WEBVTT - Are Election Laws Designed to Suppress Voting? 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:04.640 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:14.240 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast me. I'm 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:17.960 Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:20.480 Jerome Rolland you put the three of us together in 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:23.119 a room, shake it up, pick out some of the 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:28.040 chest hairs. You got stuff you should know. I thought 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:32.600 that was gross. I thought you'd like that. You're ready 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:34.920 to get angry on this one. I'm trying to keep 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:40.080 it cool. Man. I woke up yesterday and said, I 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:43.000 really want to take off a significant portion of our listeners. 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:46.680 So what could what topic could we do? And I 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:51.960 thought voter suppression? Perfect. Well, you know what, man, I've 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:54.640 been trying to think about the why this bugs me 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:59.280 so much. Voter suppression obviously bugs me because it's not right. 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:06.440 But what really bugs me, I think is that if 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:09.240 you're in Washington, D C. And you're in government, like 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.400 everyone knows about this stuff and everyone talks about it. Frankly, 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:15.480 when the microphones run around, like do you watch the 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:19.000 show Veep? I love it. I've only seen season five, 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:21.680 but man, it is so good. Like supposedly, that's kind 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:24.520 of how it is. Like when the microphones aren't around. 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:29.640 They all talk about politics in very frank terms, but 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:32.040 as soon as you get on television or in front 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:34.120 of a microphone, you have to tow the party lines 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:39.440 on both sides with this rhetoric crap, and it ends 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.240 up you can't even really talk about the things. Well no, 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:44.600 but plus also, I think one of the reasons that 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:47.640 that is the way it is is because you've got 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.880 to feed the sheeple like a certain like you said 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:54.280 that that company line or that party line, because if 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:56.480 you really talked about what was really going on, some 0:01:56.520 --> 0:02:01.120 of the people who agree with your BS would otherwise 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.120 disagree with the actual thing that's going on. You know 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:06.840 what I'm saying, Well, yeah, and let's just go ahead 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:12.279 and say it. And this one on voter suppression, historically, uh, 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:16.520 the Republican Party has purposefully done things to try and 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:20.520 keep certain people from voting because they probably vote Democrat 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.240 and they can't just say that, so they say, no, 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:27.640 it's really about voter fraud. That's a big problem. And 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.799 Democrats want those votes, and they say it's because they 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:34.920 just want a very inclusive democratic process, but that's not true. 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:38.280 They want those votes because they're probably gonna be Democrat votes, right, 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:43.120 and Democrats will do anything, including voter fraud, to get 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.320 people to the polls or to get those votes. That's 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.640 the current, that's the argument that's going on right now. Yeah, 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:50.960 but you know what I'm saying, though, like neither one 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:53.000 of them can say those things, so they have to 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:57.040 stand behind these two kind of bogus reasons, and it's 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:01.600 just infuriating. Right. So the reasons, these bogus reasons, ostensibly 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:06.200 focused reasons, are that if you take measures to make 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:10.080 it a little difficult to vote, what you're going to 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:14.000 do is protect the integrity of the electoral system. Right. 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:17.040 This is the this is the Republican's viewpoint. If you 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:20.040 do that, then there's gonna be a couple of things. One, 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:23.119 you're gonna cut down on fraud, which again the Democrats 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:26.480 are just total fraudsters when it comes to voting as 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:31.560 far as Republicans are concerned. And then it's also going 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:34.200 to in some cases, sure, it's gonna make it a 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:37.880 little difficult for some people to vote, but the Republican 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:40.800 way of thinking is if you really care about voting, 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:43.800 you're gonna do whatever it takes to get to that poll. 