Unconscionable tragedies of Racial Injustice in our country. More than ever our declaration of black life matters and protest in support of freedom for all will be unrelenting with equitable and long overdue change. We are fortunate tonights guest is one of the foremost experts on the Voting Rights. A bestselling author, entrepreneur and political leader. The first black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for the party in the United States. In the race for governor, she won more votes than any other democrats in the state history. To deliver the response to the state of the union in 2019 there is no doubt her history making endeavors are far from over. In her new book our time is now power, purpose and the fight for fair america, she draws on research to offer concrete solutions to end Voter Suppression and empower citizens. Former secretary of state Madeleine Albright called the book a toolkit for citizens of all backgrounds and that democracy isnt a spectator sport. Tonight, Stacey Abrams will be in conversation with errin haines, awardwinning journalist and editor in large. She was previously the National Writer for the Associated Press focused on the intersection of race, culture and we are so grateful for her participation this evening. Later in the program we will take some historical questions. You can submit them using the qanda button at the bottom of your window. We are also including a link in the chat box where you will definitely want to purchase a copy of our time is now. Im so excited to listen to and learn from these extraordinary. Thanks again for joining us and please welcome Stacey Abrams and errin haines into your home. Thank you so much, heather and sixth i. This will be a robust conversation with somebody that ive covered for a long time and who could not be somebody i would want to hear more from them this moment in our democracy and facing what i feel like is the most inconsequential election of our time so weve got to stop meeting at this. Starting about happened yesterday delayed because of the pandemic but nonetheless it is a debacle of democracy responsible for that. Others predicted this. Not yesterday, not last week coming off last month but two years ago and maybe even earlier than that. I want to start by asking what your assessment is what happened. Thank you to heather and sixth i and the entire team and thank you for tuning in. We know that yesterday was the result of a combination of incompetence and malfeasance. This is a state that has for the last decade practiced Voter Suppression as an art form in the 2018 election we didnt have to go back further to 2010 when the newly inaugurated secretary of state arrested 12 people for having the audacity to use absentee ballots to win an election. They followed the rules and did everything they were supposed to and because who they didnt think should lose, they were arrested and charged with 120 felonies. They spent three years with their lives torn apart, they lost their jobs, their seat, and lets be clear the School Board Election their lives were destroyed and one woman nearly committed suicide and that began at least in my window that began the most recent evidence of the Voter Suppression. Fast forward to 2018 and at that point he had been secretary of state for eight years. 1. 4 million voters has overseen the closure of 214 precincts. Hes been the architect of exact match which is an egregious system of tells peoples application for the booker application hostage and people of color. He was responsible for multiple infractions and he then used that power to run for governor and was replaced by brad comes into play and what we saw happen will never be undone. The process was wrong. The democracy doesnt work and so one of the solutions was to buy new machines because we all had the issue of flipping where people would put in their vote and so it doesnt disappear, bad that action doesnt disappear simply because it goes underground. What happened in part is the same structures that have been deeply problematic in the state of georgia for at least the last decade reared their ugly heads again but then on top of it incompetence and that began with secretary of state and despite the constitutional obligation they hold to be the superintendent meaning they are responsible for directing, training and investing, they basically decry any obligation and decided all on the county. The constitution doesnt say that. What brad davis refused to do his job so the counties experienced terrible results from these machines that purchased and im bringing this to be close. 170 million spent on brandnew machines. He was warned by everyone in fact my organization, a Progressive Group works with freedom works, a hyper conservative group who tells him this was a bad idea when i can agree with charles on an issue it is deeply problematic and yet he purchases these and failed to do the most basic responsible behavior which is making sure everyone in charge of administering those machines knew how to do it and enough were going to be available. So what we saw happen were three things. One can absentee ballots and increased dramatically because we are in the midst of a pandemic and georgia allows for no excuse absentee ballots. He did want to make applications available to every voter who is active. That was good but then to a company in arizona that was woefully behind in sending out the ballots including thousands of people that never received them. Number two, he failed to manage and train appropriately the counties that have given the investment they need it. For example, the most popular county on saturday said we need 250 extra people to meet