WEBVTT - Lessons Learned, Lessons Denied 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.520 Good morning, peeps, and welcome to WIKA F Daily with 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:19.160 Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording from the Home Bunker. Folks, 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:22.759 you know, for the past couple of days, I have 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:30.480 been just outdone by the media, and you know, I 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:33.559 have been lamenting and making videos and in Twitter, and 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:37.279 I know that you folks follow me there, and I 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:41.760 want folks to understand that I am not just railing 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:48.040 against media for shit's sake. It's similarly why I have 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:52.920 made a career in politics and policy and now in media, 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:57.640 because I wanted to be able to change the hearts 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:00.600 and minds of as many people as possible. Right to 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.800 advance equality, and how do you do that right? You 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:05.959 can do it through policy, if in fact you have 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:09.800 a functioning government and Congress. You can do it through 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:14.360 media by telling stories that really bridge the gap between 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:20.080 people's understanding of others lives, right to move outside of 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:24.400 fear of the unknown, and understand that there are people 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:29.800 who benefit right from spewing lies, from making sure that 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:33.600 we all want to stay in our own cocoons and bubbles, 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:37.560 never to really connect with one another. People profit off 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:42.000 of that. And I have seen my work as yes, 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:45.960 the quest to get as many people as woke as 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:49.400 fucking possible, right, because what doesn't mean to be woke, 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:51.560 It means to be conscious, It means to be aware. 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:54.840 It means to be connected and to understand that there 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:57.640 are systems that have been put in place to benefit 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:03.600 a few at the events of the many. And as 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:09.480 I am watching this Trump drama play out, which you know, 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:13.200 we were notified to the fact that we are not 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:16.560 going to see another appearance until December, which I think 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:19.239 is you know, crazy. But again, I don't have a 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:21.400 law degree. I just watch a law and order all 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:25.320 the time. But I would think that it is at 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:33.359 the behest of the judge and the ag to expedite 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:36.520 this case because I think that the longer that Donald 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:41.080 Trump is able to grift out in the open, the 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:45.960 longer that pictures of the judge's daughter and Alvin Bragg's 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:50.120 wife and family members are able to be used as 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:55.040 you know, some type of taunts to their fringe violent 0:02:55.360 --> 0:03:01.040 base that we're just counting down to tragedy, And frankly, 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:03.400 I'd like to get this wrapped up as soon as 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:06.160 possible because I think that it's in the best interests 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:10.760 of our country and our sanity. That being said, you know, 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:14.080 just as we know, does not move like that, which 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:17.360 is why these criminal shows are always so popular, because 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:18.799 they get to be wrapped up at the end of 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:22.040 an hour, and that's not really how things go. But 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:30.240 it's the disappointment for me. It's the fact that there 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.680 are people who sit at these desks with microphones who 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:39.520 have built careers out of supposedly providing information and analysis 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:44.080 to people that I have seen become a shell of themselves. 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:50.000 And who am I talking about Van Jones? Van Jones 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:57.120 is a CNN commentator, but I knew Van Jones well 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:01.680 over a decade ago when he was the head of 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:08.440 an environmental justice education in California called Greenfall. Van Jones 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:13.080 was one of the first people that I reached out 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:15.080 to when I was working on Capitol Hill and I 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:20.120 had written a piece of legislation around connecting kids with nature, 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:24.279 particularly black and brown kids, trying to express that the 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:26.680 environment is not a place that you go, it is 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:29.680 where you are. And Van Jones, out of the work 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:33.799 that he had done on environmental justice and you spoken 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:36.720 out and he had created so many amazing and important 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:42.400 organizations that lifted up the voices and the needs of 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:50.200 the most marginalized communities. And over the course of several years, 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:54.440 