Cases currently addressing the issues. This is an hour and 20 minutes. [ applause ] so ladies and gentlemen, lets get to the heart of the matter. Are you ready . Over the last ten years, the right to vote African Americans who have been under pernicious, intentional, deliberate, orchestrated and clever. Theres been no period since the 1965 Voting Rights act has passed that these efforts have been so sustained. I like to think the attack is coming from three main fronts or what i like to call the terrible trio. The first member of the trio is the United States Supreme Court. Which in 2013, the year of the 50th anniversary of the march on washington in a poorly in an inexplicable decision that i predict will go down like dread and plessy as low moments in the history of american jurisprudence. Nokt out an important provision of the Voting Rights act. That provision required Southern States to gain Justice Department approval before they change their voting laws. What has happened since that provision has been disabled . No less than ho states have been on a tear, a tear to hastily introduce and seek to pass a wide range of laws. One voter i. D. Law, two poll closing, three, voter purging. Four, handcuffing communitybased organizations like the league of women voters or the National Urban league or any communitybased organization from registering people to vote. The first member of this terrible trio is the United States Supreme Court. The second member of this terrible trio are these state legislatures all across america. The state legislatures which have sought most recently the state legislature in a state of tennessee, seeking to make it more difficult for people to vote by adding artificial restrictions based on flimsy and phony reasoning that have no other intent whatsoever but to stop people from voting and to stop black people from voting. No less than three cases, three federal court cases, states have been found to have intentionally discriminated in passing these laws. The second member of the trio are state legislature, all across america. The third member of this terrible trio is a Russian Federation. The Russian Federation and it Internet Research agency called the ira. The ira and the Russian Federation and much has been written and much has been in the Public Domain and at the Public Square about the role of russian interference in the 2016 election. But what has not been clearly articulated is that the russians had an intent. They had multiple intents. One of the driving intents was to suppress the African American vote. Our report thanks for the research of the German Marshall Fund is going to take the covers off of that intent because we need to understand how pervasive, pernicious and widespread it was. This is all occurring at a time in American History when the voting power of people of color is reaching an alltime high. The 2020 voters of color are projected to represent more than onethird of the american electorate. Up from less than a quarter of the 2000 electorate. Since 2010, 25 state representing more than half of the voters in the country and representing substantial majority of African American voters have enacted new restrictions. As i mentioned, strict voter i. D. Law, hurdles to registration, cuts to early voting, barriers to restoring Voting Rights for people with criminal conviction. These legislators, these legislatures are the enemies of democracy. This nation has fought wars to restore democracy abroad. How can we in 2019 not raise our voices to the highest pitch. Democracy and the right to participate is under attack right here in the United States of america. We have no voice on education policy without the right to vote. We have no voice on jobs and Economic Policy without the right to vote. We have no voice on tax policy or Foreign Policy or housing policy without the right to vote. These laws may be subtle on their face about their motivation, but let me tell you what a political adviser to florida legislators said. He said and i quote, the cutting out of the sunday before election day was one of their targets only because thats a big day when the black churches organized themselves. The court that struck down North Carolinas monster Voter Suppression law said it targeted African Americans with almost surgical precision. The 2013 Supreme Court decision in shelby v holder opened the flood gates for racially motivated Voter Suppression laws, releasing states and jurisdictions with a long history of discrimination from having these laws approved by the Justice Department. Chief Justice John Roberts reasoned that, because pre clearance had achieved its goal of eliminating Racial Disparity in voting rates, it was no longer needed, respectfully, mr. Chief justice, where do you live . Respectfully, mr. Chief justice, we invite you to visit georgia and to visit florida and visit the 40 states across america where racially motivating efforts are alive and, unfortunately, well in america. But we do agree that justice rbg, thats ruth bader ginsburg, yall, who wrote in her dissent, throwing out pre clearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because youre not getting wet. Shelby was just one of several blows against democracy that this Supreme Court has struck in recent years. It struck down campaigns finance reform laws and Citizens United and it unleashed unbridled financial power of super pacs where wealthy individuals could pour Unlimited Money into the american political process and most recently in husband ted versus the randolph institute, an ohio case, the court upheld the right of states to use aggressive purges to remove voters from the registration rolls. A process that disproportionately affects communities of color. Now, the exploitation of Racial Division was the biggest element of russian interference in the 16 and 18 elections. These efforts were aimed at africanamericans. And they were exploited, using the trust in authentic black media to recruit assets who were unaware of the role they played in sharing propaganda. The russians posted more than a thousand videos on youtube and shared across all social media platforms. Hundreds of millions of twitter and instagram users were reached and thousands of fake accounts were used to manipulate black voters and dissuade them from voting. Vote from home is just one example. Take a look at this. The russians seeking to manipulate African American voters appealed to African American voters on the internet. Its something that is not allowed in any state and would have the effect of tricking people into believing that they had voted when they, in fact cast no vote. Manipulative social