifty three
Speaker 1: thousand registrations were thrown out, and of those, fifty three
Speaker 1: thousand were black voters. So it's it's one of those
Speaker 1: things where I hate claiming something before it's proven, but
Speaker 1: it's hard to deny statistics like that and say that
Speaker 1: it isn't, you know, targeted suppression. Like I mentioned in
Speaker 1: my story before, my producer sent me this video for
Speaker 1: that Vox posted up a few days ago. It was
Speaker 1: explaining basically that in the election, black Americans were the
Speaker 1: number one target for Russian operatives looking to influence the election.
Speaker 1: They were posting pictures of black women saying text Hillary
Speaker 1: to I have blank blank blank blank to send in
Speaker 1: your vote through text. And there was a lot of
Speaker 1: Russian bots that were posting from fake accounts like Black
Speaker 1: Divist and Politics for Blacks and all of these things,
Speaker 1: and they were basically trying to denounce voting and saying
Speaker 1: it's not worth it, You're gonna waste your time, our
Speaker 1: votes don't matter. I think the thing that's interesting, and
Speaker 1: it's a statistic that I saw, which was um that
Speaker 1: for the last three elections, the black vote has equated
Speaker 1: to less than ten percent single digit percentage of black
Speaker 1: people's votes go to the Republican side. Uh. And so
Speaker 1: it's extremely powerful, and it makes sense why especially the
Speaker 1: Republican side, could want to suppress that vote because even
Speaker 1: though they would suppress that six percent, there's also suppressing
Speaker 1: on the other side. What else should people of color
Speaker 1: in their communities be aware of as they're getting ready
Speaker 1: to vote, as they're getting ready to mail in their ballots, um,
Speaker 1: as they're just getting ready for this election. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: have a few thoughts there. There are voting protection organizations
Speaker 1: that if you have any questions about the Lawyer's Committee
Speaker 1: for Civil Rights under Laws one and they have this
Speaker 1: right potline running right now. They should know that number
Speaker 1: and if any questions come up, they can call UM.
Speaker 1: That's the first thing. And these are good organizations. They're
Speaker 1: just out there to protect the vote. But we we've
Speaker 1: talked about this our idea a little bit. You have
Speaker 1: the start of dract Conian voter identification rules which are
Speaker 1: popping up in many states. They'll have to learn those
Speaker 1: and figure out what they need if they need anything
Speaker 1: to to go vote. Since mail and ballots are really
Speaker 1: big this year, know the rules for that as well,
Speaker 1: including the signature rules and the wedding rules and who
Speaker 1: can turn them in. Plan ahead. States are closing pulling
Speaker 1: places that we've been talking about which are gonna make
Speaker 1: the lines long. COVID is going to make polling places fewer.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be fewer poll workers, so they'll have tact
Speaker 1: full fewer polling places. Like figure out when pulling places open,
Speaker 1: make a rock solid plan to get there. You have
Speaker 1: to be there. You need to know how you're going
Speaker 1: to get there, plan for it to be a long line,
Speaker 1: and then plan for it to be a worse than
Speaker 1: long line, and so don't let them win and getting
Speaker 1: you to not vote. And then one lass sort of
Speaker 1: key point is almost every state is again state by state,
Speaker 1: almost every state has like provisional ballot rules, which are
Speaker 1: ballots which you can fill out if you're not on
Speaker 1: the voting registration list or something like that. You should
Speaker 1: almost be able to always walk away from a polling
Speaker 1: location having filed out a ballot, which you should build
Speaker 1: always lead with with at least having the opportunity to vote.
Speaker 1: But in some places you'll get turned away by somebody
Speaker 1: who doesn't know what they're talking about, and but you
Speaker 1: should try to insist on that. But again, if you
Speaker 1: run a problems, call one of these election protection hotlines
Speaker 1: and they will help you, and there's huge interests in
Speaker 1: the legal community, this cyclone particular, that are staffing these
Speaker 1: lines like crazy, So there's help out there. I think
Speaker 1: that's an amazing place to to end this. To end
Speaker 1: this segment, Aaron, thank you so much for doing all
Speaker 1: of this work. You know, as as somebody who is
Speaker 1: learning more about politics. It's people like you who are
Speaker 1: dedicating their time and donating their energy to making this fair.
Speaker 1: And that's the weird things like you're not you're not
Speaker 1: fighting to upscale the left side or upscale you know,
Speaker 1: the votes against. You're just going for a fair We
Speaker 1: just want the fair election. So thank you so much.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be talking with you in just a bit.