you know, I had seen Van and you know, watched 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.880 his rise and you coming into the Obama administration and 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:02.520 then promptly leaving the Obama administration because of the way 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:08.040 that the right wing lambasted him. And now when I 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:13.880 see this man, this black man, sitting on CNN and 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:18.680 saying things about Donald Trump when he was in office, 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:22.840 because he put together a coherent sentence at the State 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:26.200 of the Union, he has said things like, oh, that's 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.680 today's the day that Donald Trump became president, as if 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:33.200 Donald Trump is you know, a baby that just learned 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:36.159 to walk, and you're like, oh, this is the day that, 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.720 you know, the infant became the baby then became the toddler. 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:47.440 While we were watching the circus around Donald Trump's arrayment, 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:54.120 Van Jones found himself on CNN saying that he doesn't 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:58.880 revel in today in Donald Trump's arrayment, that this just 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:03.360 looks like a sad grandpa. And this is you know, 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:09.040 the criminal justice system is hard on everyone. Van Jones, Sir, 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:16.120 with all due respect, shut the entire fuck up the 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.640 way in which you have turned into a shell of 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:23.880 an advocate to a shell of an activist to a 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:29.039 talking head and stooge for the right wing is beyond me. 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:31.920 I have no idea what has happened. I really don't know, 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:36.400 but you are definitely not the man that I met 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:41.479 over a decade ago, whose work an environmental justice and 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.680 social justice was one that I wanted to model my 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:47.640 own career of advocacy around because I thought it was 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:55.039 so profound. So to watch you contort yourself into some 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:58.800 type of motherfucking step and fetch it for the right. 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.320 Donald Up is no one's sad grandpa. I'm sure he 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:06.000 doesn't even know the fucking names of his grandchildren. He 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:10.520 is more like a sad grand wizard right of the KKK. 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:14.920 He wasn't a sad grandpa when he was inciting violence 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:20.120 and yelling to his security detail to remove the magatrons 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:23.600 at the stop the Steel rally, even though he was 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.480 told that the people that came out to that rally 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:29.520 were heavily armed. He wasn't a sad grandpa then when 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:31.960 he was pointing in the direction of the Capitol Building 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:35.840 and telling people to go and take their country back, 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:40.200 and that Mike Pennce betrayed him, putting a target on 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:42.160 his back for those people to go ahead and build 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:44.400 a gallows on the steps of the Capitol building. He 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:47.520 wasn't a sad grandpa when he signed legislation that would 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:50.840 put children in cages and separate them from their parents. 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:53.920 He wasn't a sad grandpa when he decided to gut 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:58.200 the EPA. He wasn't a sad grandpa when he called 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:03.720 nations that people that look like me come from shitthhole countries. 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:08.160 He wasn't a sad grandpa when he decided to uphold 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:16.800 white supremacy by saying, after the Charlottesville riots incidents white 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:20.680 supremacy march of they will not replace us, that there 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:22.720 are good people on both sides. He wasn't a sad 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:25.760 grandpa when he stood on national television and told the 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:28.560 Proud Boys and the oath Keepers, those two very same 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:32.600 groups who would orchestrate the insurrection, to stand back and 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:36.120 stand by, sir. What the fuck are you looking at? 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:41.240 This is what I mean when I say how fucking 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:48.520 irresponsible mainstream media has become. When you see the revolving 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:53.960 door of people who bolstered their career through attaching themselves 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:57.800 like a barnacle to the Titanic of Donald Trump, only 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:01.000 to them be rewarded for their lives and their criminal 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:06.600 behavior by getting plumb jobs on the view on CNN, 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:15.040 on MSNBC, Right, Van Jones is no one's Oh I'm 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:21.280 trying to understand. He is a white supremist apologist, and 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:27.560 it is disgusting, and I'm calling him out specifically because 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:32.600 that type of language and rhetoric and faux ass empathy 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.120 is how the fuck we get to the place that 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:40.360 we are in right now, where Oh, you just want 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:46.079 to recognize how aggrieved white racists are. They're losing their country. 