media posts that were distributed by russian trolls. If they couldnt convince people not to vote, they were going to make sure as many of our votes as possible would not be counted. Thats just a general overview of the issues we examine in this years state of black america. I might add that the russians created people like louisa hanes. Louisa hanes was a black life matter activist, she was a russian troll. She had the handle woke louis a. Hughesa was very active in social media telling africanamericans dont vote. All politicians are sellouts. All democrats are sellouts. By the way, if you do vote, dont vote for the democratic candidate. Ladies and gentlemen, this effort by the russians to manipulate and use social media is a new dimension in our fight for democracy in america. Its a new element of Voter Suppression. It is something that i am hopeful that the congress of the United States, senate of the United States and all of you will elevate in order to stop it we need to be transparent about it. We hold this up today so id like to invite to the stage at this time wendy wiser the Democracy Program at the brenham center. One of our partners in this report who will share further insight into Voter Suppression efforts at the state level. Thank you, wendy. Please greet wendy. [ applause [ applause ] thank you to mark and the National Urban league and all of the sponsors. The Brennan Center is partnered with the National Urban league on this critical report. No set of issues is more important to the future of our democracy and our communities. We at the Brennan Center track and study legislation, litigation and other actions affecting voting nationwide. We both fight for voting right and we do the numbers. Based on that, i want to make a few observations about the current moment. First, this past election was marred by some of the most brazen, intense and widespread Voter Suppression weve seen in decades. As mark said, voters in 25 states, half the country, faced an accumulation of new laws making it harder to vote than it was a decade ago. It wasnt only formal laws that tripped up voters. States like georgia, North Carolina and florida purged between 7 and 11 of the names on their voter rolls before that election. Nationally, voter perjury grew over the past decade and much of that came in state previously covered under the Voting Rights act because of their history of discrimination in voting. Second, efforts to restrict voting access are continuing strenuously across the country. For example, our recent roundup of voting legislation shows a spike in efforts to restrict the ability of civic groups to help people register to vote or vote. In tennessee, for example, after a local Group Registered 90,000 African American voters last year, the state just passed a law that were supposed to curtail Voter Registration drives there. Africanamericans are twice as likely as caucasian voters to register through drive. Even more alarming, the Florida Legislature just passed a bill which is now sitting on the governors desk. Not yet signed. That could roll back Voting Rights for hundreds of thousands of citizens with past criminal convictions. As you know, last November Floridians overwhelmingly voted to throw out the states shameful disenfranchisement law and restore rights to people who have completed their sentences. This was expected to help 1. 4 million floridians to regain Voting Rights. But under the new bill, citizens have to pay back fees before theyre eligible to vote. Most, if not many or many or if not most of the citizens will not be able to do that. The Florida Court Clerks Association has said that for 83 of there is only a minimal expectation of payment, 83 . If signed, this legislation will be a major blow not only to the biggest Voting Rights expansion in half a century, but also to the Africanamerican Community in florida which is dramatically overrepresented among those disenfranchised. These measures are not race neutral. They disproportionately harm africanamerican voters and other voters of color. Race is also a significant factor driving these efforts to cut back on voting. Studies prove that. States where the political clout of africanamericans and other minorities is growing and states that used to be covered under the Voting Rights act are far more likely than other states to introduce and pass measures to cut back on voting access. As you heard of the past couple of years there has been a remarkable and unusual spate of Court Rulings finding that states and localities have purposely discriminated in their voting laws. It is not accidental. The scope and first case of efforts to make voting more difficult make clear that a Strong Defense is essential but not enough. That brings me to my last point and a happier one. At the same time as these vote suppression efforts are moving we are also seeing significant momentum around the country around efforts to bolster protections for Voting Rights and expand access to the ballot. Last november americans passed with overwhelming bipartisan majorities a Record Number of state Ballot Initiatives to improve democracy including four to increase voting access. Now we are seeing a striking number of states pushing legislative packages with multiple provoter reforms in them. So far this year weve seen reforms like early voting and same day registration pass in new york, virginia, delaware and new mexico. We see nationwide momentum in favor of restoring rights for people with past convictions, florida notwithstanding with bills actively moving in five states and passing one house in colorado with bipartisan support. And there is strong momentum for automatic Voter Registration which has been introduced and passed in 15 states and d. C. Over the past four years and our recent study shows that automatic Voter Registration has dramatically increased registration rates everywhere it has been adopted from 16 in oregon up to 94 in georgia. This could add 50 million voters to the rolls and transform our elections. Overall good bills are outpacing bad ones. This session weve actually seen momentum in 35 states around bills to expand voting access and only ten states on bills to restrict voting access. This momentum has reached as far as our nations capital. Last month the house of representatives passed hr1, a historic bill with key reforms needed to revitalize american democracy including a broad provoter package and a commitment to restore the full protections of the Voting Rights act. The house continues to hold hearings on Voting Rights and is building a record for the Voting Rights act. This could be a turning point with your help. No