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:49.240 And register and vote. And if you don't, if if 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:51.760 just a couple of simple barriers will keep you from 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:55.160 doing that, then nuts to you, man, I don't care 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.280 about your vote and ts for the Democrats who you 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:02.320 probably would have voted for. That's like, that's the that's 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:04.800 the argument in public that you're talking about, that you're 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:08.119 saying is focus when it's really these people who are 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:12.960 having access issues to voting because of the laws that 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:16.520 the GOP is putting up, um are more likely to 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:20.240 vote for Democrats. So hence these are these are targeted 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:25.320 attempts to block people from voting for Democrats. Yeah, that's 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.360 that's the reality of it. Allegedly, we should say, chuck, 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:32.240 like there's just calling it voter suppression is kind of 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:36.200 controversial in and of itself. Well, yeah, no one likes 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:39.120 to use those words because on on the one side, 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:42.240 like you said, they there's like, it's not about voter suppression, 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.480 it's about like, you know, what's wrong with having to 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:46.960 have an I D to go cast a vote? Right? 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:50.080 I mean, on its face it makes sense. You know, 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:53.200 they say you have to have idea to buy alcohol. 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:55.680 If some clerk decides that he wants to see your 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:57.159 i D. You have to show it to him, or 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:01.240 you can't buy alcohol. What's the problem with that? You know? Well, right, 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:03.440 and then you go to some parts of Texas and 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:05.960 they say, well, you can use your your gun license 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:08.320 to vote, but don't use your student I D. That 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:11.040 doesn't count, right, So, like it's it's the fact that 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:14.880 they're all very targeted. And everyone will see as we 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:19.640 go through this, it's very targeted. Like and we'll we'll 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:23.200 bring up specific cases where you know, they find out 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:28.119 like oh, man, um, leading up to the election where 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.880 Barack Obama's first elected presidential election, Um, we saw a 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:35.240 surge in increase in black voters in this county. So 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:39.520 let's go to that county specifically and introduce some legislation 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:41.359 that's gonna make it harder for them to get to 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:47.400 the polls specifically there. Yeah, Like it's maddening. Oh it is. 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:50.760 It's infuriating. Even I was reading kind of the other 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.560 side on this by a guy named David French who 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:58.159 writes for the National Review, and he was saying, even 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:01.080 he was like, if that happens what you just described, 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:04.400 it should be vigorously litigated. That that that there's no 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:08.880 excuse for that, for anything that's that's specifically targeting like 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:12.320 minorities or the elderly. You're making it difficult for any 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:16.880 group that to to to like purposefully making it harder 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:20.240 for them to vote, and targeting people like that, then yeah, 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:23.000 it should be litigated and those those rules should be 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:25.919 thrown out. Well, and that happens. It is litigated, litigated, 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:29.360 and quite often reports do say like you can't do this, 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:31.600 and they say, all right, well, we won't do it again. 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:34.479 But it worked on this election right well. One of 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.760 the reasons why this we're currently in the midst of 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:41.520 a really massive wave of voter suppression laws that are 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:44.479 are sweeping the country right now. And one of the 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:47.200 reasons why it's being allowed to go on is because 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:52.320 just like in Citizens United Them, Roberts Supreme Court said, 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:55.240 you know what, things are fine, We're just going to 0:06:55.640 --> 0:07:00.040 gut an important provision of the Voting Rights Act of 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:02.320 nineteen six five. We'll talk a little bit more about 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:06.760 that in a minute, but it basically said, you these states, 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:10.320 in these specific districts in these states have a history 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:14.840 of voter suppression um and we the federal government are 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:16.440 going to keep an eye on you. So much so 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:19.040 that you can't make any changes to your voting procedures 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:23.040 without the federal government approving it. And in two thousand thirteen, 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:25.960 I believe, the Supreme Court said, you know what, we're fine, 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:28.920 we're post racial being a black president. We don't need 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:31.840 that anymore, and they overturned that provision of the Voting 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:36.520 Rights Act, and it's allowed again, this, this massive wave 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:41.320 of voter suppression laws to be passed in this country. Man, 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:45.240 We're already riled up. It's tough. It's tough not to 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:47.280 be you know what. We're you gonna say, should we 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:50.040 take a break? No, not a break, I was gonna 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.440 say it. Should we just go back and talk about 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.640 history a little bit? Yeah, man, because the history is 0:07:55.720 --> 0:08:01.480 much easier to stomach. Yeah right, Uh okay. So um, 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:03.840 and you you put this article together with our own 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:08.560 article on a bunch of other good stuff. Yes, nice work, thanks, um. 