the basic needs of our increased turnout. As they dithe state did nothingt they said it wasnt her fault. Instead, he spent 400,000 the secretary of state spent 400,000 doing an advertisement. That could pay for 1600 yesterday and could have reduced the five to seven hour lines people stood in. This third issue we have fewer polling places and workers and not only with those resources have provided for that, but he did nothing to ensure that communities that desperately needed to be able to vote were going to be able to do so safely. And cant attend and malfeasance come together and make Voter Suppression not only a disaster, it makes it a solvable problem. Remove the people with bad heart or change the law to make them do good but also have to demand that they were elected to hold the offices and the secretary of state does their job and. Host you made so many good points there because of what was coming. You were not surprised by what we saw yesterday although i think that it did and should alarm much of the rest of the country. You are somebody that says it isnt normal for the voters to be in line for hours waiting to cast a ballot. But what they saw and what i was struck by is the number of voters in particular who showed up with the amount, stadium chairs, stacks. They are expect it to be in line for a long time. They didnt expect casting the ballottesting theballots to be t process. What does that tell you about how much those breeds have been normalized guest they did a fantastic study if anybody wants to go to the website. The analysis of the tax against black and brown communities and in 2018, georgia had a single longer largest weeks time with an average of four hours. What happened yesterday with the secretary of state and the county that points the finger back in the constitution gives the response ability to the secretary of state. But what we also saw yesterday was the fact that people were reacting to the long lines in early voting because we have so many voters. We saw new voters showing up just her day in the process of this election. And they strain the system, but the point of having leadership is that you look at whats happening and scale to meet the moment. They will be pushed out of the system because the folder that was existing in the databases. My father, for example, i was trying to track his absentee ballot and they put him into the page managed by the secretary of state. He didnt exist. It turned out they put the wrong birth date for him. I had to get a lawyer to help me figure it out. My absentee ballot arrived, the system the return envelope was sealed shut and i couldnt open it so i had to vote in person. Weve normalized as communities of color and the treatment that weve received in casting a vote and that shouldnt happen in a democracy but we often forget absent without it didnt become real for many people until 68 or 1970. So we have a much shorter period of access than we have of malfeasance. The living memory of that malfeasance continues to not trust galvanized us to show up prepared but its lowered the expectations of what we deserve. Host absolutely. In thinking about that, i wonder what your message is for what the georgia primary revealed about what the Voter Suppression looks like across the country in 2020 and voter depression for that matter. Guest Voter Suppression is three things. It means the bottom line is eligible voters denied access to the right approach. The three ways that happens, when you register my dog is joining us. Can you register. The United States is one of the few industrialized nations that has delegated to 50 different states the authority to create the impression of democracy so the rules are different from state to state and one reason its so insidious and pervasive because it looks different depending on where you are. We know for example the challenges with the secretary of state yesterday the same time we were having our election in georgia, South Carolina had affairs as did nevada and they both experienced challenges because the republican secretary of state made it more difficult for the voters to cast their vote primarily on the communities of color. So, we know that around the country Voter Suppression is alive and well. The action created a Second Organization called verified 2020 which is a political organizations that targeted 18 battleground states in the 2020 election where we know some version of the Voter Suppression is going to come to fruition. We saw that play out in wisconsin when the Republican Legislature in the midst of the pandemic forced voters to stand in long lines where they shut down hundreds and refused to allow the normal use of absentee ballots so people could stay home and be safe. We know this predicts for 2020 for the november election is the obligation to understand the need to scale up the resources. States are not going to be able to do this alone. More people are energized and excited and terrified, so more people are going to show up. But we also have to put guard rails on the system so no bad actor like a bad secretary of state has the authority to deny access to the right to vote to anyone that is approachable. Those organs we can accomplish and im happy to talk with the details, but the reality is i want people to be aware and be angry but i also want folks to understand that there is a way to make it right. Host what do you say to somebody who is concerned and maybe doesnt have confidence that their vote will count in november or how do you get folks to vote for your reading the kind of headlines that are coming out of georgia today . Guest Voter Suppression is the most effective plot simply by blocking, but its