effort is more critical and i want to thank the National Urban league for all that youre doing to lift this effort up. Thank you. [ applause ] thank you, wendy. I want to thank wendy. Urban leaguers, we cannot stand on the side in our states and locals and watch the right to vote eroded. This is an area where our voices, the voices of our local ceos, the voices of our volunteers have to be front and center. This is not a partisan issue. This is an issue of mission. This is an issue of morality. This is an issue of what kind of nation we want to live in. Do we want to live in a nation where people have the right to elect their representatives and their leaders, or do we want to live in an oligarchy or plu plu tok ra si. In opposition to suppression and in favor of voter expansion. It is our calling. It is our cause, it is our duty. Lets give the Brennan Center another big round of applause. Thank you for an excellent report. [ applause ]. Please welcome laura. Good morning, everybody. Im going to apologize for the slightly scratchy voice and occasional kofl. Ive come down with a bit of a cold. Im pleased to be here with the National Urban league for this really important day and i really want to thank mark for his vision and leadership in wanting to include this really important issue in this years reports. I think as mark mentioned my view is very similar. Weve heard a lot of discussion about russian interference in our democracy in the 2016 election. Theres been a lot of discussion about the Mueller Report. But what has been severely under discussed is the way in which the Russian Federation not only used social media as a weapon, but used race as a weapon to divide, polarize americans and suppress the black vote in 2016. And i worry that without change we may see the same thing in 2020. So i want to under score the urgency of this as i begin to give an over view. Mark gave a really good introduction to my talk that was essentially could have given a lot of what i was going to talk about. One is i think that we think about russias interference as an election issue by and large. One of the things id like to point out is while im quoting one of my colleagues here. Elections are not a starting point or an ending point for russias operations. They are a flash point. They provide a moment in time to take particular advantage of vulnerabilities in our democracy but it is not the beginning and end. In fact, we know that russian efforts to target the 2016 election began in 2014. What i can tell you is that they actually increased in the aftermath of the 2016 election. We saw significant mobilization on social media after the 2016 election. And of course we saw ongoing activity in the runup to the 2018 midterms. In the runup to 2016, for instance, only 11 of the total content that russian trolls pushed online was related to the election. Though that produced a disproportionate level of engagement. One of the things that we know according to the department of justice that was a goal of the i. R. A. Was to build political intensity through supporting radical groups, users dissatisfied with the social and Economic Situation and oppositional mumtovements. They were particularly good at using divisive issues in our politics, things like Police Shootings of africanamericans were something that we saw seized on by Russian Internet trolls as a particularly divisive moment in our politics. Since 2016, one of the things weve seen them leap onto was, believe it or not, the take a knee debate around the nfl and whether or not africanamerican players should be able to kneel in protest. In fact, in that instance we saw them jump on both sides of the political debate. So they were actually playing both sides of that. Let me just walk you through a couple of the particular ways that we have seen the russian social media efforts and other efforts targeting our democracy exploit race as a weapon. The first is they use mark talked about my favorite Russian Internet troll. Luisa haines. She was a prominent purveyor of content on social media. If you go and look online, you would find that she was quoted in numerous newspapers as an africanamerican activist from new york who was particularly active on these issues and was particularly skeptical of Hillary Clinton. So her voice was lifted up seemingly as a genuine activist in media beyond just the social media. They also formed fake groups, fake black lives matter groups. These groups not only gained followers online but actually were used by the i. R. A. In some cases to mobilize protests and rallies in real life. So you have activists showing up to protests they believe are being organized by fellow activists but actually are being organized by russian trolls sitting in st. Petersburg who dont give a bleep about the issue of Police Shootings of unarmed africanamericans. What they care about is trying to divide americans. And what they were doing was seizing on a highly discussed issue online in order to gain followers. Once they would gain followers threw these accounts or groups, what they would do then is inject other kinds of content. So the kinds of Voter Suppression you saw was possible because they had spent all of this time developing communities of people who thought they were engaging with like minded folks and therefore were more likely to think it was credible and more likely to agree with it. So you saw content that was saying vote online, but you also saw things like Hillary Clinton as a terrible record on criminal justice so you shouldnt vote. Not voting is just as much of a vote as voting. Or you should vote for jill stein because shes better for the black community. All of these kinds of narratives that were voter misdirection seemingly by accounts that people thought were fellow americans but were not. Another thing that we saw was that the seizing on both sides of the debate. Theres some really Fascinating Research in particular on the black lives matter Blue Lives Matter conversations online where a researchers found that the clusters of the i. R. A. Russian troll accounts were the most polarizing, most divisive, most extreme in those conversations. So they were taking legitimate conversations amongst americans and using a real wound of americans to manipulate our democracy. We also see them on the oh side of the debate helping to stoke the racist toxic vitriol often directed at black activists. And one thing im quite worried about is in the 2016 election you may have seen that Russian Hackers were also able to probe or gain access to at least 21 States Election systems. In some cases that included the voter rolls. And one of the things that many us are deeply concerned about is not just the ability to get into the election systems fwou potentially manipulate the voter rolls so you could potentially try to suppress a certain element of the electorate. This is something i think people should be particularly concerned about. A last word about the dynamics that im really worried about with this kind of activity, mark talked eloquently about the Voter Suppression aspects. Im also worried beyond that about how i see legitimate activist movements being hijacked. These are movements being undermined and delegitimized by an adversary of the United States. Its not only having an effect on the activists free speech but it Undermines Free assembly. This goes to the very foundations of our democracy and the ability of americans not only to exercise the right to vote but to speech and assembly. Thank you so much for your time today. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, i believe that like me you are stunned by the magnitude and the bre breadth and the potential success of these activities. I know that when i first met with the German Marshall Fund and learned about the depth and the magnitude of this, it was something that the National Urban league had to include. Not only in its report but that we needed to call on everyone to focus on this element of foreign interference. This element of foreign interference stoking americas Racial Divisions, suppressing the africanamerican vote was central to the intentions of Vladimir Putin. I want you to join me today and say, mr. Putin, hand off american democracy. [ applause ] mr. Putin, you will not suppress our vote ever again. We have to be vigilant and diligent. And our sequence ageintelligenc and lorm ageaw enforcement agend people at the highest levels have to take whatever steps are necessary. The social Media Companies have to take whatever steps are necessary to shut this down, to shut this down. Today they can take the identity of a black lives matter activist. Tomorrow they will take the identity of an urban league local ceo. And the following day theyll take the identity of an elected political leader. Theres no bounds to this kind of nefarious, this kind of diabolical, this sort of hateful pernicious and ill admit clever actions by the Russian Federation. So were going to have a discussion about this right now. I am so, so excited that to lead this panel is Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and a member of the Washington Post editorial board, a good friend of the National Urban league, jonathan capehart. Welcome, jonathan. [ applause ] i thought mark was going to introduce the other panelists. Mark, thank you very much. No, no. Ill do it. Thats okay. That was my fault, not yours, mr. President. Thank you very much for asking me to do this. Thank you very much to the National Urban league for focusing, putting a spotlight on the state of black america. Its particularly important this year to focus on the vote. And i think president put it right when he issued that call to russian president Vladimir Putin to keep your hands off our american democracy. So to help talk about this and what is happening, i think we know whats happening at a 40,000 foot level. But to talk to people who are reporting on this in realtime on the ground, i want to call up debra barfield barry. Shes a reporter based here in washington, a washington correspondent for usa today. [ applause ] and kira learner, a reporter with the appeal. [ applause ] so i think you both heard, i believe, that the right to vote and vote rights are not a partisan issue. And as straight news reporters, for you this issue is not a matter of advocacy or taking one side or another. This is pointing out what is happening. I would love for each of you to take a moment to talk about what you have learned through your reporting about what is happening or what is not happening when it comes to suppressing the vote. Start with you, kira. Thank you so much for having me. Ive been covering Voter Suppression and Voting Rights since the 2014 elections. Ive been watching it closely, 2014, 2016, the 2018 midterms. I think everything weve heard today is very spot on. Ive been on the ground in states across the country, across the south seeing these things happen firsthand. Its also not in the south. Ive spent time reporting on native American Reservations in south dakota and nevada where we see these issues of Voter Suppression on a wide scale. Something important to keep in mind, mark spoke about the terrible trio. We do see these three actors playing a huge role in Voter Suppression. But this is happening all across the country in jurisdictions large and small on the county level. I was in dwg georgia ahead of t 2018 election and i was riding on a bus with black lives matter down in georgia. We were driving across the state helping people to get out to vote. I happened to be on the bus reporting about them as they went across georgia. We were in a rural county in jefferson county, majority africanamerican, part of georgia. They loaded up 40 Senior Citizens, africanamerican Senior Citizens on the bus and they were about to take them to go vote. They were dancing in the street and prepared to go vote. And the county administrator called and told them they couldnt bring these group of Senior Citizens to the polls because they called it political activity. There was no actual law preventing this type of thing. Its important to keep in mind that voter intimidation is part of this as well. We see things that arent rising to the level of statewide legislation or things that would never make it to the Supreme Court but this is happening everywhere at jurisdictions across the country. I too have been covering Voting Rights and civil rights for a long time, several elections. What amazing me about covering is im still covering it. It might have been a little different earlier but each election theres still Something Else to write about. We talked about sometimes the perception of whether people think theres still Voter Suppression. I think sometimes explaining as a reporter that what people thought of the image of Voter Suppression, the poll taxes counting the bubbles on a bar of soap is the image they have of what Voter Suppression looks like. But Voter Suppression doesnt necessarily look like that anymore. Sometimes its subtle, sometimes not so subtle. Part of what we try to do as journalists is not just say theres Voter Suppression. Thats the language civil rights heade head leaders use. We have to go further to explain what does that look like. Is it ms. Smith who cant get her voter id because shes in a rural county in alabama. I think sometimes we have to go a little further in explaining what it looks like. Because im in washington i Cover Congress when it relates to Voting Rights and that too has not changed much in the years i have been covering it. Here we are now talking about marsha fudge having field hearings about voter election issues in 2020. Ive sat on the steps of the capitol when they reauthorized the Voting Rights act. A lot of those lawmakers thought we were good to go. What year was that . 