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:11.800 But you point out that very astutele that it's not 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:15.280 in the constitution the right to vote. This has been 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:19.840 uh left up to the states over the years. Um, 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:21.920 even though we've had you know, amendments since then that 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:25.160 obviously allowed certain people right to vote. It wasn't just 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:28.240 originally included like, hey, everyone can vote. Everyone has the 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:30.560 right to vote in this country, right and no. Originally 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:34.320 the only group that the UM that citizens of the 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:37.520 United States could vote for was the House of Representatives, 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:40.960 the Senate, and the president and the president still this 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:44.199 is the case. We're elected by an electoral college, right, 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:48.600 So eventually they added Senate seats for people to be 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:52.160 able to directly vote for. But in the first presidential 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:57.160 election in seventeen eighty nine, UM, the one that that 0:08:57.559 --> 0:08:59.959 or George Washington won and was elected to the president. 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:04.000 See the first presidency of the United States. UM, like 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:07.000 six percent of the population in the US at the 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:09.920 time were eligible to vote, and that was it. Yeah, 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:15.640 it was only white men, uh and freed African American 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:19.360 slaves and just four states. I saw six, six states. 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:22.040 I was really surprised to see that. But yeah, who 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:25.120 owned property? Right, that's a big one. Right, So that 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:29.840 left like eight guys, right they were allowed to But yeah, 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:31.840 you had to own property, and that was the big 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:36.000 division at first, even apparently more so than UM by race. 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:39.480 It was by whether you were a landowner a property owner, right, Yeah, 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:41.040 and you had to be twenty one There were certain 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:43.920 religious restrictions too. So, like you said, that ended up 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:47.960 six percent, six percent of the population could vote. That's 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:50.800 I mean, I'm gonna cut him a little slack on 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.080 the first election. Say, they were trying to get it together, 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.240 but six percent is an alarmingly non low number. But 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:00.240 they probably thought that was the six percent of people 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:03.199 that mattered, right, And I guess it's it's it's more 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:06.800 inclusive than the one percent, but it's still pretty pretty low. 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:09.480 We're in the single digits here, you know. Uh, But 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:13.040 like you were saying, it's um a class distinctions. Distinction 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:15.760 was really kind of the biggest deal. Uh. And that 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:20.079 changed a bit when war veterans who fought for independence 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:23.200 from Britain stepped up and said, hey, a lot of 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:28.479 us are not landowners and we helped free this country. Um, 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:32.079 can can we vote? And little by little states said, 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:36.520 all right, you know you don't have to own property. Um, 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:39.079 it's eighteen fifty. And let's just say all white males 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:42.559 can vote in some African American males, but definitely not 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:46.920 women right now yet, just give us another seven decades 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:50.720 or so. Okay, we're just trying to keep our heads 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:54.360 from spinning. Overlighting people who don't own property vote exactly. 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:57.880 So the in that bizarre Did you know that the 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:01.960 first group to agitate for for voting rights was white 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:05.400 men who did known land or veterans. I didn't know 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:10.280 that either. So, Um, something really big happened in the 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:12.920 middle of the nineteenth century that changed things as far 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:15.960 as voting went. And that was the Civil War and 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:18.720 the Thirteenth Amendment that and in slavery, followed by the 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:23.840 fifteenth Amendment that granted suffrage to all men in the 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:27.120 United States. Yeah, regardless of race, color, or previous condition 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:31.040 of servitude. But again and some women. Right, And it 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:35.360 should have said dot dot dot supposedly because that fifteenth 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:40.760 Amendment is what unleashed