WEBVTT - Selects: Are Election Laws Designed to Suppress Voting? 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:03.160 Hey everyone, it's Josh and for this week's select, I've 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.000 chosen our episode from May twenty seventeen on voter suppression. 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:10.239 Once in a while, we do a topic where, no 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:12.960 matter how hard we try, it just turns out to 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:16.120 be a one sided thing. We don't pick those topics 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:18.480 because they're one sided. They just turn out that way 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:21.239 despite our best efforts. So take a gander at this 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:23.119 episode and see what you think about all that. 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:37.000 Welcome to Stuff you should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:41.560 Hey, and welcome to the podcast me. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:45.360 There's Charles w Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry Jerome Rowland. 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:47.480 You put the three of us together in a room, 0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:50.400 shake it up, pick out some of the chess hares. 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:51.760 You got stuff you should know? 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:55.280 All right? That was gross. 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:56.640 I thought you'd like that. 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:00.000 You ready to get angry on this one. 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:03.960 I'm trying to keep it cool, man. I woke up 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:07.640 yesterday and said, I really want to tick off a 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:11.640 significant portion of our listeners. So what could what topic 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:15.480 could we do? And I thought voter suppression perfect. 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:19.160 Well you know what, man, I've been trying to think 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:23.479 about the why this bugs me so much voter suppression 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:27.959 obviously bugs me because it's not right. Sure, But what 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:34.200 really bugs me, I think is that if you're in Washington, 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.120 DC and you're in government, like everyone knows about this 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:39.840 stuff and everyone talks about it frankly when the microphones 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:42.560 aren't around, right, Like, do you watch the show Veep? 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:45.960 I love it. I've only seen season five, but man, 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:46.800 it is so good. 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:48.800 Like supposedly, that's kind of how it is. 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:51.880 Sure Like, when the microphones aren't around, they all talk 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:56.640 about politics in very frank terms. But as soon as 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.280 you get on television or in front of a microphone, 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.000 you have to tell the party lines on both sides 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:06.400 with this rhetoric crap, and it ends up you can't 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:07.720 even really talk about the things. 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:10.320 Well no, but plus also, I think one of the 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:13.120 reasons that that is the way it is is because 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:16.960 you got to feed the sheeple like a certain like 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:20.680 you said that company line or that party line, because 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:22.760 if you really talked about what was really going on, 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:27.120 some of the people who agree with your BS would 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:30.400 otherwise disagree with the actual thing that's going on. 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:32.960 You know what I'm saying, Well, yeah, and let's just 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:37.120 go ahead and say it. And this one on voter suppression. Historically, 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:43.000 the Republican Party has purposely done things to try and 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:47.679 keep certain people from voting because they probably vote Democrat, right, 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:50.840 And they can't just say that, so they say, no, 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:53.679 it's really about voter fraud, right, that's a big problem. 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:57.160 And Democrats want those votes, and they say it's because 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:00.800 they just want a very inclusive democratic process us, but 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:03.120 that's not true. They want those votes because they're probably 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:04.359 going to be Democrat. 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:08.760 Votes, right, and Democrats will do anything, including voter fraud, 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:12.080 to get people to the polls or to get those votes. 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:15.760 That's the current, that's the argument that's going on right now. 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:17.399 Yeah, but you know what I'm saying, though, like neither 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:19.360 one of them can say those things, so they have 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:23.400 to stand behind these two kind of bogus reasons, and 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:24.560 it's just infuriating. 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:28.920 Right. So the reasons these bogus reasons, ostensibly bogus reasons, 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:33.400 are that if you take measures to make it a 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:37.360 little difficult to vote, what you're going to do is 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:41.320 protect the integrity of the electoral system. Right, This is 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:45.280 the Republican's viewpoint. If you do that, then there's going 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:47.000 to be a couple of things. One, you're going to 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:50.000 cut down on fraud, which again, the Democrats are just 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:53.400 total fraudsters when it comes to voting as far as 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:58.240 Republicans are concerned, right, And then it's also going to 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:00.720 in some cases, sure, it's going to make it a 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:04.440 little difficult for some people to vote. But the Republican 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:07.320 way of thinking is, if you really care about voting, 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:09.800 you're going to do whatever it takes to get to 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:14.920 that poll and register and vote. And if you don't, 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:18.039 if just a couple of simple barriers will keep you 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:21.520 from doing that, then nuts to you, man, I don't 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:24.520 care about your vote, Yeah, and ts for the Democrats 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:27.800 who you probably would have voted for. That's like, that's 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:31.000 the that's the argument in public that you're talking about, 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:34.120 that you're saying is bogus, when it's really these people 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:38.520 who are having access issues to voting because of the 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:42.960 laws that the GOP is putting up are more likely 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:46.080 to vote for Democrats. So hence these are these are 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:51.560 targeted attempts to block people from voting for Democrats. Yeah, 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:54.479 that's that's the reality of it. Allegedly, we should say, 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:58.680 chuck like there's just calling it voter suppression. Is kind 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:00.039 of controversial in and of it. 