2006. That was when president bush was in office and it passed the senate like 980. It was overwhelmingly. Then the Supreme Court steps in and basically guts the primary provision of the Voting Rights act. There had been calls consistently at least in the last couple years of president bush and throughout the two terms of president obama to reauthorize the Voting Rights act and yet nothings happened. Why hasnt anything happened . Thats called a leading question. I know. [ laughter ] depends on who you talk to. Thats obviously been a push for years since then. Democrats argue that republicans are resistant to reauthorizing. Im sorry. It has been reauthorized. It has been. Because the Supreme Court made its decision, it said, well, congress can go and fix these issues in congress but it hasnt. Right. So that said, especially when it happened it was republican controlled body, both chambers. That has since changed. So now theres a real aggressive push by the house side which is led by democrats to come up with evidence. So theyre having hearings. Marsha fudge is leading some hearings out in the states. Theyre doing hearings here in congress. Part of the challenge will be and already is whether they get republican support to do that. So far there have not been a lot of folks who signed onto hr1. Or even any interest, it would seem from the republican side. There are a couple of lawmakers who have voiced some interest or come to the hearings including rodney davis whos the ranking member. Hes attended the hearings. Hes attended the hearings. Kira, im sorry. You want to jump in here . Yeah. I think the issue of voting has become debra can talk to this maybe better. But since i have started covering voting, i think its become partisan to a degree it may not have been in the past. I think we see republicans and democrats divided on basic things like automatic Voter Administration and early voting and things that in the past were not considered partisan issues and things that everyone could get behind and believe extending democracy to more people was a good thing to do. So i do think we see lawmakers both here in d. C. And congress and in state legislatures across the country being pretty divided along part sisan lines. The efforts to suppress the vote around the country are very focused racially. You just talked about the incident in georgia which got a lot of National Press where there were cameras there so we actually got to see Latasha Brown stand there and be very, very defiant about, no, we are going to go vote. From both of your reporting, does your reporting match what wendy is saying . And is it more pervasive and more severe than what she had to say. Wendy is definitely the expert. I think from my reporting and from my colleagues especially in the Usa Today Network which is a whole bunch of papers, yeah, its definitely happening on the state level. Again, i covered congress but a lot of what bubbles up comes from the states. I think we can definitely say that theyre we cant use the word Voter Suppression because thats not how we are supposed to characterize it but there are a lot of efforts in the states to pull back to prevent access to the ballot. Yes. Thats definitely happened. I just want to point out if you hear some of the hesitation in deborahs voice, its not that she is unaware of whats going on. She is very much. Unlike me, im an opinion writer. Debra is a news side reporter. You can see that shes uncomfortable even in using the language. That should let everyone know that people who are news side reporters take their roles as being objective arbiters of what theyre reporting very, very seriously. When you have a reporter like debra here and keir ra heira te this is what ive seen, this is what my reporting tells me, you should take it seriously. Now, that being said one of the more alarming things weve seen come out of all of the reporting thats been done in terms of russian interference in the election and what laura brought up the fact that they were flooding facebook and instagram and twitter with fake accounts and fake stories that people who then ended up being quoted in legitimate establishment media entities, how do you, how will you Going Forward prevent yourself or how should lets broaden it out. How should journalists prevent themselves or guard against themselves becoming unwitting agents of a hostile foreign power. Thats definitely a good question. I think its something that journalists across the country are battling with right now. I think it comes down to basic news values and vetting everything that comes across your screen or comes to you through an interview. I think reporters have to do their Due Diligence and figure out where sources are getting their information and where these things are coming from. Yeah, i think one of the other issues thats happening right now in social media is so prevalent is that a lot of voters are getting this information without reporters as the middleman. They can go onto facebook and they can see or twitter or a number of source rs as and see information firsthand. If its not vetted by a credible news source, its hard for a regular voter to know whether or not to take it seriously. I think voters also have to do their Due Diligence and read credible news outlets. Otherwise it will be a flood of misinformation. I hate to use the term fake news because this isnt even news. These are foreign actors pretending to be news. It really takes a level of news intelligence and awareness. And we have a very rigorous process to figure out who were talking to especially via email because you can get emails from anybody and especially from lawmakers. So we always have to check, number one, is it coming from a reliable source. Once you check that, even call just to make sure. Call . What do you mean call . Fblgts yea the Old Fashioned way. Just to make sure im talking to who i think im talking to and verify its coming from that particular source. A lot of people in the movement i know already so when their stuff comes through i know its reliable and trustworthy. But yeah were very careful too. As a point of personal privilege, this