sort of the first uh Like, 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:44.880 like before there was just voter suppression. They were like, no, 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:48.960 you just can't vote. And now they said, uh, well 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:51.199 you can vote, And so they had to be creative 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:54.800 with their voter suppression, right. And at first there was 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:58.320 a period of reconstruction in the in the South after 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:03.280 the Civil War where the federal troops they I guess 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.280 it was led still by General Ulysses Grant if he 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:12.040 wasn't president by now, um, where the federal troops were 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:15.880 occupying the South under martial law, right, and they were 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:19.720 enforcing the Fifteenth Amendment and um other laws that had 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:22.720 come into effect after the Civil War, and it was 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:26.120 like black people could hold office, they could vote, they 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:32.480 could live in this transition period from slavery into freedom, 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:34.480 and they were doing it under the auspices of the 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:40.719 Union Army. Um. But then the Union Army withdrew pretty prematurely, 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:44.200 I think of the eighteen seventies early eighteen seventies, and 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:47.320 it went from the Reconstruction South with which ended up 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:49.959 lasting just a few years, to what became known as 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:55.160 the Jim Crow South, which was basically slavery by any 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:59.640 other name than slavery. Yeah, that's when the Dixiecrats, which 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:04.480 were conservative Democrats, uh, I guess conservatives of the day, 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:07.120 that's when they started to get creative and said, all right, well, 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:09.640 we have this new fifteenth Amendment, so let's try and 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:11.800 think of a lot of ways even though the law 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:13.719 says that black men can vote, that we can keep 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:19.000 them from doing so. Um. So how about a literacy test, um, 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:21.640 and not only just a literacy test, but maybe one 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:23.679 only in English. So that way there's no way an 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:28.160 immigrant can vote if they can't read English, or maybe 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:31.800 some poll taxes where you have to pay like like 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.760 a dollar to register to vote. But but in like 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:37.800 two thousand and sixteen money that was like eight hundred dollars. 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:41.120 Actually looked it up, it's uh nine thou dollars. In 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:43.560 the in the early nineteen hundreds, I looked up like 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:46.840 Texas it was a dollar fifty to register and that 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:50.800 would be like forty three dollars today. Yeah, but you know, 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:55.920 for a poor person who you know is maybe waffling 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:58.959 on whether or not to bother voting, charging them forty 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:01.240 three dollars is probably gonna sel a deal. And George 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:05.720 actually had a cumulative tax apparently for many years where 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:10.760 every year, uh like if you were forty years old, um, 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:12.480 every year from the age of twenty one that you 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.160 weren't registered to vote, you would have to pay per 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:18.760 year when you first registered to vote. Oh wow, So 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.160 that was clearly targeting like a freed slave in his 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.800 fifties would then have to pay a cumulative tax from 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:29.240 the age from one up to fifty and you know, 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:31.360 and again that just basically meant no one was going 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:34.120 to register. Well, there are a lot of grandfather claus 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:38.600 laws to which basically said that if you were registered 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:42.240 to vote prior to the fifteenth Amendment or your grandfather 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.440 was registered to vote prior to the fift Amendment, Um, 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:49.800 you you were eligible now under these Jim Crow laws. 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:52.760 But most black people in the South were not registered 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:56.360 to vote, nor were their grandparents prior to the fifteenth Amendment, 0:14:56.760 --> 0:14:59.800 so that basically just stripped them of their voting rights 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:03.280 on aromatically as well. And you mentioned the literacy test 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:06.600 to Chuck. Did you look into those at all? Uh? Yeah, 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:10.320 I mean some of them somewhere like like recite the 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:15.040 U s Constitution, some of them somewhere like that twenty 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:18.920 twenty pages long. And they would be administered by white 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:21.640 Democrats and again Democrats at the time where the Party 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:25.080 of Conservatives, Um, the I I we should do an 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:29.720 episode on that. And when the parties switched names, We've 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:33.920 chatted about that. So, um, it would be left up 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:37.520 to this poll worker who was administering the literacy literacy test, 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:39.680 It would be left up to their judgment whether the 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:42.960 person passed or failed. Yeah, like it like it was 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:45.400 up to them. It wasn't an objective test. That was 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:48.640 a subjective test. Yeah, and so the the end result 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:53.960 of this is in nineteen forty, nineteen forty, not eighteen forty. Uh. 