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:04.080 Well, yeah, no one likes to use those words because 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:07.440 on the one side, like you said, they there's like 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:10.080 it's not about voter suppression, it's about like, you know, 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:12.120 what's wrong with having to have an ID to go 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:13.000 cast a vote? 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.159 Right? I mean on its face it makes sense. Sure, 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:18.359 you know, they say you have to have ID to 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:21.840 buy alcohol. If some clerk decides that he wants to 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:23.560 see your ID, you have to show it to him 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:26.000 or you can't buy alcohol. What's the problem with that? 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:26.320 You know? 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:27.320 Well? 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:29.880 Right, and then you go to some parts of Texas 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:32.080 and they say, well, you can use your your gun 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:34.599 license to vote, but don't use your student ID. 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:35.520 That doesn't count. 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:36.120 Right. 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:39.040 So, like it's the fact that they're all very targeted, 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:43.200 and everyone will see as we go through this, it's 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:47.760 very targeted. Like and we'll bring up specific cases where 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:52.640 you know, they find out like oh Man, leading up 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:57.200 to the election where Barack Obama's first elect president's election, 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.680 we saw a surge and increase in black voters in 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:04.680 this county. So let's go to that county specifically and 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:07.359 introduce some legislation that's going to make it harder for 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:10.320 them to get to the polls specifically there. 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.919 Yeah, like so it's maddening, Oh it is. 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:17.280 It's infuriating. Even I was reading kind of the other 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:20.080 side on this by a guy named David French who 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:24.680 writes for the National Review, and he was saying even 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:27.599 he was like, if that happens what you just described, 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:31.440 it should be vigorously litigated that that there's no excuse 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:36.280 for that. For anything that's that's specifically targeting like minorities 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:39.240 or the elderly, or making it difficult for any group 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:43.760 that to to like purposefully making it harder for them 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:46.800 to vote and targeting people like that, then yeah, it 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:50.120 should be litigated and those those rules should be thrown out. 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:51.000 Well, and that happens. 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.919 It is liticated, litigated, and quite often reports do say 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:57.360 like you can't do this, and they say, all right, well, 0:06:57.400 --> 0:06:58.120 we won't do it again. 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:00.000 But it worked on this election. 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:03.480 Right Well. One of the reasons why this we're currently 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:06.800 in the midst of a really massive wave of voter 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:10.520 suppression laws that are sweeping the country right now, and 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:12.600 one of the reasons why it's being allowed to go 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:17.160 on is because just like in Citizens United, the Roberts 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:21.120 Supreme Court said, you know what, things are fine. We're 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:25.640 just going to get an important provision of the Voting 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:27.960 Rights Act of nineteen sixty five. And we'll talk a 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:30.960 little bit more about that in a minute, but it 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:34.720 basically said, you, these states, in these specific districts in 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:40.320 these states have a history of voter suppression, and we, 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:42.280 the federal government, are going to keep an eye on 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:44.360 you so much so that you can't make any changes 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.520 to your voting procedures without the federal government approving it. 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:51.080 And in twenty thirteen, I believe, the Supreme Court said, 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:54.000 you know what, we're fine, we're post racial. We had 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.560 a black president. We don't need that anymore. And they 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:59.440 overturned that provision of the Voting Rights Act, and it's 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:04.480 allowed again this this massive wave of voter suppression laws 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:07.600 to be passed in this country. 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:09.320 Man, we're already riled up. 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:12.760 It's tough. It's tough not to be. You know, what, 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:14.440 were you gonna say, should we take a break? 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:17.120 No, not a break. I was gonna say it. Should 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:19.720 we just go back and talk about history a little bit? 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:23.840 Yeah, let's man, because the history is much easier to stomach. 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:29.920 Yeah right, Okay, So and you put this article together 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:33.080 with our own article and a bunch of other good stuff. Yes, 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:37.319 nice work, thanks, But you point out that very astutely, 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:41.240 that it's not in the constitution the right to vote. 