is one of my hobby horses to pick up on what kira was talking about in terms of news consumers spreading misinformation or out right falsehoods. Especially on twitter, people are they will see a tweet and there might be a link attached. They dont even bother to click the link. They just retweet it. One of the things i urge people to do is if you see a tweet and theres a link, click the link before you tweet. Once youve quicked the link, read whats there. If you follow me on twitter you know one of my favorite things to say to somebody is, you didnt read the piece, did you . Journalists know thats happening because we get data about how many retweets and shares there are and how many people are actually looking at the article. Thats right. But the point is there are a lot of passionate people out there. They want to argue and talk about these issues but theyre only doing it with half or a quarter or maybe even an eighth of the information that they need. In order to guard against, again, being manipulated by a hostile foreign power, make sure that you are reading the things you are retweeting and clicking the hyperlinks within those stories that youre reading. If a journalist puts a hyperlink in there, its there for a reason. Its there for you to click and to read and to further educate yourself. Kira, in Going Forward what are you looking at in terms of efforts to block the vote Going Forward . Yeah. Theres a lot of things happening right now. Weve heard already today about whats going on on the ground in florida when it comes to amendment four which was the Voting Rights amendment passed by an overwhelming majority of floridians on the inform baball. We saw a modern day poll tax passed last week. Were also seeing some old efforts come back and people in fl n say weve been through this before, we know what poll taxes look like and this is effectively a poll tax. The governor still hasnt signed it but its lickly that itke. Were also seeing a number of efforts across the country to criminalize voting and to basically increase penalties if people were to make mistakes or make errors when theyre casting the ballot. Im watching a bill in texas that would change if you make an error on a Voter Registration application, right now thats a misdemeanor. Now they want to make it a felony that could be punishable by up to two years in prison. Crystal mason was a woman in texas who was prosecuted for illegal voting. She had a criminal conviction and shes currently serving a fiveyear sentence. People like her would become more common. Were seeing a similar thing in tennessee. This is going on all across the country. Some of this legislation only gets attention during the election years and when an election is coming up. I think its really great that everyone here is paying attention to this in an off year. As a washington reporter i also follow the legislation, what does or doesnt happen with the legislation here, also trying to go out to one of the field hearings that marsha fudge is having. I think she has two more states left including alabama. As a network usa today. We set up a Voting Rights team. Were going to be doing our papers on the ground and doing pieces Going Forward. Debra youve mentioned several times now congressman fudges town halls around the country. Have you gone to one or two . I havent gone but because we have papers in some of the places where she had held hearings some of my colleagues have gone there. Im trying to go so this might be my pitch right here. We have some people on the ground so sometimes we spread out and use our resources differently. Do you know or can you talk about whats been revealed in those hearings . Much of it has been kind of what has already been raised as concerns whether theyre early voting and the changes are happening more locally so they kind of shet light on what the sure has done in those states to suppress the vote. Ill say it for you. The challenges that people perceive are roadblocks in those states. I interviewed her maybe a month ago. Her goal is to do all these field hearings in these key states, places where voter depressi suppression was raised as an issue. And you said at the beginning of this conversation that the thing that surprises you the most about covering efforts to keep people from voting is that youre still reporting on efforts to keep people from voting. You just mentioned that you interviewed congressman fudge about a month ago. Did she express to you a similar amazement that she as a member of congress in 2019 having to go around the counted ry and talk people about the right to vote, more specifically, about efforts to keep people from intersizing their right to vote. Congressman fudge is angry. Shes passionate about it. Shes angry about it. Shes on a mission that this should not be happening now and were going to do something about it. So i dont know if surprise is the right word because many members of the congressional black caucus, all of them have made this a priority. Not that it hasnt been in the past but now that they have more power in the house in particular theyve made it their calling to handle that this year. One of the things at the beginning of President Trumps term that he did was to set up his Voter Fraud Commission that sort of went down in a ball of flames because even republican governors would not cooperate with what the commission was doing. Do you think that evidenffort, president s effort to establish this commission, change the perception among the American People about whether voter fraud was a reality or an issue that they should even care about or that is even a real issue. I think unfortunately the existence of this panel in the first place kind of spread this rhetoric and this myth of voter fraud. And the fact that the panel was disbanded didnt have the same type of effect on the American Public as seeing the president and his allies. Election official who is joined the panel from across the country talk about this myth of voter fraud. I think it was really dris and i think it empowered a lot of lawmakers across the country to push for legislation like the bill i was talking about in texas or tennessee or florida. It really gave a platform to some of these myths. We all know they found no credible evidence of illegal voters. Chris coback has failed time and time again to prove his theory that noncitizens are voting. A federal judge in kansas basically ruled that he had to take legal remediation classes and he had totally messed up his arguments in front of the court and he had no evidence. So the law in kansas that was being litigated was struck down. But i think unfortunately some