the most effective when it convinces the communities. One of the reasons post 28 team that i decided to focus my attention on Voter Protection and amplifying the issue Voter Suppression i spent 11 years in the legislation watching people tell me their votes didnt count, but it didnt matter if they participated. They were denied healthcare because georgia is one of the states that refuses to expand medicaid. They are losing access to reproductive choice because they test the forced pregnancy bill that outlaws abortion after a certain time. They are facing environmental challenges that are being completely ignored by those in charge and whats happening in georgia is happening across the country. Thats what also happened is that we had the first two years of the Obama Administration andd we saw the glimpses of what was possible and thats what we have to hold to but what is it more important to me weve tripled the turnout of latino voters and asianamerican voters. We increased participation by 139 . Like participation by 40 . We increased white participation for the First Time Since bill clinton ran in georgia and those metrics, those numbers proved people still want more so its incumbent upon those of us that stand for office and who care about democracy we have the obligation to go to those voters and say if you try, it will work. But we shouldnt do is lie and say it will work instantly and all is well. That is the message they took from the election which is why they were sent back by a decade. Our responsibility is to say it is going to work but its going to take time and be tedious and there will be setbacks and will require affirmative every single time. Pity our responsibility those of us in elected office i worked affirmative obligation is to acknowledge those who feel depressed and suppressed and were legitimately being pushed out of the system and its our job to say why its happening and how they can get back in even though as you say you lost because you didnt concede as i acknowledge. Expanding the electorate, balancing it with the midst of a pandemic and africanamerican voters 30 even though we make up 13 of privation. What do you say to americans wondering how they can participate in our democracy. I would add, and i know that you know this, the native american population, i watched what has happened to the Navajo Nation that has among the highest rates of infection and death despite the population especially those with the coexisting bottle made of people of color, but they are impoverished. The challenge is the only way we get through and to recover the devastating Public Health crisis, the economic collapse and because weve watched the leaders lie to us about whats happening, the fact that we have had to lionize emancipated from the truth, and emblematic of just how broken our country is in this moment, but we are still here and particularly for communities, the most vulnerable and the least resilient, the only way for this pre voting is part of the responsibility each of us hold to not give into the press of the people and that is Strong Language to use, but there is nothing that is less evil than watching people die when you know you can do something about it and when you accelerated because of your deliberate inaction and that is what we are watching happen. I believe that the solution is twofold. We need the senate to pass the heroes act. It will allocate 3. 6 million to our elections across the country. That 3. 6 will pay for the vote by mail because you are going to hear all these stories about how its fraudulent. The only fraud weve heard about recently when it comes to the mailin ballots, the fact that donald trump, the two of them have been using false addresses and that may be an issue of fraud but other than that, its a feminist issue. We know that the institute has said theyve been able to amalgamate 1300 cases. Im being really generous, 2,000 of the voter fraud of any kind. That is out of 625 million votes cast. We know it isnt real but Voter Suppression is. Being able to vote by mail can be made real if we have the heroes act in the post office because 34 states already have no excuse of absentee ballots as we saw in georgia, having the right to do something doesnt mean it actually works out and the resources necessary to scale up the volume likely requires early investment and that is why the act needs to pass but we also have to remember there are people who have no choice. Native americans often cannot vote froboot from home because o not have regular addresses or mail and thats why sometimes we need the ballot collection which basically is a loving those tribes to gather the absentee ballots and turned them in, but we also need inperson voting for those who were disabled with thwould have language barriers r are homeless or have been displaced by covid. For those that attempted to vote by mail but couldnt get it done, those that add to the line because they couldnt use any other process. What they can do through the heroes act and the money that the senate needs to put in place before july is it will allow us to scale up but for the 16 states that do not allow vote by mail, those would be held to standards that for this pandemic would be everyone that thinks you might contract covid19, but its a legitimate use for not standing in a line possibly being coughed on by someone that could affect you. They make absolutely. And i want to ask about that. The issue of the envelope and some have to vote in person, tell me about your voting experience. Guest i have had to interesting voting experienc exs 201experiences,2018 i attemptedr myself by governor and i was told i already turned in the