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:57.920 These suppression campaigns worked so well that only three percent 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:02.360 of eligible voters African American Southerners were registered to vote 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:04.920 by nineteen forty. And you know, it's probably one of 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:08.760 the worst parts about that is that I'll bet in 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:12.920 nineteen forty that the average white person considered black people 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:16.760 politically disengaged in this country because of statistics like that, 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:19.800 Oh right to say, like, oh, they don't even vote, Yeah, 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:22.320 they don't even care about politics, and three percent of 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:25.640 them are are registered to vote even you know. Yeah, 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.600 And this wasn't limited to the South, kind of up 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:32.080 north and nationwide there were things going on. Notably, there 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:36.120 was a h for naturalized citizens. It was very long 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:42.000 residency requirements, UM, basically to try and keep uh immigrants 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:45.520 from voting for a long time, especially the Chinese. Apparently 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:48.920 do you know that I did not. There's a an 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:52.840 eighteen eighty two law it's pretty on the nose, the 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:56.520 Chinese Exclusion Act, and it said if you're Chinese and 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:59.040 you're an immigrant, you're not allowed to become a citizen, 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:01.200 which meant they couldn't vote. And this was on the 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:05.280 books in the United States until nineteen forty three. Yeah, 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:08.280 this stuff isn't ancient history. That that's why it's so shocking, 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:12.439 you know. Uh. So nineteen twenty comes along and um, 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:16.680 women were finally given the right to vote thanks to 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:19.679 the nineteenth Amendment. Uh and you mentioned the Voting Rights 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:24.639 Act of nineteen sixty five, which finally got rid of 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:30.399 the Jim Crow voting laws officially in the South. Um, 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:34.679 but that didn't mean that suppression intimidation didn't still go on. No. 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:39.359 You know, like whenever the federal government decided that it 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:42.920 needed to lend a hand and assist, um, the black 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:47.840 population of the Southern States in gaining their citizenship, that 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:51.040 there would be a huge backlash to that. And um, 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:55.440 initially it meant the formation of the clan, and then 0:17:55.560 --> 0:18:00.160 after the Civil Rights Act, the clan again experience. It's 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:04.080 this huge resurgence and popularity and membership and acts of 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:07.600 white terrorism just became the norm. And now that we're 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:09.320 looking back on it, you know, we think of like 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:12.359 the Civil Rights movement. When I think of that, I 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:15.920 don't think of it as actually agitating four civil rights. 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:19.480 I think of it as agitating for full citizenship and 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:22.159 equal treatment under the law and everything that makes up 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:23.879 civil rights. But you don't think of it as like, 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:27.119 really at the basis what the civil rights leaders were 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:30.920 agitating for, where things like protection of their voting rights, 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:35.359 access to to the polls just as any white person 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:39.200 would enjoy. And that march, that very famous march from 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:43.080 Selma to Montgomery. Um, did you see that movie Selma? 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:48.359 That one. It's a great movie. Have you seen either thirteen? No, No, 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:50.560 I'm dying to see that one too, Dude, that one. 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:55.160 That's amazing. It's just it's just amazing. It's really well done, 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:58.680 and the stuff they're talking about is just so eye opening. 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:01.000 It's it's great. Like it's one of those one Joe 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:03.720 watch more than once, I'm sure. But that march from 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:07.359 Selma to Montgomery was a march for voting rights, and 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:11.600 it actually helped usher in this Voting Rights Act of 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:17.400 nineteen sixty five because, um, the the Alabama State Patrol 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:23.040 I believe, I'm like horseback with batons and whips and 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:28.920 um uh, night sticks and tear gas just ruthlessly beat 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:33.879 these unarmed, peaceful protesters in the street of Selma, and 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:37.480 it was all captured on on national television and broadcasts, 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:40.680 and it really changed the mood of the nation as 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:44.960 far as that goes. And it actually was supremely counterproductive 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:48.119 to people who were against black voting because it helped 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:52.280 protect black vote um by by the federal government through 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:55.600 the Voting Rights Act of nineteen Yeah. Another thing that 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:59.000 came with that act was an official ban on any 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:02.760 uh quote test or device end quote uh to qualify 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:06.680 voters on the basis of literacy, education or fluency in English. Uh. 