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:51.160 Oh you mean they're actually being asked to share this 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:58.120 abundant land that was toiled for free by enslaved captive people, 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:04.120 land that was dolan from indigenous Native Americans, Like, give 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:10.800 me a fucking break. Van Jones is emblematic of everything 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:16.680 that is wrong with the mainstream media and just another 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:20.840 reminder that if you do not hold your center, if 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:25.960 you do not remain grounded in the current tempest of 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:33.200 fascism and authoritarianism that we find ourselves swirling in, you 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:36.559 will lose sight of who you are and what is 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:39.440 actually at stake. Just so that you can put more 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:45.800 money in your pocket, and that is just a disgraceful 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:54.240 place to be. Coming up next on woke F, dear friends, 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:59.240 an important conversation and one that doesn't involve truly centering 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:05.479 around Donald Trump, is my conversation with Sam Alika Friedland, 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:11.040 who is from the Institute for Responsive Government. That talks 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:15.000 about Sam and I will get into a conversation about 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:18.520 voting infrastructure and how it has been attacked over so 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:23.079 many years, how essentially voting in this country has been defunded. 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:32.360 So we will have that conversation with Sam. Coming up next, folks, 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:35.959 I am very happy to welcome to okay EFFI Daily 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:40.040 for the first time, Sam Alika Friedland, who is the 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:44.840 executive director of the Institute for Responsive Government and before 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:48.920 this position previously worked as a voting rights litigator at 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:52.679 the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division under both two 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:58.920 very different presidents friends, the Obama administration and the Trump administrations. 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:02.720 So Sam, welcome, Thank you, thank you for having to 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:06.479 woka F. Thank you so much for joining US. Voting rights, 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:11.080 access to voting, voter suppression, jerrymandering. These are all topics 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:14.559 that I cover on a fairly regular basis on WOKF 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:21.079 And since the Supreme Court was able to systematically gut 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:24.760 the Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty four and our 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:30.280 Congress's failure to be able to re enact those pieces 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:33.839 under the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, we have seen 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:37.640 an assault on voting rights that I think is pretty 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:42.160 unprecedented in our modern times, right, And so I just 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:45.560 wanted to give you an opportunity to tell us what 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:50.400 you see from your vantage point about the landscape of 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:54.880 voting and one how you see this landscape, but to 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:59.720 how it has shifted over the last seven years, where 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:04.480 we have lost a lot of integrity in our voting 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:11.320 system because of the Trump administration, the Big Lie and others. 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:15.679 That's a great question. And I love actually your use 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:18.040 of the word integrity either because I think it's so 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:20.960 important to talk about the integrity of the system as 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:23.560 a whole. And I hear a lot of folks using 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:27.160 election integrity to mean preventing voter fraud. And it is 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:29.800 important to make sure that only eligible voters are casting 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.320 a ballot, and our systems are very well set up 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:34.600 to do that, and it's important to talk about election 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:38.240 integrity in that frame, but it's also election integrity to 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:41.760 make sure that every eligible voter is registered and has 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:44.959 that opportunity to cast the ballot. So together, I think 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.120 people think of voting access and voting security as like 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:50.440 two sides of a scale, where you increase one and 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:53.640 it decreases the other. And I think what's become abundantly 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:56.400 clear over the last few years, that's actually not true. 0:13:56.520 --> 0:13:58.880 Those are to mix my metaphos, those are two votes 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:01.120 that can be lifted at the same time, you know, 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:05.200 on the same tide, And talking about sort of election 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:08.080 integrity as a whole is such a great way to 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.600 talk about it at this particular moment. So you asked 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:14.120 about the Supreme Court and seven years ago, and I 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:17.800 started at the Department of Justice basically right after the 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:20.480 Supreme Court got to the Voting Rights Act. So I'm 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:26.800 I'm one of few civil rights time to starting. Welcome. Welcome. 