Speaker 1: We're gonna take a break. When we come back, i'll
Speaker 1: be talking to Nathia Rahman about local elections and taking
Speaker 1: down the Giant. Will be right back. Al Right, we
Speaker 1: are back. This is let's get into it. I'm alex
Speaker 1: Iono and I have Nathia Rahman here with me. Nidia,
Speaker 1: how you doing today? I'm doing good. I before we
Speaker 1: talk about anything at all, you have two children, they're young,
Speaker 1: you're running for local office. Do you sleep? Is When
Speaker 1: was the last time you slept. Is that a thing? Well,
Speaker 1: they're almost five. I have five year old twins and
Speaker 1: so they sleep through the night pretty well now. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I end up working a lot. I have no I
Speaker 1: don't think I could even fathom the amount of work
Speaker 1: that you've put in, especially this year. But I think
Speaker 1: to help me learn a little bit more, I would
Speaker 1: love to understand what made you so passionate about running
Speaker 1: for local office, So, like, what experience has led you
Speaker 1: to understand the importance of local government in our daily lives. Well,
Speaker 1: this is particularly true in a city like Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: but this is a fact about local government that is
Speaker 1: actually true for every city in town across America, which
Speaker 1: is that local government is a really powerful place. It
Speaker 1: impacts so much of our day to day lives, and
Speaker 1: in a city like Los Angeles, it controls so much
Speaker 1: of what shapes the city we live in, the houses
Speaker 1: we live in, our rent, whether you get to stay
Speaker 1: in your house or lose your home to eviction, the
Speaker 1: air we've reade is dependent on the rules that are
Speaker 1: put in place by our local government in many ways.
Speaker 1: So it is really really powerful, and I think it
Speaker 1: impacts so much more than what people think local government
Speaker 1: is really responsible for, which is like picking up your
Speaker 1: garbage or fixing your sidewalk. Actually, our local government is
Speaker 1: incredibly powerful, and so for me, the reason I wanted
Speaker 1: to get involved with it was because I cared deeply
Speaker 1: about social justice. I care deeply about housing and homelessness.
Speaker 1: I've done a lot of work in my own community
Speaker 1: to try and address homelessness, and I kept hitting up
Speaker 1: against a wall, and that wall ended up being my
Speaker 1: local elected representatives who just were not willing to take
Speaker 1: the kinds of actions that we needed to take in
Speaker 1: order to address our housing and homelessness crisis. And I
Speaker 1: started thinking about local government and their power, and I
Speaker 1: realized it wasn't just on this issue that they weren't
Speaker 1: taking the actions that I wanted them to take. It
Speaker 1: was on the environment that I care so deeply about.
Speaker 1: It was about you know, racial justice issues and policing
Speaker 1: that I care so deeply about. It was about so
Speaker 1: many of the issues that I care deeply about. I
Speaker 1: volunteer my time on, I vote on at the national level,
Speaker 1: but at the local level, I was letting these local
Speaker 1: elected reps slide. You know, they had all this power
Speaker 1: and they weren't doing what they could with it. And
Speaker 1: so that's why I think it's really important. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm running, that's a really deep form of involvement, But
Speaker 1: even if you're not running, to get engaged, to get informed,
Speaker 1: to get involved, and to make sure you take action
Speaker 1: at the local level because those decisions matter. And I
Speaker 1: think that's it's really important for people to start understanding that,
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of people have, especially in
Speaker 1: recent months. That was amazing. I mean, honestly, like you,
Speaker 1: you brought up such a great point, Like I think
Speaker 1: we underestimate the power of local government. You know, like
Speaker 1: I think in my mind, I just think about like
Speaker 1: potholes in the street, and I'm like, who's going to
Speaker 1: fail those potholes? You brought up, there's so much more
Speaker 1: importance of local government. And John Olds actually, last we
Speaker 1: brought up the importance of voting not just for the president,
Speaker 1: but for everything else on the ballot, and especially your
Speaker 1: local representatives, your local elected officials, because they, like you said,
Speaker 1: they hold a lot of that power of your day
Speaker 1: to day lives. Um, what made you though, want to
Speaker 1: run for city council versus something else? You know, I'm
Speaker 1: trained as an urban planner. So I have long thought
Speaker 1: about cities and their powers and how they operate to
Speaker 1: help people. You know, I've done a lot of work
Speaker 1: on urban poverty, So for me, you know, the role
Speaker 1: of our city and helping people who have lower incomes
Speaker 1: to be able to thrive, that was a really important interface.
Speaker 1: And so when I thought about what would be the
Speaker 1: best use of my time and my energy and my
Speaker 1: skills and improving the conditions for Angelino's who were facing vulnerabilities,
Speaker 1: I felt like running for office was really the best
Speaker 1: place that I could intervene and use my time. But
Speaker 1: I also think that, you know, we were just talking
Speaker 1: about local government. I was making a case that people
Speaker 1: should care about it. That was part of the reason
Speaker 1: and I decided to run, was because I think you
Speaker 1: do need people out there making the case that it's important,
Speaker 1: you know. And I'm I'm good at talking about things,
Speaker 1: and I think I'm good at communicating the importance of
Speaker 1: the issues that I feel passionately about. And I felt
Speaker 1: like this was a really important moment in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: So even before the protests around racial injustice and police
Speaker 1: brutality that we saw, even before all of that, this
Speaker 1: moment in l A was a really exciting one. So
Speaker 1: you guys were just talking about voter suppression. Well, another
Speaker 1: way that voters don't turn out for important elections is
Speaker 1: when they don't. They happen at times and nobody hears
Speaker 1: about them, and you know, nobody knows about them. That's
Speaker 1: what's been happening in l A for a really long time.