absentee ballot and they nearly denied the right to vote. I was able to negotiate quietly with the manager because i had some cameras with me. So, we were able to resolve the issue. This time when i tried to vote absentee, my ballot was delayed in arriving and when it finally arrived i filled it out and been reached for the return envelope and sealed shut. I watched a lot of mystery shows in my life, so i tried to steam it opened that didnt work. I reached ou out trying to get another copy, another envelope, but it never arrived and so i had to go and vote in person. But i am lucky i lived in a community where the lines were not that long. About a 45 minute process from beginning to end. But i know that in Union City Georgia near the airport they were in line until 12 36 a. M. This morning. That doesnt have to happen in a democratized industrialized nation. It does not happen in wealthy communities. It does happen, however, everywhere because that happened in georgia, you are going to hear a lot of conversations about the largest county, it happened in one of the counties represented by the secretary, sorry, by the speaker of the house, republicans. It happened in jasper county, unless you study the map or youre from there most cant take that off of the 159 counties we have in the state. So, what we have to think about is that even though the targets of the Voter Suppression are largely communities of color and africanamericans in the south come if you were in the west attemptittends to target latinod native americans, but no matter where you are, we know that if you are targeted, it means you are messing with the machinery i talk about in the book is the history that this isnt news. This isnt new. Weve seen this before. The text othe text of the 18 hud 19 hundreds is the long wait time of the 21st century because when you have to stand in line for five to seven hours when you do not get paid enough to vote. If you have to wait in line for five hours and get to the front of the line. Its too late to participate and that is that right. Host i want to talk about the book and start by asking if you are psychic, because our time is now couldnt be more press and i feel like, and it almost seems like a rallying cry in this moment for so many americans. Our current moment of racial reckoning is an indictment of institutional racism and i think the fight against Voter Suppression feels even more urgent in this environment, but i wonder if you agree with that and also, i wonder just thinking about how have the lies weve told ourselves as th a country, think about our democracy undermine our efforts . Our organizing documents, weve got the declaration of independence, which is a beautiful clarion call for humanity, equality and justice. Then you have the constitution which says that belongs to a certain class of people, namely if youve are africanamerican you are not human but if you are native american, you were, and if you were a woman, you should be silent. From our inception, we built a system that is designed to aggregate and hold power to a very narrow community. The beauty of america is that we have overtime done our best to expand that initial and meet our obligation. It took the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to not only freed slaves, but to grant us citizenship. But lets be clear, they granted the right to vote to black men. It was the 19th amendment to grant the right to vote to women but it was actually only two white women. It wasnt until 1965 blac 1965 k women and brown women actually got the right to vote. And then it was the 26th amendment acknowledged young people could be sent off to die for their country should be allowed to live and vote in their country. So that tenure has given us both the attention of knowing weve been considered less than since our inception but also the promise of what we could be if they lived up to our ideals. I wrote this book in the wake of the 2018 election because i was mad. I talk about this a bit in the closing and in the beginning. I was angry not just because i didnt become governor, but i was angry because tens of thousands of people i spoke to had promised if they did their part and showed up and participated in our democracy, they would have the opportunity to change the things they needed to change and because of the Voter Suppression, they restricted those rights and it wasnt just being stripped of the right to vote or having the vote count. They were denied health care. Being told that youre not only are at risk that you dont have the right to healthcare, that is the consequence of voting. Murdered in the streets of glenn county, brunswick just outside of savanna, and the young man, his body was shot down. There was no conversation for 74 days. His murderers were sent home to celebrate. That happened because of the laws on the books but said they could perform overcoat citizens arrest to dehumanize, so we have to think about the fact there is a direct connection between the original sins of our nation, its dehumanization and the denial of citizenship despite what the paper said and the structures we are looking at today because this system is working exactly the way that it was designed, but our time is now is the title because i wanted to write wasnt just a litany of al one of the things t happened, but they prescription for how we could make it better and so the first few chapters, yes, i laid out all of the challenges of the Voter Suppression, but the back half of the book is about how we take our power. This is a power conversation. We deserve power because we are here, we get it because we dont come and we hold it because we dont let them take it