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:42.160 This has been. 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:46.760 Left up to the states over the years, even though 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:49.520 we've had you know, amendments since then that obviously allowed 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:52.080 certain people the right to vote. It wasn't just originally 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:54.920 included like, hey, everyone can vote. Everyone has the right 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:56.200 to vote in this country. 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:59.880 Right and no. Originally the only group that the that 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:02.839 citizens of the United States could vote for was the 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:06.560 House of Representatives, the Senate, and the president and the 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.360 president still this is the case, were elected by an 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:14.360 electoral college, right correct. So eventually they added Senate seats 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:16.960 for people to be able to directly vote for. But 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:22.920 in the first presidential election in seventeen eighty nine, the 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:25.960 one that where George Washington won and was elected to 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:30.520 the presidency, the first presidency of the United States, like 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:33.520 six percent of the population in the US at the 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:35.880 time were eligible to vote. And that was it. 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:42.160 Yeah, it was only white men and freed African American 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:44.040 slaves in just four states. 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:47.440 I saw six six states. I was really surprised to 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:47.720 see that. 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:49.280 But yeah, who owned property? 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:51.080 Right, that was a big one. 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:53.480 Right, So that left like eight guys. 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:56.800 Right they were allowed to But yeah, you had to 0:09:56.800 --> 0:09:59.319 own property, and that was the big division at first, 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:03.280 even apparently more so than by race. It was by 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:05.800 whether you were a landowner a property owner. 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:07.040 Right, Yeah, and you had to be twenty one. 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:09.880 There were certain religious restrictions too, So, like you said, 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:13.720 that ended up six percent, six percent of the population 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:14.280 could vote. 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:14.880 That's right. 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:17.160 I mean, I'm going to cut them a little slack 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:20.000 on the first election, say that they were trying to 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:23.679 get it together. But six percent is an alarmingly low number. 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:26.520 But they probably thought that was the six percent of 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:27.960 people that mattered, right. 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:32.160 I guess it's more inclusive than the one percent, but 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:34.640 it's still pretty pretty low. We're in the single digits here, 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:34.960 you know. 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:39.480 But like you were saying, it's a class distinction. Distinction 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:42.720 was really kind of the biggest deal. And that changed 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:46.760 a bit when war veterans who fought for independence from 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:49.959 Britain stepped up and said, hey, a lot of us 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.360 are not landowners and we helped free this country. 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:56.240 Can we vote? 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:59.880 And little by little states said all right, you know, 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:01.200 you don't have to own property. 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:04.079 It's eighteen fifty. 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:06.560 And let's just say all white males can vote in 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.480 some African American males, but definitely not women. 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:14.160 Right, not yet, Just give us another seven decades or so. Okay, 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:18.040 we're just trying to keep our heads from spinning over 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:22.920 letting people who don't own property vote exactly. So in 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:25.440 that bizarre did you know that the first group to 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:29.760 agitate for voting rights was white men who didn't own 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:35.600 land or veterans? I didn't know that either. So something 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:38.240 really big happened in the middle of the nineteenth century 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:40.720 that changed things as far as voting went. And that 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:43.599 was the Civil War, Yeah, and the Thirteenth Amendment that 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.760 and in slavery, followed by the fifteenth Amendment that granted 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:51.200 suffrage to all men in the United States. 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:54.479 Yeah, regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:56.679 But again it's not women. 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:00.560 Right, And it should have said dot dot supposedly, because 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:07.080 that fifteenth Amendment is what unleashed sort of the first Like. 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:10.960 Before there was just voter suppression. 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:13.040 They were like, no, you just can't vote, and now 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:16.920 they said, well, you can vote, and so they had 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:19.960 to be creative with their voter suppression, right. 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.439 And at first there was a period of reconstruction in 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:28.480 the South after the Civil War where federal troops they 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:32.480 I guess it was led still by General Ulysses Grant 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:38.559 if he wasn't president by now, where federal troops were 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:42.440 occupying the South under martial law, right, and they were 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:46.400 enforcing the fifteenth Amendment and other laws that had come 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:49.679 into effect after the Civil War, and it was like 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:53.400 black people could hold office, they could vote, they could 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:59.160 live in this transition period from slavery into freedom, and 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.480 they were doing it on the auspices of the Union Army. 