of that ruling didnt get as much attention as President Trump standing in front of a harge rally a large rally and talking about illegal voters. This myth continues. I think one of the things that even some republican lawmakers and Election Officials in particular agree with democrats on. Theyre concerned about the administration and others making people feel like their elections are not fair and accurate. Its like when President Trump told republicans you should be a little paranoid recently about whether your votes are counted accurately. Both sides Election Officials were alarmed by that. They were worried about shake up and rattle voters. They want voters to believe in the system. The more you say things like that, the more everybody questions it. Both sides didnt want that. Thats true. There were republican lawmakers trying to distance themselves away from this panel. Kira, on the ground back to your point about the myth of voter fraud and people who dont have the right to vote are flooding polling places. On the ground, do people really believe that voter fraud is a thing . Thats a good question. It would depend who you talk to. There are definitely people who hear trumps rhetoric and who believe that. They cant point to any evidence of it but theres people who buy into that myth. For the most part, most people i talk to on the ground especially going across the south and coughing these last few elections. Theyre way more impacted by changes to voter laws that are happening and they know when they go to the polling place and are asked for a voter id and they dont have the appropriate form, they know these problems are way more prevalent than flooding across the border. A colleague of mine did a sf story last year. Uva did a poll questioning people and whether they trusted the election system. Only half of them believed that the systems were fair and they were disappointed by that. Part of what we do is we call voters or people who were part of the poll and some of the people were, no, we trust our system. What they said was we trust them but we dont trust you. Meaning the president. They dont trust the media covering elections. Not even that, they dont trust what we write about elections. At the risk of going down this rabbit hole a little further that is an interesting point to make. Its like they have confidence in the electoral system but not in us. Is that a result of long standing mistrust of the press that was taken advantage of by the president during the campaign and while in office where he calls members of the press enemies of the people, says what we do is tafake news. Is that whats feeding the mistrust in us . Rather than a mistrust in the electoral system. I think so. I think its a big part of people not trusting. Some people didnt trust the media before that anyway, but it definitely plays a role. Especially even when ive done stories, people say fake news. I mean where did you come from . You dont even know me or my body of work. It absolutely plays a role. I was in alabama covering the special election in 2017. I think this was a good example because it was a year after the 2016 election. We heard all of trumps rhetoric about fake news. I was at lays across the state for both roy moore and doug jones. I would ask them questions about their candidate, about his Sexual Assault of minors. And they would say thats the Washington Post. Thats fake news. We dont believe that. Theyre working with a whole different set of facts and information when theyre going to vote. I think we actually saw that for a majority of alabama voters to hold that opinion which is why we now have senator doug joenne. I was in alabama too on the night of election night. Clarification. I was covering roy moore. I had to talk to people there. Of course they were his people because they were at the rally. They were vicious. Im kind of nice so i was approachable and told them i was there. But they were definitely on the attack. They wanted to talk but they wanted to make sure we wrote that roy moore orb whatever, they supported him. The energy at the doug jones party where i was that night was almost like nothing id ever experienced on election day before. There were so many new firsttime voters. I spent the day taking videos and posting them on social media. One woman who cried when she cast her first ballot ever for doug jones. I think there are a lot of things going on in alabama. That is a nice segue to what i wanted to ask about the reaction to these efforts to keep people from voting. What are organizations doing to ensure that whatever is done at the state and local level is met with an equal response to make sure that people who find themselves suddenly ineligible to vote have the wherewithal to make sure they do have the right to vote next time they go to the ballot box. One of the first things i remember, i dont know if it was days later or weeks hater, the dnc came up with bam, we have a counter commission. He different even have a chance to get started. Then on the ground there are a whole lot of groups that are already on the ground starting way before 2020 to work on these counter efforts to doing the geo tv stuff, the education stuff. These are not new. Its more ramped up because they know the importance of getting a 2020. Im keeping a lot of times the media is not paying attention because its not an election year. Im trying to change and that and make sure we do know whats happening. I would call out the Florida Rights Coalition that did amazing work to get the ballot unpassed. Theyre not giving up the fight as we see this legislation that would require the payment of fines and fees as we see that move through the legislature. I think thats a model of how a Grassroots Movement can have massive success. Iowa, virginia and kentucky still have some of the strictest felon disenfranchisement laws in the country. Were seeing movements to over turn those. Were also seeing movements to allow people to vote while incarcerated. Were seeing more and more people back that effort. I would encourage everyone to read both local and National News to see what these groups are up to and to see what kind of impact theyll have on 2020. My last question for you kira, the lawsuits that are out there across the country trying to stop symptom of theome of th could you give a quick update on where one or two might be . Yeah. Were having mixed results. We had the Supreme Court uphold ohios voter purge effort. Now were seeing other states understanding that they also is purge voters who havent voted in past elections. But we are seeing successes in some places. In florida a federal court ruled that the