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:29.800 So the Chief Justice welcomed me to the Civil Rights 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:32.160 Division by taking away at the main statue we had 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:34.640 to enforce. That was very nice of him. But it 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:38.400 was really interesting because it was a time when lawyers 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:40.720 needed to figure out how to pivot from some sort 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:43.520 of long held patterns of how to enforce these civil 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:47.240 rights laws, and people think about, you know, I think 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:49.360 when people think about the Voting Rights Act and the 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:53.200 preclearance provisions that got struck down, you think about these big, 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:57.320 you know, big ticket, high visibility sort of voting rights 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:01.320 policy pieces like voter ID laws in in Texas for example, 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.000 that got struck down under the preclearance system and then 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:08.840 they were reinstituted, and redistricting plans for Congress and jerrymandering, 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:13.480 and these are all incredibly important. But another incredibly important 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:17.000 part of the voting rights ecosystem of our ability to 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:20.520 cast the ballot is the bureaucracies at the local level 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:22.920 that really do run our elections. So people forget that 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:25.040 elections are run in the US at the county and 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:29.560 municipal level in almost every state, and that means that 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:32.440 we have about eight thousand local election officials in the 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:35.600 country who are primarily in charge of deciding should we have, 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:38.320 you know, how many early votes sites should we have, 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:41.640 How should we hire poll workers, How should we communicate 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.360 to the public about how to vote and how voting 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:47.960 has changed in the pandemic. Should we process vote by 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:50.920 mail applications? In a timely manner and send people their ballots. 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:54.360 How many polling places should we have an election date? 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:56.680 All of these are decisions that get done at this 0:15:56.760 --> 0:16:00.360 local level. And one of the most powerful things that 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:03.560 preclans did has surfaced all of these teeny little local 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:06.400 decisions that had such an impact on people's voting behavior 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:09.120 to the Department of Justice, who was able to sort 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:11.160 of either block or allow it to go into effect. 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:15.520 And what keeps me up at night about this Voting 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:18.000 Rights Act is like, how do we get that information 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:20.920 from the local level to bubble up to the top. 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:27.520 But that locality, that localism, is also an opportunity. So 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:30.200 I like to try and be a little bit like Pollyanna, 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:31.960 not Pollyannish, but I like to be a little bit 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:34.480 more optimistic than others when we talk about voting rights, 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:38.920 because I think there are more good things happening right 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:42.480 now and more opportunities than many of us think. So 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:47.560 those eight thousand officials, Republicans, Democrats, rural, urban, the vast, 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:51.400 vast vast majority of them are non partisan bureaucrats who 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:53.320 just want to do their job and provide people the 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:56.360 voting opportunities. The law says they should have. There are 0:16:56.360 --> 0:17:02.480 some exceptions. The exceptions are relatively rare. And when you 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:05.520 talked about Congress failing to act on the John Luis 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:09.520 Voting Rights Act, that was an important failure. And another 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:13.200 important failure of Congress last year was failure to advance 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:16.960 proposals that would have adequately funded those local election officials. 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:21.199 So the President asked for ten billion dollars in his 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:24.000 budget over ten years, for much of which would go 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.879 directly to local election officials. Congress answered the call with 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:36.160 only seventy five million dollars. Yeah. Wow, that was exactly 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:38.960 my face and exactly my wow when I saw the 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:42.760 final number. It was a stunning failure to put the 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:45.480 sort of money where their mouth was on democracy and 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:49.960 actually create those opportunities of the local level for those 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:52.680 nonpartisan bureaucrats to like give us all what we need. 