Speaker 1: So we had these municipal elections which were held in
Speaker 1: off years. Most people didn't know that they were happening.
Speaker 1: Most people don't know the name of their city council person,
Speaker 1: and so we have these enormous council districts and tons
Speaker 1: of voters in each of them, and nobody came out
Speaker 1: to vote for them. Right, But for the first time
Speaker 1: this year, our municipal elections in our federal elections were
Speaker 1: overlapping in l A. Which meant that we were going
Speaker 1: to see a lot more people at the polls voting
Speaker 1: for their favorite Democratic primary candidate and in November hopefully
Speaker 1: voting against Trump or whatever you want. You know, um,
Speaker 1: but that's what I'm going to be doing. But that
Speaker 1: means that we had a real opportunity, right, We had
Speaker 1: a real opportunity to get out there and tell people
Speaker 1: this race matters too, and it's on the same ballot.
Speaker 1: So the challenge of getting people out to vote for
Speaker 1: these local elections becomes a little easier because they're already
Speaker 1: going to be voting for these big races. You just
Speaker 1: got to let them know that the local stuff matters too.
Speaker 1: So that was another reason why I think I decided
Speaker 1: to step up and run at this time, because right
Speaker 1: now in l A, there was just this incredible opportunity
Speaker 1: to expand participation, expansivic education, and get people pumped up
Speaker 1: to do something that they hadn't necessarily done before. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: That's you are, literally the I would call I'm gonna
Speaker 1: call you the face of local election importance, and you fight.
Speaker 1: I think your history shows that you not only fight
Speaker 1: for your local to where you live, but also local
Speaker 1: to your culture. Um, you've spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: fighting to increase resources for slum dwellers in India. I
Speaker 1: would love to hear just a little bit more behind that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I you know, I moved to India after college, and
Speaker 1: when I was living in Delhi, I was working with
Speaker 1: a human rights nonprofit and kind of just you know,
Speaker 1: I was doing all kinds of things. I just graduated college,
Speaker 1: you know, I was finding myself. But I saw in
Speaker 1: the papers that there was this massive slum eviction that happened.
Speaker 1: It was a you know, a huge slum on the
Speaker 1: banks of the Yamena River, which is a big river
Speaker 1: that winds its way through the city of Delhi. And
Speaker 1: this this community was one of the largest slums in Asia.
Speaker 1: And the government of Deli demolished that slum over the
Speaker 1: period of a couple of weeks. And after the first
Speaker 1: couple of days of coverage in the English press, people
Speaker 1: stopped covering this issue. And I couldn't believe it. A
Speaker 1: hundred thousand people lost their homes almost overnight because of
Speaker 1: actions taken by the city and state government, and I
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe that it wasn't getting the kind of
Speaker 1: attention that it deserved. I couldn't believe that people weren't
Speaker 1: paying attention to what was happening to people when they
Speaker 1: lost their homes and and where were they going afterwards?
Speaker 1: And so I went to the eviction site. I tried
Speaker 1: to look for organizations that we're getting involved and trying
Speaker 1: to help people who had lost their homes. And that's
Speaker 1: how I started getting involved in issues facing slum dwellers
Speaker 1: as a whole. And I did work in Delhi and
Speaker 1: in the city of Chennai. And you know, in in India,
Speaker 1: a lot of people who live in these slums, they
Speaker 1: don't have even the most basic services. They don't have
Speaker 1: running water, they don't have toilets, they don't have underground sanitation,
Speaker 1: and the city really denies them those services. And so
Speaker 1: what I did in my work was to try and
Speaker 1: give people the tools to advocate for those services, to
Speaker 1: make sure that they had access to those basic needs.
Speaker 1: And I worked initially I worked in organizations that were
Speaker 1: led by slumd allers and informal sector workers like street
Speaker 1: vendors and flower sellers and fishermen. And then I started
Speaker 1: a little nonprofit of my own and worked with them
Speaker 1: to use my urban planning tools to actually create that
Speaker 1: data and to push the city governments to taking action.