back. We have to start it now because the demographic Inflection Point and also the moral Inflection Point of george floyd and Breonna Taylor and names we cannot that is why this book fits into this moment. Host i absolutely agree. And you the book holds up so well in this moment because i think that so many of these folks take to the streets day after day for more than two weeks now are talking about who in america is going to have to work on and your vote has me thinking about something that ive thought about which is the idea of voting as a form of protest. Particularly we have been marginalized. I know we talk about how voting is for power but they also think it is a form of protest . Guest yes because protest is also power. Protest is how we declare out loud and in unison that were discussed, our disagreement, and our defiance of those who are not doing their job as we have asked them to do so ive only seen protests as a necessary part of power. When i was in college i led a protest after the rodney king decision coming and when they tear gassed the Atlanta University center, they did it in part because the set juxtaposed with the housing development, but for young people who couldnt imagine that they were going to be able to attend spellman and more health. What i realized in a moment as the people that were tear gassing was seeing it different. I may have a degree in a few years but i was still just another black kid of disposal and that moment of protest, whether it was a protest that was acceptable because it was a quiet march to the city hall, or something that was loud and more raucous, the protest was powerful, but so too mac, for me, was the boat i was able to test in the next election to replace some City Council City l members awaited them to do their job and to help lift up those who i thought did a good job. Voting is an extraordinary form of protest because that is how we tell people who are supposed to see us and tell you us that they did not do their job. But its also how we called attention to the issues that we need especially if we are lucky enough to live in states with citizens initiatives such as the ones we saw passed in florida and unfortunately get overturned by the legislature and the governor, but luckily the court stepped in to allow the offenders and citizens to vote. That was a protest. The protest of a broken system where citizens to power and they are going to have to keep fighting because if it works the way that it should, they are going to be people who are very, very angry because their power will be diminished. Host in the buck i was so pleased to start the book and see you quoting one of the heroes are our democracy from a personal hero of mine, and im talking about fannie lou hamer, and i love this which i will read this for you all watching. It says we will stand up for what belongs to us as american citizens because they cannot say we havent had patients. And i want to talk about the patience of black america because its been on display for so long in the country, and we thought in this election cycle in many ways and i wonder what you think the answer to that question should be. Guest it sounds so mundane but if it is demanded is asked to be included in the nation we helped build, the nation we helped birth, the nation we have cleaned, the nation we have served, the nation that we have nurtured. We ask simply that we get equal access to opportunity and equal access to justice and power. Thats not a lot to ask. That is what every citizen should be able to enjoy by virtue of citizenship and for black women in particular, that citizenship has been constantly undermined and denied. And thats what im pushing for. I get a busy reputation for being too candid in my responses and my conversations about power, but when you grow up a black girl in mississippi that moved to georgia, you learn the power matters and you learn who has it, who doesnt, who needs it, and once it, and my entire life is an investigation of totally get it from those that have been marginalized, disadvantaged come and denied their godgiven right as a citizen of this country. Host you are a black woman that has no problem standing up for your soul for this democracy. That has caught the attention of a certain nominee you could be joining on the 2020 ticket that im sure excites a lot of people that are watching this conversation. I think a lot of people have heard you lay out the case for why you should be joe bidens running mate. In light of the coronavirus and racism, thinking about who is best in the position first i want to ask if you believe Vice President joe biden at this point does he have to have a black woman on the ticket in november and how do you see yourself as qualified. Its taken on a new urgency since this whole conversation around the vice presidency has begun. Guest its been in the last two weeks a moral core that is juxtaposed against the current president , the current leader is a coward who refuses accountability and responsibility and joe biden has taken responsibility for his past actions and also future responsibility. He has a pathway and a plan and has been willing to speak with and not at communities that are suffering and so i am absolutely incomplete faith that joe biden is never going to take the community for granted. There may be disagreements about how we get there, but the concerted goal is going to be progress and addressing inequities and to my core i believe his commitment. I think that people pick the right person for him. Hes going to pick a running mate that complements and and someone that will help challenge him but also more importantly help deliver on the promises that he