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:56.160 And so, you know, it's important to think about like 0:17:56.440 --> 0:18:00.320 the big picture laws, the big picture policies in tandem 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:04.280 with this incredibly localized tapestry of election administration that's happening 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:06.399 across the country. And I like to sort of think 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:08.840 about both of those at the same time. You paint 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:13.360 a picture, because obviously what most people understand about voting 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:19.480 is walking into whether it's a elementary school, gymnasium or whatever, 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:23.399 community center and booth and you know, thanking the people 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:27.320 for sitting there and doing the job and walking out 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:30.040 right filling out their ballot and walking out. And I 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:34.880 think that what we have seen since twenty twenty is 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:41.439 that more Americans have become skeptical right of the voting 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:46.600 systems because of the lies that were spread by Donald Trump, 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:50.080 the Republican Party, which is you know, I can't help 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:53.600 but think now about that ten billion dollars versus seventy 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:58.160 five this coming from people who claim that they were 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:01.240 so much wrong with their voting right and so much 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:04.280 wrong with our system, then then wouldn't you want to 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:09.560 fund to make sure that the integrity of said system remains? 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:14.160 So I digress, but you know, when I think about 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:19.320 what people learned from the election of twenty twenty, and 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:22.639 it was a historic election, right in the midst of 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:26.520 a pandemic, there was a lot of pivoting and nimbleness 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:28.919 that needed to happen in order to keep people safe 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:32.240 but also for them to be able to exercise their 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:36.000 constitutional right to cast a ballot. And I want you 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:39.959 to talk about one, the historical nature of twenty twenty, 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:43.320 what were some of the lessons that were learned, but 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:47.360 then also the lessons that were denied, as we just 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:51.440 had at the end of last year the midterm elections, 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:55.080 which were again historic turnout, the lessons that were learned 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.720 in twenty twenty that were not applicable in twenty twenty two. 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:02.480 And what you were thinking with regard to how we're 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:11.000 going to run a successful, unencumbered election that isn't tampered with. Great, 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:13.840 great question, and I think, like when we think about 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:16.640 things we can celebrate, I think it's worth starting by 0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:19.560 pausing on twenty twenty and exactly like you said, it 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:24.320 was a world changing pandemic. It was an office changing 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:27.879 pandemic for local election officials across the country who weren't 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:30.600 able to do anything remotely the way they were able 0:20:30.600 --> 0:20:34.840 to do before. And local election officials are great a process. 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:38.040 They are great at sort of like managing a process 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:40.600 over time and in the face of threats. But this 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:43.040 is something new. This was This required a level of 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:46.919 nimbleness by those local officials that we haven't asked for 0:20:47.000 --> 0:20:50.080 before and that we did not adequately resource them to do, 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:52.360 and they pulled it off anyway, and that was an 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:56.840 incredible success and something we should all celebrate. In twenty twenty, 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:01.760 as high ranking you know, Republican officials called it, it 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:05.600 was the most secure election in American history. You had 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:07.800 people who had the choice whether they could vote by 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:10.520 mail from home if that's what felt safe to them. 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:13.560 They could also go into their polling place and be 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:16.760 greeted by that sort of friendly neighbor who has always 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:19.480 greeted them at the local community center of the local church. 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:24.000 Providing those options for voters was something new in twenty 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:26.600 twenty in a number of jurisdictions. There were some places 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:28.600 in the West who had done mostly vote by mail 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:31.399 before twenty twenty, and there were places other places that 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:35.320 had done almost exclusively in person voting. That mixing of 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:38.359 the two modes, that providing the voters the choice was 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:40.480 something really powerful. I think that came out of the 0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:44.880 pandemic and something that you've seen stick around. The problem 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:48.200 is that needs money, and that needs staff, and that 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:53.160 needs