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:07.319 But then the Union Army with drew pretty prematurely, I 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:11.160 think in the eighteen seventies early eighteen seventies, and it 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:14.400 went from the reconstruction South, which ended up lasting just 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:16.880 a few years, to what became known as the Jim 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:22.280 Crow South, which was basically slavery by any other name 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:23.239 than slavery. 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:29.760 Yeah, that's when the Dixiecrats, which were conservative Democrats, I guess, 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:32.600 conservatives of the day, that's when they started to get 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:34.240 creative and said, all right, well, we have this new 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:36.719 fifteenth Amendment, so let's try and think of a lot 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:39.319 of ways. Even though the law says that black men 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:42.320 can vote, that we can keep them from doing so. 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:46.440 So how about a literacy test, and not only just 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:49.120 a literacy test, but maybe one only in English, so 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:52.120 that way there's no way an immigrant can vote if 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:54.200 they can't read English. 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:54.880 Or maybe some. 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:59.120 Poll taxes where you have to pay a dollar to 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:00.679 register to vote. 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:03.240 But in like twenty sixteen money that was like eight 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:07.480 hundred dollars. Actually looked it up, it's nine thousand dollars. 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:10.559 In the early nineteen hundreds, I looked up like taxes, 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:13.600 it was a dollar fifty to register and that would 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:17.320 be like forty three dollars today. Yeah, but you know, 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:22.440 for a poor person who you know is maybe waffling 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:25.160 on whether or not to bother voting, sure, charging them 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:27.120 forty three dollars is probably going to seal the deal. 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:31.960 And George actually had accumulative tax apparently for many years 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:36.560 where every year, like if you were forty years old, 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:39.000 every year from the age of twenty one that you 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:41.680 weren't registered to vote, you would have to pay per 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:45.360 year when you first registered to vote. Oh wow, So 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.720 that was clearly targeting like a freed slave in his 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:52.320 fifties would then have to pay a cumulative tax from 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:55.760 the age from twenty one up to fifty. And you know, 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:57.960 and again that just basically meant no one was going 0:14:58.000 --> 0:14:58.440 to register. 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.480 Well, there were a lot of Grampa the clause laws too, 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:05.800 which basically said that if you were registered to vote 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:09.480 prior to the fifteenth Amendment, or your grandfather was registered 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:13.760 to vote prior to the fifteenth Amendment, you you were 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:17.360 eligible now under these Jim Crow laws. But most black 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:19.960 people in the South were not registered to vote, nor 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:23.920 were their grandparents prior to the fifteenth Amendment, so that 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:28.200 basically just stripped them of their voting rights automatically as well. 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:30.560 And you mentioned the literacy test too, Chuck, did you 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:31.680 look into those at all? 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:34.280 Yeah, I mean some of them. 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:39.440 Some were like like recite the US Constitution. Some of 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:43.640 them some were like that twenty pages long. And they 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:47.240 would be administered by white Democrats. And again Democrats at 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:51.440 the time were the party of Conservatives. We should do 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:54.760 an episode on that on when the parties switched. 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:57.720 Yeah, names, we've chatted about that before. 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:01.520 So it would be left up to this poll worker 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:04.920 who was administering the literacy test. It would be left 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:08.320 up to their judgment whether the person passed or failed. Yeah, 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:11.640 like it was up to them. It wasn't an objective test. 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:13.040 It was a subjective test. 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:14.000 Yeah. 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:17.280 And so the end result of this is in nineteen forty, 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:22.480 nineteen forty, not eighteen forty, these suppression campaigns worked so 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:27.240 well that only three percent of eligible voters African American 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:29.840 Southerners were registered to vote by nineteen forty. 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:32.200 And you know, it's probably one of the worst parts 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:36.920 about that is that I'll bet in nineteen forty that 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:41.080 the average white person considered black people politically disengaged in 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:43.120 this country because of statistics like. 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:46.320 That, Oh right, say, like, oh, they don't even vote. 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:48.360 Yeah, they don't even care about politics. I mean three 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:52.160 percent of them are registered to vote even, you know. Yeah. 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:55.120 And this wasn't limited to the south, kind of up 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:57.040 north and nationwide there were things going on. 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:01.800 Notably, there was a for naturalized citizens. 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:06.320 It was very long residency requirements basically to try and 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:10.200 keep immigrants from voting for a long time. 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:13.399 Especially the Chinese. Apparently did you know that I did not. 