is making to the country and i trust that hes going to pick the right running mate and the Vice President. I dont know if that is going to be me. And while i think that i have been mischaracterized as campaigning for it, but ive only ever done is answer the question what you want to serve and are you qualified. Those are two questions i cannot let go unanswered, because my silence speaks for me and people will assume no she doesnt want it and know she doesnt think shes qualified. As a black woman of color and has been underestimated quite often, i learned early on but i have to speak for myself. I shouldnt presume that people will look at my resume and my experience and know who i am. So i try to provide a shorthand and answer the question that ultimatelybutultimately, it wile Vice President. I will say that my experience as a legislator and if someone committed to justice, im very proud of the work that ive done on Police Accountability from helping pass laws in georgia to make the process more transparent and actually to make it work better. Im proud of the work ive done on criminal Justice Reform to ensure the system works on both sides of the conversation. Im proud of the reputation that i have been able to build with the most marginalized communities without i stand in solidarity and they do not have to be tutored on what we need to talk about. And i can go and sit in a black wives matter meeting and i can call between defenders and do the work because i have the record, and regardless of what position i may hold in the administration, if any, my responsibility is to never have to apologize for who i am and what ive done, and im very proud that ive always stood in communities with those who were marginalized and disadvantaged and i will continue to do that for. Host the last time that you and i talked i think georgia was on the verge of reopening debate afte. After weeks of beinn due to the coronavirus and many residents were dissatisfied to say the least about the current governors handling of the reopening and frankly you were not the governor of georgia during this time so i think given what we saw last night in my home state, i have to ask you again, this is a job that i know you wanted very much in 2018, and assuming that they were not the next Vice President and to be clear are you interested in running for governor again possibly clacks clacks guest that is absolutely a consideration. Host well, there you go. Next question, i also love this from the intersection of her book. Your book. You see those that are most vulnerable become the most susceptible to passing on that reluctance. Host guest that win line really struck me in the middle of a Global Health crisis. Is Voter Suppression like a virus and if it is, is there a cure . Guest absolutely its a virus. When you think about the way that we learn everything. We learn from those around us. We learn the act of washing our hands because someone teaches us to do it. We learn about whether we should, you know, stick our fingers and a light socket and also learn good financial habits or for financial habits. We learn our behaviors beyond and we learn it by what they see. I wasnt particularly with democracy. My parents took us to vote with them. I describe in the book as we look like ducklings because there were six of us and we would trail out of the voting booth they wanted us to see them in the act of voting and they would take us with them to volunteer in december we were poor and we would find that out like why are we going to serve poor people because thats us, my parents would say having nothing is not an excuse for doing nothing. They would take us with them because they wanted us to see that the service was an active part of who we are and our applications transcended our physical and Financial Wellbeing that we were responsible for the world we were a part of, but the corollary to that is if you dont see someone vote for if you hear the negative, about the politicians who, some who show up and never showed the never show up again or worse, the ones who never even bothered to come, when you live in communities where nothing changes, where persistent poverty is a given, when you hear yourself talk about in a third person or when you hear your community described in such dehumanizing terms that you start to internalize that come into play with you engage in a system that hires people that says those things about you . Why would you engage in a system that pays people who do not believe human life is valuable and that putting you in a choke hold, putting me on your neck is a legitimate form of service . It is a disease of underestimation. It is a disease of distance, and the distance is reinforced every time we have elections and the people who promise more fail to deliver and explain why not. Ive been a politician long enough to know there is no way you are going to get what i want. I was a leader [inaudible] i was never going to win a vote simply because of my charm. I was going to have to work and also my job was to minimize harm, to stop or slow it down and block the bad was going to hurt our community. So, my job was to have that conversation. I would be chastised by some of my colleagues for being too honest about what they could or could not do. But i would remind them of this i grew up in those communities. The worst thing you can do, the most pervasive way to spread the disease of the voter depression is to lie to a person about what you can accomplish. You should be aspirational but you also have to be pragmatic and clear that yes we can do this but its going to take time and here are the things we are going to have to do and the obstacles we