Speaker 1: And it was incredibly rewarding work and it taught me
Speaker 1: a lot about what happens when people come together and
Speaker 1: they fight for their rights, how much positive change can happen,
Speaker 1: how quickly that change can happen, and how inspiring it
Speaker 1: can be to be a part of it. It's it's
Speaker 1: crazy to me that that you're talking about fighting for
Speaker 1: these these increases of resources on the other side of
Speaker 1: the world. When if I took out the concept that
Speaker 1: you're talking about India, I would be like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're talking about l a like it feels like it's
Speaker 1: it's it's relating so deeply to the homelessness situation that
Speaker 1: we have here in Los Angeles. And you're on your website,
Speaker 1: you talked about it that Los Angeles is spending over
Speaker 1: a hundred million dollars on homelessness, with almost of that
Speaker 1: money going to convicting and jailing people who are experiencing homelessness. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that that that was work I did in at
Speaker 1: city Hall and it was really shocking when I found
Speaker 1: those numbers. Can you tell us a little bit um,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the freeze and rent price
Speaker 1: increase and and evictions in Los Angeles. Can you tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit more about that. Yeah, So, you know,
Speaker 1: I talk a lot about homelessness. I talk about how
Speaker 1: the city of Los Angeles has really had a misguided
Speaker 1: approach to homelessness for a really, really long time, an
Speaker 1: approach that's focused on policing and criminalization, instead of care,
Speaker 1: instead of doing the work to try and get people
Speaker 1: out of homelessness and into housing, into services. But another
Speaker 1: thing that we don't do very well in l A
Speaker 1: at all is to keep people who are in their
Speaker 1: housing housed right. We have had a really big problem
Speaker 1: with people either leaving l A because the prices are
Speaker 1: getting too high and they moved to other parts of
Speaker 1: l A County really far away from their homes from
Speaker 1: communities where they grew up, or losing their homes and
Speaker 1: ending up in their car or on the street in
Speaker 1: you know intents. These are huge, you know, and these
Speaker 1: are huge processes. Annually in l A. They estimate that
Speaker 1: they have about thirty thousand evictions a year. That's a lot.
Speaker 1: And if you were to do really simple interventions in
Speaker 1: the city of Los Angeles, we could actually do a
Speaker 1: lot to help people stay housed, to be able to
Speaker 1: continue to afford their house. And one of those things
Speaker 1: is a rent freeze. So we have in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: as a city of majority renters, and we actually, through
Speaker 1: the city's Rent Stabilization Ordinance, control rents in eighty percent
Speaker 1: of apartment units in the city. That's a huge number
Speaker 1: of apartments, and for years, what we did was to
Speaker 1: set a floor on that rent increase, on that rent
Speaker 1: stabilization increase, that allowed apartment owners to raise rents by three,
Speaker 1: four or five percent every year. Right, what we could
Speaker 1: have done when we saw that prices here we're going crazy,
Speaker 1: was to have put a rent freeze in place. We
Speaker 1: always had that power, and we chose not to use
Speaker 1: that power to make that a zero percent rent increase
Speaker 1: on most of the apartments in the city. And so
Speaker 1: that's why I've been through the primary and even to now,
Speaker 1: I've been advocating for putting in a rent freeze on
Speaker 1: that huge number of apartments over which the city does
Speaker 1: have control. Well, guess what. So before the pandemic, when
Speaker 1: I was running and I was talking about this, people
Speaker 1: said that this is radical, Like, oh, this is crazy,
Speaker 1: this is off the table, We can't do stuff like this.
Speaker 1: When the pandemic started, when people started really facing economic crisis,
Speaker 1: the city did this. The city actually did institute a
Speaker 1: temporary rent freeze on units that were covered by the
Speaker 1: rent stabilization ordinance. That's great, but you know what it
Speaker 1: told me. It told me that they had this power.
Speaker 1: The whole time, and they chose not to use it
Speaker 1: to help people keep rents lower and stay in their homes.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think they could have been doing it.
Speaker 1: That's why we talked about these powers. It's funny how
Speaker 1: I love especially that story specifically, And it's funny how
Speaker 1: people's minds can shift as quickly on the dime once
Speaker 1: it starts affecting them. Actually, and a radical idea can
Speaker 1: become uh, not only a totally acceptable thing, but also
Speaker 1: a needed thing, especially amid the pandemic. A needed thing. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: But to me, when I look at what has been
Speaker 1: happening in Los Angeles, I keep asking, why do we
Speaker 1: wait and let people suffer for so long before we
Speaker 1: choose to use the city's immense powers to take action.
Speaker 1: I find that continuously frustrating in Los Angeles, And so
Speaker 1: one of the things that we've been talking about throughout
Speaker 1: the campaign is really to say, well, how can the
Speaker 1: city be a force for good? How can we intervene
Speaker 1: in people's lives before they spiral into crisis? You know,
Speaker 1: And that's that's really where I'd like to push us
Speaker 1: in terms of thinking about the powers of the city
Speaker 1: government and its role in our lives. And by the way,
Speaker 1: if you go UM, you can go to nydia for
Speaker 1: the city dot com uh, and you can learn that
Speaker 1: as important as homelessness is as important as rent freezes
Speaker 1: and I guess rent I don't know, maybe a mental assistance,
Speaker 1: rental assistance there we go UM are important to you
Speaker 1: in your campaign. You also are very very much so
Speaker 1: a vocal person for preventing climate crisis, achieving racial equity, UH,
Speaker 1: and making city hall work for us. That includes if
Speaker 1: you are to win, you so like you'll also be
Speaker 1: I I just I love that. As I was reading that,
Speaker 1: I was it was really you know, you have I
Speaker 1: feel like when I look at people running for office,
Speaker 1: it's always I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that,
Speaker 1: and very rarely like, hey, I want to get into
Speaker 1: office so that you can tell me what you want.