new warehouse spaces that they never needed before, and 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:56.280 they need security. So this is the last lesson from 0:21:56.320 --> 0:21:59.160 twenty twenty, or the last takeaway that's still with us 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:02.560 is that local election officials are getting threatened. And this 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:06.280 is remember local election officials of both parties. Of those 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:10.000 eight thousand counties and municipalities that run election, the vast 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:13.439 majority are majority Republicans. So this is like, these are 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:16.600 mostly Republican officials who are getting threatened by their friends 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:21.399 and neighbors because they're listening to that disinformation. And that's 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:27.080 not only morally important to me, but it also actually 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:29.840 threatens the integrity of the election system, because if we 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:33.840 can't give these hardworking people the resources they need, and 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:36.119 if we can't give them the security that they need 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:41.440 at relatively low paid jobs, we are not going to 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:43.959 have people to run our democracy. And that's more than 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:46.560 anything that keeps me up at night about the future. 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:50.400 Is the after effects of twenty twenty on election official 0:22:50.440 --> 0:22:54.320 recruitment and election official retention, not to mention, of course, 0:22:54.600 --> 0:22:57.560 the exact same problems in recruiting those poll workers who 0:22:57.600 --> 0:22:59.920 work at your local community center for that one day year. 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:04.320 They really are, you know, sort of the definition of 0:23:04.320 --> 0:23:07.320 thankless job. And I think our job, as folks who 0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:10.399 want to promote democracy is to thank them more often, 0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:16.080 both with our words, and with our policies. When you 0:23:16.119 --> 0:23:20.720 talk about being really concerned about being able to recruit 0:23:20.840 --> 0:23:27.320 people because of political threats of violence, right, do you 0:23:27.359 --> 0:23:31.200 think that this is something that is not then Sam 0:23:31.240 --> 0:23:34.240 getting the kind of attention that it should. Should we 0:23:34.359 --> 0:23:37.320 be taught because you know, for the last couple of years, 0:23:37.400 --> 0:23:41.320 I mean, we have seen an escalation in political violence, 0:23:41.400 --> 0:23:45.160 you know, from what happened to a former speaker Nancy 0:23:45.200 --> 0:23:49.240 Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, for what has happened in threats 0:23:49.240 --> 0:23:52.160 with members of Congress. We think about it at that level, 0:23:52.720 --> 0:23:56.399 but then we saw, right the attacks on Shay Moss 0:23:56.560 --> 0:24:01.760 and Missus Ruby Freeman from Georgia, who were made a 0:24:02.320 --> 0:24:07.800 target literally yes, by the president, former President Donald Trump, 0:24:07.840 --> 0:24:11.560 by Rudy Giuliani and others. And so when you talk 0:24:11.600 --> 0:24:15.320 about we need to be able to have security and protections, 0:24:15.560 --> 0:24:19.280 what is that in a best case scenario? What does 0:24:19.280 --> 0:24:22.040 that actually look like? Because we're not giving these people 0:24:22.560 --> 0:24:26.920 Secret Service bodyguards right while they're doing their jobs. So 0:24:27.320 --> 0:24:32.320 what does security and protection look like for these people? Yeah, 0:24:32.359 --> 0:24:34.639 so to answer your first question, what it doesn't look like? 0:24:34.640 --> 0:24:37.600 It's seventy five million dollars for the entire country. Yeah right, 0:24:37.760 --> 0:24:41.080 well that is that Yep. To put that number in context, 0:24:41.400 --> 0:24:44.199 in California, which ran a recall ellection for the governor 0:24:44.280 --> 0:24:48.200 last year, Riley County, one county in California spent fifty 0:24:48.200 --> 0:24:51.320 three million dollars on the recall election. Excuse me, So 0:24:51.680 --> 0:24:54.520 the seventy five million does not stretch across jurisdictions. And 0:24:54.520 --> 0:24:56.439 I bring that up again. You're gonna hear me probably 0:24:56.400 --> 0:24:59.000 mentioned that at least one more time on with you today. 0:24:59.280 --> 0:25:01.400 And the reason that I mentioned that is that, like, 0:25:01.760 --> 0:25:05.680 that's the security money. So we're not probably hiring secret service, 0:25:06.000 --> 0:25:09.199 but there are security services that costs money that election 0:25:09.240 --> 0:25:13.920 officials can hire to bring them through a unique threat environment. 0:25:15.560 --> 0:25:18.440 And I think some of that, some of that spending 0:25:18.440 --> 0:25:22.240 on security is necessary not only to keep people safe, 0:25:22.280 --> 0:25:26.480 which is the number one goal here, but also to 0:25:26.600 --> 0:25:29.199 really like increase the confidence of those officials and the 0:25:29.280 --> 0:25:32.760 poll workers in the process. And I think if you're 0:25:32.760 --> 0:25:35.679 a potential poll worker and you saw what happened in 0:25:35.720 --> 0:25:37.840 Georgia with the president last year, that's going to make 0:25:37.840 --> 0:25:41.000 you a little reticent to serve as a poll worker. Yeah, yeah, 0:25:41.480 --> 0:25:43.440 you know, it would make me a little reticent. To serve, 0:25:43.720 --> 0:25:46.880 and so I want to see election departments actually spend 0:25:46.880 --> 0:25:50.359 some money on security. And I know Fulham County, Georgia 0:25:50.440 --> 0:25:53.280 has spent millions more in security in the last few 0:25:53.320 --> 0:25:56.399 years than they have spent in previous years, in part, 0:25:56.440 --> 0:25:59.120 again to keep those folks safe, that's their number one goal, 0:25:59.160 --> 0:26:01.919 to keep safe, and in part because their election system 0:26:01.960 --> 0:26:05.160 will not run if they're not spending that money on security. Um. 0:26:05.920 --> 0:26:09.320 But but they need that money. But of course, the 0:26:09.359 --> 0:26:12.560 second piece of this is the disinformation environment that we're 0:26:12.680 --> 0:26:16.639 that we're drowning in right now, and we're going to 0:26:16.800 --> 0:26:19.800 keep seeing these threats if we keep allowing this disinformation 0:26:19.840 --> 0:26:24.639 to spread unchecked. Now, good news that some of the 0:26:24.680 --> 0:26:27.040 solutions that work for one of these pieces also work 0:26:27.080 --> 0:26:30.320 for the other piece. What's the best way to fight disinformation? 0:26:30.480 --> 0:26:35.320 It's with trusted information from a trusted government official. So 0:26:35.440 --> 0:26:37.679