have to face. It isnt going to be a Straight Line because as much as we want good, evil is going to push back harder. As much as we want progress, there is a party that called themselves conservative. Conservation means to hold steady, do not move. And if you want to maintain the power structure that is, there is no incentive for the behavior to change and they have an equal say i must be overwhelmed the system with our members and attention. So yes, voter depression is a disease that theres an inoculation that comes with honesty and engagement, and that is one of the things i talk about. What we saw happen with barack obama in 08 we thought it was a fluke. What i was able to do even that i did it becom didnt become th, people dismiss it as an example. Im a good candidate, but there are other good candidates. If we look at the outcome of not only be 2018 the election but the number of mayors, latinos, communities of color and marginalized communities that are able to access power, what we should be telling ourselves as the antidote to this disease of the voter depression is Voter Engagement and to treat people they have some sense, and it is the work of asking them to help instead of expecting them to simply because they are because their life is so hard. The reality is people get used to hard. Its to get used to hope. Host two things Stacey Abrams nose is democracy and the dictionary. You are going to get the definition. I would be in a mess because i do work in a newsroom and as you rightly know, we are separating the anniversary this year [inaudible] i want to ask a little bit more that you are thinking about is the mark the centennial of the milestone but also about the amendments you mentioned in the book that you would like to be see added to the constitution. Guest we have celebrated the 100th year of the 19th amendment because it did move the franchise forward, and black women were instrumental in its passage, even if we didnt benefit immediately from its success. What we were able to be part of and what this proved for america is that the voices of our population, they should be heard in their multiplicity and diversity. And that is a glorious thing in a democracy. Too many restrictions on who is allowed to speak and who is allowed to be heard because there is a fear that if we diffuse the power among too many, it wont work but the reality is the shared power is actually more ineffective because it is more likely to resist the corrosive effects and to stand up and push back against harm and danger and so the amendment for me was and is a clarion call for what is possible especially in terms of interracial, intergenerational opportunity because it took a lot of women multiple years and at various stages of their lives to get this done. It wasnt simply the schoolhouse rock song that we hear about how it marched across. It took lives. And that pressure proves it can be so. When i look forward to what is happening today, i want people to remember that there was nothing easy about any of these amendments. Possibly the 26th amendment is given the easiest pass, but think about the number that it took for young men to die of mostly young men to die in the war although women that were there in the auxiliary position on how many young people have to perish in order for us to grant the franchise to 18yearolds and the civil war and humanity of the constitution to create the 15th amendment, so i think that its important for us to remember how hard it was to get what they got and how much work we have to do to keep what they have. Those are things we can accomplish, and i think the solution to making this less hard it is to fix the problems in the constitution. Number one, the delegation to the states have complete authority over the administration has a fundamental flaw. No states that dont want people to vote dont have the right to not let people vote, which means you are allowing the person to bracket to fix it after he told you we dont want to fix it. The second part of the challenge is it should be in our constitution that the right to vote for citizens shall not be abridged, period. Weve created too many exceptions and allah too many clauses and too many opportunities for it to be undermined and lets be clear the Voting Rights act made it the hardest to interfere with the right to vote, but the conservatives came after section five and dismantled it and now they are after section two and i want people to understand section five required preclearance. You have to get permission before you make it harder to vote. Section two says you are prohibited from passing laws that abridge the right to vote based on race, nationality and language barriers. What that means is the rules they are trying to put in place, if you can prove it as a racial intent, then you can stop it. What they are trying to say is if it happens to be racist, unless we wrote it down, we cannot be held accountable. That would remove the last protection that we have in the Voting Rights act to stop the walls of the Voter Suppression. And just in this last few weeks, republicans find a multipronged attack on the second amendment, i mean on that section two of the Voting Rights act. Theyve committed to spending up to 60 million to suppress the right to vote in 2020, and theyve agreed to intimidate voters and stop them from voting. Just in case those things dont work they want to dismantle the remaining color of the Voting Rights act which means in the moment the nation is becoming the most diverse but its ever been, the protections that allow it to become true engagement will disappear i want to get to a couple of those for safety so i want to start with a