Speaker 1: You know. I think you're a great example for people
Speaker 1: who are not in l A as well that that
Speaker 1: helps get ideas for their city. Also, UH, you're running
Speaker 1: against an incumbent city council person and I think you're
Speaker 1: doing very very well despite his campaign having outspent you tenfold.
Speaker 1: What do you think, um, What do you think is
Speaker 1: is so important for people to know about where campaign
Speaker 1: money comes from because I also know that and and
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it as somebody who is a fan
Speaker 1: of the organ nick kind of grassroots style, that you
Speaker 1: are not taking any donations from companies, especially companies that
Speaker 1: work in fossil fuel, and um, what's the big real estate?
Speaker 1: Big real estate than what? What do you think is
Speaker 1: so important for the people to know about not only
Speaker 1: your decision to not accept the money, but what's important
Speaker 1: for the people to also know about people who are
Speaker 1: accepting money and where that money comes from. So for
Speaker 1: a really long time in l A I said this before,
Speaker 1: but very few people voted in municipal elections and very
Speaker 1: few people actually donated to city council candidates. And for
Speaker 1: the most part, if you look at donation receipts from
Speaker 1: city council candidate in the past, it's all on the
Speaker 1: city's ethics website. What you realize is that the people
Speaker 1: who are donating to campaigns are people who are really
Speaker 1: looking to make a profit off of the city and
Speaker 1: looking to make a profit off of people who live
Speaker 1: in the city. Right, So this includes people who are
Speaker 1: involved in the fossil fuel industry who want to keep
Speaker 1: burning those fuels and you know, getting city contracts to
Speaker 1: do that. People who are building big buildings and want
Speaker 1: to charge the most they can for them, landlords who
Speaker 1: don't want to protect tenants who want to keep you know,
Speaker 1: increasing rents. All of these are the kinds of people
Speaker 1: who are donating to city council campaigns. And I think
Speaker 1: we would do much better in l A if we
Speaker 1: had a city government that wasn't depended on forces that
Speaker 1: want to profit off of us in order to get elected.
Speaker 1: I would want my elected representative to be beholden only
Speaker 1: to residents, to the people, right, And so for me,
Speaker 1: it was very very important to say, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to raise any money from corporations. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: raise any money from people who are big developers, and
Speaker 1: I'm not going to raise any money from people who
Speaker 1: are involved in the fossil fuel industry. We're also not
Speaker 1: taking any money from police unions or packs or anything. Right.
Speaker 1: All of these people have shaped city hall policy making
Speaker 1: in ways that have been disadvantageous for residents. And I
Speaker 1: think if we make sure that we are raising money
Speaker 1: from people, or even better, publicly financing elections, so you
Speaker 1: don't have to think about raising money at all. Then
Speaker 1: I think we could have a city government that's really
Speaker 1: responsive to residents needs, and that's what I want to
Speaker 1: push for. I love that. I really love that. And
Speaker 1: if you thank you for coming on this podcast. I
Speaker 1: think it's it's so refreshing hearing somebody who's running for
Speaker 1: office that I can identify with in the sense of like, oh,
Speaker 1: you're not just with no disrespect. Meant, you're not just
Speaker 1: an old white man, Like you're not just like somebody
Speaker 1: who's so far away from who I am as a person.
Speaker 1: You know, you have a family, and you you know
Speaker 1: you you are fighting for the causes that that we
Speaker 1: are actually talking about. I have no idea what even
Speaker 1: to say about the debate that happened a few days ago,
Speaker 1: But I at the whole time, I was just like,
Speaker 1: none of this. As much as I care about the
Speaker 1: topics and specific things, you guys are just rambling about
Speaker 1: things that have no relation to me. So thank you
Speaker 1: for coming on my podcast. I'm so excited. I'm very
Speaker 1: happy that we got to have you on here to
Speaker 1: talk to my listeners, especially the ones who are here
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. In Los Angeles County. Who will be voting.
Speaker 1: I hope if you're listening, you better be voting, So
Speaker 1: good luck to you. We're gonna take a quick break.
Speaker 1: When we come back, we're all going to be talking
Speaker 1: about what else there is to know because this is
Speaker 1: the last episode before the election. Don't go anywhere, We'll
Speaker 1: be right back. All right, we are back. This is
Speaker 1: let's get into it. And this has been an amazing episode,
Speaker 1: an amazing episode, especially right before the election. And since
Speaker 1: we're leading up to the election, I figured we have
Speaker 1: Nithia here, we have Aaron here, two very very strong minds.