states law was unconstitutional. I mean, i think as we see more laws take effect like the one in texas ive been talking about that will criminalize voters, we will see more litigation and i will be tracking it. During an interview with time magazine, the time 100 last week. Time moves so quickly in our new reality. Jared kushner who is the president s soninlaw but also a Senior Advisor to the president , he characterized foreign interference in the election as, quote, a few facebook ads. As someone who covers congress and has walked the halls of congress, can you give us any idea as to how that comment landed among members of congress. Mind you, of course he said this after the release of the Mueller Report where volume one was all about in intricate detail how the russians interfered in the 2016 election. We know how members of congress feel about the Mueller Report. How do they feel about what a Senior Advisor to the president who is the soninlaw had to say about russia interference. I kid not cover tha i did cover that. I have covered enough of Cyber Security concerns as it relates to elections. Many of the members on both sides, no one seems to december agree about russian interference. They may disagree about how to address it or whether to address it. But they all seem to feel like, yes, russias interfered. Both side agreed last year to set aside 380 million dollars. They have invested money in it and talk about it but i cant speak to that specific one. I dont think anybodys saying theyre not getting in the mix of our election process. Thank you very much for sharing your insights. [ applause ] please welcome back to the stage mark h. Muriel. Lets give our panelists another big round of applause. Before we adjourn, this discussion is going to continue tomorrow at the opening plenary of oufr legislative policy congress. It kicked off at 9 00 a. M. With a Dynamic Panel of speakers over at the hyatt region si capitol hill and an opportunity for all of us to engage in a discussion, ask questions, participate and interact on the subject matter covered in the state of black america report. We encourage you absolutely to be here. Before we close, the National Urban league is diagnostic and prescriptive. We never simply call out problems. We never simply point to the chgs. We want to be proactive with recommendations, with potential solutions. So here are some of the recommendations of the 2019 state of black america report. Some of it is legislation already pending in congress. Hr1, we must pass hr4 which include a wide range of voting reforms like enhanced Cyber Security protection of election systems, removing barriers of Voter Registration and prohibiting use of false advertising to elections. That would restore the full protections of the voting righ s s act of 1965. We also make some bold suggestions like it is time to eliminate the Electoral College. [ applause ] the Electoral College is an knack chronistic and its inconsistent with our system of democracy. We are making an evident and will make an effort. We encourage you to take our text today which youll send messages to congress to pass the Voting Rights advancement act. This important civil rights legislation could ensure that fair access by all americans are protected. Text vra 4 to the number 53886. Use your phones. Thats vra4 to the number 53886. Oh lord its 52 teleprompter wrong. 52886. I stand corrected. Lets take action now. This technology will send a message to your member of congress right away. To access the state of black americas compete suite of recommendations, offerings, essays data and expert analysis and a readiy for download support, head to the website state www dot state of black america. Org. Today is the beginning of our annual legislative policy. To everything that the National Urban league has stood for for over 100 years. This threat to our democracy is a threat to everything that the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s was all about. We are called to step up. We are called to stand up and were called to speak up. And that is what we will do from this day forward. So thank you for being with us today. We look forward to seeing you. To all of those who followed us on Facebook Live or cspan or nbc. Org or anywhere online, we want to thank you for being a part of this. And lets continue the conversation in social media. God bless you and thank you for being with us this morning. [ applause ] well tonight at 8 00 eastern on the cspan networks, democratic president ial candidate Bernie Sanders appears at George Washington university to talk about his views on democratic socialism. On cspan 2 a House Intelligence Committee on deepfake videos. It is a product that alters videos and the product is passed off as true. And online media platforms on the news industry. Witnesses include officials from various news organizations and media trade association groups. And thats all tonight on the cspan networks. This weekend, American History tv has live twoday coverage of the annual Gettysburg College Civil War Institute summer conference. Starting saturday at 8 30 a. M. On a discussion on the unionist cause. A look at nat turners rebellion with Patrick Green of providence college. The combat experience of civil war soldiers with peter car michael. Then a Panel Discussion on the artifacts of the civil war moderated by brian luskey of West Virginia university. On sunday our live coverage continues with discussion on preserving Gettysburg Park with jennifer murray. Violence in the civil war with aaron sheehandean. Then a look at the civil war and emancipation in the heart of america in with ed ayers. Followed by a discussion on seeing the conflict through the eyes of leading historians. Watch the annual Gettysburg College Civil War Institute summer Conference Live this weekend on American History tv on cspan 3. Oh, do i look forward to running against them. Tuesday, President Donald Trump holds a rally in orlando, florida, officially launching his run for a second term. Watch live at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan 2, online at cspan. Org, or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Nikki haley delivered the keynote address at the annual gala for the Prolife Group susan b. Anthony list. She talked about the Antiabortion Movement and womens rights. [ applause ] thank you so much. What a great room. Thank you so much. Thank you, marjorie, for your commitment, strength, and heart. You are an inspiration to so many, and we all appreciate your efforts. And thank you to everyone in this room. I am so grateful toou
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