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:18.560 There was an eighteen eighty two law. It's pretty on 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:22.320 the nose. The Chinese Exclusion Act, and it said, if 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:24.760 you're Chinese and you're an immigrant, you're not allowed to 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:27.360 become a citizen, which meant they couldn't vote. And this 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:29.959 is on the books in the United States until nineteen 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:31.400 forty three. 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:33.880 Yeah, this stuff is in ancient history. That's why it's 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:38.200 so shocking, you know. Yep, So nineteen twenty comes along 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:43.160 and women were finally given the right to vote thanks 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:46.240 to the Nineteenth Amendment, And you mentioned the Voting Rights 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:51.159 Act of nineteen sixty five, which finally got rid of 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:57.080 the Jim Crow voting laws officially in the South. But 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:00.600 that didn't mean that suppression intimidation didn't still go on. 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:01.240 No. 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:05.959 You know, like whenever the federal government decided that it 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:10.000 needed to lend a hand and assist the black population 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:14.919 of the Southern States in gaining their citizenship, that there 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:18.439 would be a huge backlash to that. And initially it 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:23.439 meant the formation of the Clan, and then after the 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:27.800 Civil Rights Act, the clan again experienced this huge resurgence 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:31.879 in popularity and membership, and acts of white terrorism just 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:35.000 became the norm. And now that we're looking back on it, 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:36.959 you know, we think of like the Civil Rights movement. 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:39.679 When I think of that, I don't think of it 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.919 as actually agitating for civil rights. I think of it 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:47.359 as agitating for full citizenship and equal treatment under the 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:49.480 law and everything that makes up civil rights. But you 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:51.920 don't think of it as like, really, at the basis, 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:54.879 what the civil rights leaders were agitating for were things 0:18:55.040 --> 0:19:00.679 like protection of their voting rights, access to the polls 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:03.720 just says any white person would enjoy. And that march, 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:07.960 that very famous march from Selma to Montgomery. Did you 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:08.919 see that movie Selma? 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:09.280 No? 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:09.600 I saw. 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:10.440 I haven't seen that one. 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:14.760 It's a great movie. Have you seen either thirteen or Thirteenth? Oh? 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:16.439 No, I'm dying to see that one too, Dude. 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:21.720 That one that's amazing. It's just amazing. It's really well done, 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:25.160 and the stuff they're talking about is just so eye opening. 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:27.800 It's great. Like it's one of those ones you'll watch 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:30.240 more than once, I'm sure. Yeah, but that march from 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:33.760 Selma to Montgomery was a march for voting rights. Yeah, 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:38.080 and it actually helped usher in this Voting Rights Act 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:44.480 of nineteen sixty five because the Alabama State Patrol I believe, 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:51.720 I'm like horseback with batons and whips and night sticks 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:57.600 and tear gas just ruthlessly beat these unarmed, peaceful protesters 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:01.440 in the street of Selma, and it was all captured 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:06.040 on national television in broadcasts, and it really changed the 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:08.440 mood of the nation as far as that goes. And 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:12.760 it actually was supremely counterproductive to people who were against 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:17.840 black voting because it helped protect black vote by the 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:20.840 federal government through the Voting Right Tech to nineteen sixty five. 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:21.480 Yeah. 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:24.320 Another thing that came with that act was an official 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:28.840 ban on any quote test or device in quote to 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.359 qualify voters on the basis of literacy, education or. 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:33.200 Fluency in English. 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:34.960 And then it took all the way till nineteen sixty 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:40.119 six until poll taxes were banned, which was kind of 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:41.160 way later than I thought. 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:43.520 Well, it was like the next year. 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:45.800 Well no, I mean just period. 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:49.840 Oh yeah, No, those Jim Crow laws were basically done 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:53.440 away with after a century. Yeah, as they were around 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:55.200 for a century in one form or another. 0:20:56.480 --> 0:20:58.080 Unbelievable. Yeah. 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:02.679 And then finally during Vietnam, they finally lowered the age 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:05.520 voting age to eighteen and nineteen seventy one post Vietnam 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:08.960 because veterans were like, hey, I can be drafted and 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:11.560 shot and killed for my country, but I can't vote. 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:14.480 And they all went, yeah, it's a good point. 0:21:14.760 --> 0:21:17.400 That is a good point to argue that one. 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:19.960 You want to take a break, Yeah, man, all right, 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:23.160 we'll be right back and talk about the eleven voter 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:25.840 suppression techniques as why. 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:31.200 Sk as tough. 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:49.920 You should note, all right, we're back, and before actually 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:54.480 we move on to some of these eleven techniques. My 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:57.840 question for you, sir, at the basis of all this 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:01.359 is voter fraud. Is what the argument is for a 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:04.199 lot of these, especially with IDs, So is that, like, 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:06.480