Speaker 1: Nithia running for um City Council, l A County District
Speaker 1: four l A l A City Council District four l
Speaker 1: A City. Okay, there we go, we got it. But
Speaker 1: because we're leading up to this election, I figured we
Speaker 1: use this last segment a final send offs. Are our
Speaker 1: listeners can go and vote. I guess the have the
Speaker 1: most educated vote that they can. So this segment we're
Speaker 1: gonna call what else do you need to know about
Speaker 1: the election? And so yeah, I just have a bunch
Speaker 1: of questions that I'm gonna ask that I that I
Speaker 1: you know that we have pre set here based off
Speaker 1: of your guys expertise. Um, so, Aaron, you worked as
Speaker 1: a poll monitor and a poll worker. Why was that
Speaker 1: so important for you and would you actually encourage other
Speaker 1: people to do it? Oh? Yeah, totally. I mean when
Speaker 1: you're a poll worker, the people come in, unless there's
Speaker 1: like a three hour line, the people who come in
Speaker 1: are really really jazz to come in and vote. People
Speaker 1: are really really excited for the opportunities for are like
Speaker 1: weigh in on what's going on. And uh, they're super
Speaker 1: super thrilled to do it. And it's just a super
Speaker 1: rewarding experience. I'll tell you it's a long day because
Speaker 1: you get up reallyally. You say, they're really late. But
Speaker 1: that's why it's actually really perfect for young people to
Speaker 1: do and they need young whole workers. Most poll workers
Speaker 1: are older. Poll workers usually retire these with lots of
Speaker 1: time on their hands, but there's usually technology bearriers. More
Speaker 1: of these machines are very very like techy touch screen
Speaker 1: machines and things like that. Young poll workers are key
Speaker 1: and I would definitely recommend people get go on Vaulter,
Speaker 1: you hear that listeners. Is it too late? Can you
Speaker 1: still volunteer for this. I'm pretty sure they're still taking volunteers.
Speaker 1: I heard. I'm most familiar with that A county. I've
Speaker 1: heard that they're doing pretty decently with their numbers, but
Speaker 1: I think that there will always take more poll workers.
Speaker 1: But they definitely need them. And not that it matters.
Speaker 1: But do you get paid? Actually it depends again, it
Speaker 1: depends on your location. In La County, there is some pay. Yeah, right,
Speaker 1: all right, So then if you're listening to this, I
Speaker 1: advise everybody who's listening to this, just see. It might
Speaker 1: be too late, you might not be able to get in,
Speaker 1: you might not get paid, but just see. Well, thank
Speaker 1: you for that information. If your turn, you've been campaigning
Speaker 1: for whopping fifteen months, you haven't been able to work
Speaker 1: at that time. Um. You actually talked to Katie Stole,
Speaker 1: who was on last week's episode, about what has to
Speaker 1: fall in place just for somebody to even run for office.
Speaker 1: Can you speak about that? Yeah? Well, I was telling
Speaker 1: her about how lucky I am, how privileged I am
Speaker 1: to be able to run for this seat, and I
Speaker 1: wanted to acknowledge that privilege here today. You know, I
Speaker 1: have a husband who has a full time job, and
Speaker 1: so he was able to support me through this whole endeavor.
Speaker 1: I left my paying job to do this, and because
Speaker 1: I got further than most people who are challenging incumbents
Speaker 1: get in l A, by the time November three rolls around,
Speaker 1: I will have been running for a full fifteen months
Speaker 1: of my life, which is crazy, but you shouldn't have to,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, be able to afford not working outside
Speaker 1: of the home for or not making money for fifteen
Speaker 1: months to be able to run for office in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: That seems absolutely crazy to me. And so one of
Speaker 1: the things I talked to Katie about was the fact
Speaker 1: that I think, you know, we should think about making
Speaker 1: changes to our local political system that make it possible
Speaker 1: for a whole range of people to be able to run.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about one change that I'm really
Speaker 1: excited to think about going forward, which is offering childcare,
Speaker 1: you know, subsidized subsidies for childcare for candidates who meet,
Speaker 1: let's say, a certain threshold of interest, or meet a
Speaker 1: certain threshold for participation from other voters who are interested
Speaker 1: in their campaigns. I wonder, you know, Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Speaker 1: died recently, and we have so few women who are
Speaker 1: in public spaces who are politicians in America, And I
Speaker 1: wonder how many of them have been kept out of
Speaker 1: this space because they can't pay for childcare while they're running.