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:08.480 And then it took all the way until nineteen sixty 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:13.480 six until poll taxes were banned, um, which was kind 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:16.359 of way later than I thought. It was like the 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:20.560 next year. Well no, I mean just period. Oh yeah. No, 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:24.399 those Jim Crow laws were basically done away with after 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:27.560 a century. Yeah, as they were around for a century 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:31.880 in one form or another. Unbelievable yeah uh. And then 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:36.960 finally during Vietnam they finally lowered the age voting age 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:39.960 to eighteen and nineteen seventy one post Vietnam because veterans 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:42.919 were like, Hey, I can be drafted and shot and 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:45.960 killed for my country, but I can't vote. Uh, and 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:48.320 they all went, uh, yeah, it's a good point. It 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:51.760 is a good point to argue that, uh you want 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:53.679 to take a break. Yeah, man, all right, we'll be 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:57.680 right back and talk about the eleven voter suppression techniques. 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:23.480 Sk alright, Uh, we're back and um before actually we 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:27.960 move on to some of these eleven techniques. UM, my 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:31.440 question for you, sir, the basis of all this is 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:34.879 voter fraud. Is what the argument is for for a 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:37.679 lot of these, especially with I D SO, is that, like, 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:44.159 is voter fraud real? So? Um, I mean everything I 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:47.600 came across that I that strikes me as legitimate, although 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:52.040 I'm not sure how um legitimate, like say a conservative 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:54.199 might find it, but like the Brookings Institution, to me, 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:57.320 it's definitely left leaning. But I would also say that 0:21:57.400 --> 0:22:03.000 it's quite a legitimate think tank. Um, but the studies 0:22:03.040 --> 0:22:07.040 that I've come across all say, no, it's not really 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:11.280 a thing like the It's it's basically a specter. It's 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:16.560 a potential possibility, but it's in actuality, it's not a thing. 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:19.919 And one thing I saw was that, um, this came 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:22.639 I'm not sure where this one came from, but eighty 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:27.360 six convictions three hundred million votes cast in the last 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:30.159 few elections. I would say that's probably about ten to 0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:34.439 twelve elections. There's only been eighty six convictions for voter fraud. 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:38.960 And the other issue with this, specifically specifically with voter 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:43.359 I D laws is that most of those cases of 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:46.320 fraud where people have actually been convicted of voter fraud 0:22:46.560 --> 0:22:49.560 were mail in ballots, and so like a voter I 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:52.040 D card is not going to do anything for that 0:22:52.600 --> 0:22:55.000 because you don't you don't produce I D to mail 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:59.199 in a ballot. So the idea that there is a 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:05.080 big problem with voter fraud is um ostensibly not real, 0:23:05.160 --> 0:23:08.800 although of course Trump is going to um he's he's 0:23:09.119 --> 0:23:12.119 carrying out an investigation and he's formed a commission, so 0:23:12.320 --> 0:23:16.760 I'm very curious to find out what they find. But um, 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:19.640 even if it were a real thing, from the the 0:23:19.680 --> 0:23:23.719 pattern that we're seeing, the voter ide laws aren't going 0:23:23.760 --> 0:23:27.359 to help anything anyway. So far as it actually makes 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:32.240 a difference in an election outcome, it is negligible. No, 0:23:32.440 --> 0:23:35.120 And I have to say there are really It's not 0:23:35.240 --> 0:23:39.480 like the people who who are who say, especially rank 0:23:39.560 --> 0:23:43.960 and file GOP members, right, not necessarily like high elected officials, 0:23:43.960 --> 0:23:49.520 but just like the average GOP party member. It's not 0:23:49.560 --> 0:23:52.400 like they're lunatics for believing that there's such a thing 0:23:52.440 --> 0:23:56.280 as widespread voter fraud, right, Like, this is a big 0:23:56.359 --> 0:24:01.240 drum that's beat on the conservatives side and in conservative media, 0:24:01.520 --> 0:24:05.080 But there's also like UM instances in the past that 0:24:05.119 --> 0:24:07.879 can be pointed to saying like see, see this is 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:12.080 what they do. UM like Acorn definitely didn't help anything. 0:24:13.000 --> 0:24:17.679 Acorn was a community organizing UM group that had been 0:24:17.680 --> 0:24:20.320 around since I think the eighties, and they were dedicated 0:24:20.359 --> 0:24:25.920 to getting UM lower income minority people who traditionally had 0:24:26.040 --> 0:24:31.040 trouble accessing UM the polls or voting, getting them registered 0:24:31.080 --> 0:24:33.479 and getting them to vote right. So they were very 0:24:33.560 --> 0:24:39.160