question from justin who asks how do you explain systemic racism to someone conservative and welleducated but doesnt believe systemic racism is in America Today . I think the challenge that is being offered the fundamental idea ive heard it said in a recent panel i was on, there were those who are put in the water and they are swimming with the current. Systemic racism is when you get put in the water and you are on the other side against the koran and your entire life is about swimming against the current, thrown upon the rocks and having absolutely no opportunities that do not require that you have to go upstream against the current. That is systemic racism. It doesnt say the reason you got in the water and got to go in one direction versus the other just because of who you are but it does say you benefit from the way some people interpreting downstream with the koran and others into the water going upstream and against the koran and they never have a choice. Host that is a very good analogy so i would start using that one as well. We have another question asking what is the responsibility of white allies in regard to Voter Suppression and how can we help . Guest we have to understand Voter Suppression may target the communities of color, the target young people but it affects us all and part of the widely held in our time is now is the first opportunity for the first moment is knowing what it looks like. Its much more insidious and much more than. One of the reason it works is people get convinced we have to start by articulating what it is can you register in the state and does your ballot is counted. It looks different depending on the state that they were in so make sure you understand what it looks like in your community. Number two, interfere, make it easier, help people get registered and make sure you are staying, help volunteer as an observer. Be the antidote to the intimidation. Host melinda is organizin volunteering as an organizer and through the adopted state program. Is there any place you can get e for the volunteers and organizers to help us reach as many at this time and a lot of our efforts must be done digitally . Guest dont forget the analog. Phone calls work. For a lot of folks especially the Rural Communities that tend to have more people of color than folks realized and more people that are susceptible to change, make sure that you are having conversations and whether you are doing it digitally or through the, the tendency of the organizers is to preach. Teach them as though they are parishioners that come to your church. I use this because i am a daughter of two ministers. They are people you have to meet where they are and there is a reason to come with you. I start by asking people what they want. What do you need, what is broken, what is the dream for your community . To get people to talk about what they want. When you start to talk about what youre doing, you offer them a solution to your problems but if you begin by articulating and preaching at them for not having fixed their problems, theres no reason to engage, conversation works when people feel heard and a few of his access to take the time to engage and know that its going to be multistage. You are not going to get some on the first try. Be prepared to build longterm friendships with a lot of folks, but i dont need to be facetious about it, but its going to take more than one conversation and engagement. But the more likely you are instead of creating some of the votes for and e. Election is you are creating a voter for a community, and that is your goal. Host . I know what a powerful figure te was in shaping who you are and how you view voting and that is your grandmother and i know that she passed away a few months after you did not become governor. In the book you tell a story that i also wrote about. This is the story that you tell about your visit with your grandmother right before the 2,018th election. I wonder if you can share that story with our audience now and also if you can just, what do you think your grandmother would make of 2020 and what would be her message as a voter herself . Guest i will encourage to read the book but also the truncated version is my grandmother, who has been part of the Civil Rights Movement and merrily for her children on the days that she first had the right to vote did not want to vote. She was afraid. It wasnt that she was afraid that it wouldnt work, she was afraid of the power of the vote. My grandfather have to cajole heher into pinching her into dog so and what she wanted me to understand is that in the democracy, people have power, but sometimes the power is so overwhelming. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and writing this book which i thought was phenomenal and people will see that our time is now. Thank you to everyone listening it has been a delight. I encourage you all to buy a copy of our time is now. We have autographed copies for sale will also email you the link as well. Please check out our website and when the time comes we will welcome you back. Take care. Good night you read the things that were said about Thomas Jefferson that he was an infidel and from the french government that sounds a little reminiscent the things said about Abraham Lincoln and fdr that he wanted to be a dictator, so it does come with the territory but in trumps case at least in the modern political era postworld war ii we have never seen anything like it. Like the office they commemorate president ial libraries are living institutions. Certainly it is my hope the Reagan Library will become a dynamic intellectual forum where scholars interpret the past and policymakers debate the future