Speaker 1: They can't pay for childcare when they're at their peak
Speaker 1: and their professional careers when they when they're able to
Speaker 1: step up and run. And I think we should really
Speaker 1: make sure that we don't make that a barrier for
Speaker 1: people to be able to participate in public office. I
Speaker 1: think that's super meaningful, not only in the in running
Speaker 1: for office, but I mean we've talked about, especially in
Speaker 1: this episode in Los Angeles, and that's close to home
Speaker 1: for all of us. We're in a very very high
Speaker 1: cost of living situation when you live in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: and so for more reasons than just the cost of living,
Speaker 1: you very often have families with both the husband and
Speaker 1: the wife um working at the same time and having
Speaker 1: kids and having a family. So as somebody who's voting
Speaker 1: here in Los Angeles, and during the break, we found
Speaker 1: out that I'm actually in the in the district I'm
Speaker 1: in district for and that's something that means a lot
Speaker 1: to me. So if you live by me, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna tell you where I live. But if you live
Speaker 1: by me, that's something that's super meaningful. So I really
Speaker 1: love that that that's something that you are you're pushing for. Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: The next question I have is how are you both
Speaker 1: planning to vote? You plan to vote by mail or
Speaker 1: in person? And what is your reasoning behind that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: what I was planning to do was to fill out
Speaker 1: my vote by mail ballot and drop it off at
Speaker 1: a polling place. Um when they open. Polling places are
Speaker 1: going to be open for not just on November three,
Speaker 1: but for a few days before then. We have a
Speaker 1: lot of details about how you can vote on our
Speaker 1: website if you want to look it up Nitia for
Speaker 1: the City dot com and it says how to vote
Speaker 1: on top. But I want to go drop it off
Speaker 1: so that I know it's going to get there. I
Speaker 1: know that I trust, I still trust our postal service,
Speaker 1: and you know, I still think that if you send
Speaker 1: it in via the postal service, I would just recommend
Speaker 1: that you send it in early. I still think it's
Speaker 1: going to get there. I just don't want any delays
Speaker 1: or any errors to affect my vote being counted. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that that's absolutely important to note if you
Speaker 1: are planning to vote by mail to mail in your ballot,
Speaker 1: the USPS actually said today, the day that this episode
Speaker 1: is airing, October twenty, is the day that you should
Speaker 1: be sending it all and that it should be all
Speaker 1: done and sent in by So if you're listening to
Speaker 1: this podcast, hopefully on October twenty, if you're planning to
Speaker 1: vote by mail, make sure that it is sent in,
Speaker 1: and again, make sure that everything in terms of the
Speaker 1: rules for where you live, whether it's the UM the
Speaker 1: signature match that Aaron talked about, whether it's the color
Speaker 1: of ink that you use, your ballot being put in
Speaker 1: one envelope versus two. Uh, there's so much information. So
Speaker 1: if you're listening to this and you're planning on mailing
Speaker 1: in your ballot, make sure you follow both of those
Speaker 1: things and make sure you get it done. Aaron, what
Speaker 1: about you. My approach is going to be similar. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna double check my registration. I just checked it a
Speaker 1: little bit ago. I am registered to vote UM. There's
Speaker 1: a tracker in l A County where you can track
Speaker 1: your mail in ballot and see where it's coming. It
Speaker 1: should be mailed out to me in a few days
Speaker 1: as soon as I get it. I'm going to do
Speaker 1: this as soon as I can. I'm going to fill
Speaker 1: it out. And um, just a couple of blocks away
Speaker 1: from me, l A County has a drop box that
Speaker 1: that that they've put in. There's gonna be like four
Speaker 1: locations around l A County where you can drop off
Speaker 1: your ballots there. So there's voting centers where you can
Speaker 1: also drop them off, and they'll be these separate, big
Speaker 1: giant metal boxes that you can drop them off home.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to do it. Do it that the
Speaker 1: mm nice. I'm happy that you both said that, because
Speaker 1: being a neighbored to you both, I needed to know.
Speaker 1: So I'm planning on getting my mail in ballot and
Speaker 1: I was planning on dropping it off as well, and
Speaker 1: you guys just both gave me some more information I
Speaker 1: want to talk about. This is another fun word that
Speaker 1: I learned what urban planning was today. I also learned
Speaker 1: about this word jerrymandering. It's like, it's very fun to say,
Speaker 1: it's not fun to see happening jerry mandering. For anybody
Speaker 1: who doesn't know, is here we go. Jerrymandering definition. Jerrymander.
Speaker 1: It's a verb and it means to manipulate the boundaries
Speaker 1: of and then in parentheses and electoral constituency so as
Speaker 1: to favor one part of your class. It seems like
Speaker 1: both sides are doing it right now. It really does,
Speaker 1: and I don't like I gotta call it as I
Speaker 1: see it. Can you guys talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: whether or not you think that that counts as voter suppression?
Speaker 1: What are your guys thoughts? Yeah, so, I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: a lawyer, so I'd like to be precise with my terminology.
Speaker 1: Jerry Mandering for me, is has voter suppressive effects, is
Speaker 1: the way I would think about it, because it makes
Speaker 1: it so that your own certain populations of people their
Speaker 1: vote feels like has less impact, so they'll be less
Speaker 1: interested in the election, and that suppresses the vote itself. Um,
Speaker 1: so I'll view with its like having voter suppressive effects. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, and I think I think the bigger issue
Speaker 1: is make king sure that young people's voices are heard,
Speaker 1: making sure that young people are raising up their voices
Speaker 1: are are showing up at the polls. And so for me,
Speaker 1: I'm concerned about jerrymandering. I think it's a big issue
Speaker 1: in America in general, we should definitely talk about it more.
Speaker 1: But what I want to do with my energy and
Speaker 1: with my time is get as many people pumped up
Speaker 1: to get engaged as possible. And and that's why I
Speaker 1: love what you're doing with this podcast. I think it's
Speaker 1: so great that you're doing that because I think young
Speaker 1: people we give up our power when we don't vote.
Speaker 1: Not that I'm as young as you, but you know,
Speaker 1: in general, you're younger, You're younger. You really, I really
Speaker 1: do appreciate that. But it's very important. And and throughout
Speaker 1: these last three episodes, we've talked about everything from why
Speaker 1: it's important to even just vote in general, who you're
Speaker 1: voting for, voting with your heart, and then now especially
Speaker 1: in this election, talking about voter suppression how to combat it,
Speaker 1: and also talking about the importance of local elections. We've
Speaker 1: touched on so many things, and I think I have
Speaker 1: one last question for both of you. I think the
Speaker 1: biggest reason why I vote also, and I think both
Speaker 1: of you guys, once you start having kids, as you
Speaker 1: vote for the future. You vote so that your kids
Speaker 1: have a have a world that is as best as
Speaker 1: you can leave it for them. What's one thing that
Speaker 1: you both hope changes right now and by the time
Speaker 1: that they are eligible to vote. I really hope that
Speaker 1: we can take really drastic action on climate issues, and
Speaker 1: I hope that we are able to elect the kinds
Speaker 1: of people who aren't susceptible to the roadblocks that the
Speaker 1: fossil fuel industry has put in the way of rapid
Speaker 1: action on climate change. I think that is the most
Speaker 1: important thing that I want to see, because that that
Speaker 1: is the world we're giving to my kids, and I
Speaker 1: want to make sure it's as beautiful and as green
Speaker 1: and as lush and as livable as the world that
Speaker 1: I grew up in, you know. And I re really
Speaker 1: hope that we can get there. That climate change is
Speaker 1: definitely there, and I've and I've actually recently come to
Speaker 1: the view that climate change plus wealth inequality together are
Speaker 1: super super key because as there's more wealth and equality,
Speaker 1: also people who are super wealthy are gonna have more
Speaker 1: influence in the political process, and we have to solve
Speaker 1: both of those things as quickly as we can, otherwise
Speaker 1: we're going to have disenfranchise people who are facing this
Speaker 1: sort of climate catastrophe. And I really hope that that
Speaker 1: we can turn that around well again, thank you both
Speaker 1: so much for coming on this podcast. We're gonna close
Speaker 1: out with my favorite segment. It's called not So Shameless Promo. Literally,
Speaker 1: I just want you to plug your would plug your
Speaker 1: projects you're working on, where people can find you on
Speaker 1: social media, um, anything else. Aaron, if you want to
Speaker 1: go first, because I got we gotta go. We gotta
Speaker 1: give Anthea some real big time here to to talk.
Speaker 1: I'll use this time to say if you have an
Speaker 1: issue voting, you can call eight six six our Vote
Speaker 1: and that's the Lords Committee for Civil Rights into the Law.
Speaker 1: They have an Electric Protection hotline that they are using
Speaker 1: to help people vote and call them if you have
Speaker 1: any issues at all or just have questions, they'll help
Speaker 1: you off perfect well. Thank you so much, Aaron. Nythia,
Speaker 1: you're running for l A City Council district for Where
Speaker 1: can people find you? How can we support and how
Speaker 1: can we help you hopefully win this election? Find me
Speaker 1: on Instagram at Nythia for the City and I T
Speaker 1: h y A on Twitter at Nythia v Raman and
Speaker 1: I t h y A v r A m A n.
Speaker 1: And on my website at Nythia for the City dot com.
Speaker 1: Follow me, share the message lifted up. Tag twenty of
Speaker 1: your friends. It's a crazy district. If you live in
Speaker 1: l A. I'm sure you know people who live in
Speaker 1: the district. Tag them, tell them about the race, and
Speaker 1: tell them to go and vote. Yes, yes, yes, Well
Speaker 1: you know you can always find me at alex ion
Speaker 1: O A I O n oh. It's the best part
Speaker 1: about having a weird last name. I am alex Iono.
Speaker 1: I'm voting for Joe Biden Kamala Harris for presidential election,
Speaker 1: and I'm voting for Niffia Rahman for l A City
Speaker 1: Council district for Please please please go vote. I literally
Speaker 1: I cannot stress it enough. Please go vote, Vote with
Speaker 1: your heart. Vote in your local elections. Make sure you
Speaker 1: are educated before you get in there and vote. I
Speaker 1: love you. I'll see you guys on the other side.
Speaker 1: Hopefully it looks good. Please rate our podcasts and subscribe
Speaker 1: if you've got some time. It's how we grow and
Speaker 1: we'll talk to you later. Peace. We really want you
Speaker 1: to get the help you need, so if you need help,
Speaker 1: please seek independent advice from a competent healthcare or mental
Speaker 1: health professional. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast
Speaker 1: are solely those of the podcast author or individuals participating
Speaker 1: in the podcast, and do not represent the opinions of
Speaker 1: my Heart Media or its employees. This podcast should not
Speaker 1: be used as medical advice, mental health advice, counseling, or therapy.
Speaker 1: Listening to the podcast does not established dr patient relationship
Speaker 1: with hosts or guests of alex i Own Let's Get
Speaker 1: Into It or I Heartmedia. No guarantee is given regarding
Speaker 1: the accuracy of any statements or opinions made on this podcast.
Speaker 1: Who if That's a Doozy