Washington journal, live at 7 00 eastern tuesday morning. Join the discussion. Joining us to take to talk about her book one person, no. Ote is the author why did you write this book . The book emerged out of two one was the 2016 election and there i saw the pundits keep talking about people just didnt show up. Up andople didnt show hillary lost because black people werent feeling hillary. That and it did not make sense because this was the first election in 50 years without the protection of the Voting Rights act. We had a series of laws coming through, targeting africanamericans, so i wanted to lay out how Voter Suppression s. Rks because host what protections were under the Voting Rights act. Passedin 1965, congress the Voting Rights act. It began to deal with the massive disenfranchisement happening particularly in the south. Where you had counties that had a majority black population, but zero africanamericans were registered to vote. What the Voting Rights and did was have a provision called preclarence, meaning certain jurisdictions that had a documented history of discrimination against its citizens had to have all of their voting laws, or any changes they made, okd by the federal court or department of justice. Preclearance worked. In mississippi, before the Voting Rights act in early 1960, only 5 of africanamericans were registered to vote. Two years after the Voting Rights act was implemented, almost 60 of africanamericans were registered to vote. By having preclearance stop discriminatory laws from being able to be active in doing this wicked dance on the american electorate and on our policies, in 2013, the u. S. Supreme court gutted the preclearance provision of the Voting Rights act in a case. Within two hours after the decision, texas implemented a racially discriminatory voter id law. North carolina was not far behind, nor was alabama. Cds just went wild in figuring wild inities just went figuring out how to suppress their vote, particularly African Americans and they went after hispanics, asians, and the young and the poor. Host it wasnt just mississippi. In alabama, the figure rose from 24 to 57 , and one million new voters were registered within a few years after the bill became , bringing africanamerican registration to a record 62 . Guest part of what we see is in wisconsin. Theresin, you had were 60,000 fewer votes cast in wisconsin in 2016 than there were in 2012. Wisconsin had implemented a racially discriminatory voter id law, among other things. 80 targeted milwaukee were 70 80 itthis dates targeted milwaukee, where 70 up africanamericans in the state live. Lack voter turnout went down black voter turnout went down by 7 . When we look at early voting turnout like in North Carolina, their state legislature targeted the days africanamericans turned out early in droves to vote early, and removed those that so there is an email goes around republican circles, where they are celebrating in 2016 the 8 decrease in early voting turnout for africanamericans. So, this is what we are seeing acrosstheboard. The house controlled by democrats, as you know, has no Voting Rights advancement at that has been approved and is been sent over to the senate. I want you to respond to earlier this month, rodney davis, congressmen, talking about this voting right advancement. [video clip] the voting acts right is alive and well. This is not a reauthorization of this bipartisan legislation. Discriminationd at the ballot box because it does not need reactors asian because it does not need the authorization. Every eligible american, who wants to vote in our countrys elections, should be able to cast their vote. This bill is only about preclearance and the democrat majority, the federal government control over all election activity. Jurisdictions under preclearance cannot move a polling location, expand vote by mail efforts are properly maintained their voting a member of the department of justice clearing everything. Awayis about taking power from officials. Host the Voting Rights advancement act establishes new criteria for determining which states and political subdivisions busking the clearance subdivisions must again preclearance. What are your thoughts and how do you respond to that congressman . Sectionne is that that provides for the kind of litigation that then eventually will catch up to a jurisdiction that is systematically discriminated against its electorate. Citizens. An 1957rls us back to the Voting Rights act where you had to have a violation, then somebody sued and then more litigation. Years have gone by. You have elections going on based on the disenfranchisement of american citizens, politicians being elected on a team electoral basis. So they can continue to implement and tweak policies to continue to disenfranchise. It is not like the federal government had not tried over and over to allow these states to honor the u. S. Constitution and the 15th amendment. The state systematically looked at the 15th amendment and said, how do we get around it . That is why you got the Voting Rights act. And what we saw with the gutting of section four of the gutting of the Voting Rights act is that states went hog wild again. This is about honoring the constitution and the 15th amendment that says, the state shall not abridge the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous servitude. That is what we have not seen the state to do yet. Host i want to invite our viewers to join us. Carol anderson, you write about the motivations that minority voters did not just refuse to show up. Blockators and governors africanamericans, hispanic, and Asian Americans from the polls in 2017, pushed by the democrats collapse of their party. The republicans opted to disenfranchise rather than reform. Guest yes. It is that. I mean, and so many ways, it explains where we are right now. Where you have a party that is moved so far to the right that its policies just resonates. Trumps why you have the point person in wisconsin in aabout, in an talking about, how to suppress the vote in that is how we win. Democratic constituencies have a key urge for the republicans to stay in power, but it is only by , not resonating with americans as we understand democracy and we understand the vote in the elections. But by keeping key constituencies in that electorate from voting. To keep them blocked from the ballot box. That is what policies have done. Has been updated to talk about the 2018 elections. Preview that. Guest this is where you saw this massive voter turnout. It was the highest murder it was the highest voter turnout in 2018. One of the things you hear is how can there be Voter Suppression when you have this massive voter turnout . Of itit wasnt because was in spite of, so you had this massive wave of civil organizations that were getting people ids, that were driving people to and from the polls because of the massive closures massive pull closures that were providing information, that were suing the states for closing down polls, for not having enough machines in throwingprecincts, for ofy absentee ballots because no signature match. Democracy estore we need to restore democracy. They were willing to stand in line for hours in order to be able to vote. That is what happened in 2018. Organizations working with an engaged electorate to make this democracy vibrant. Host mike in miami, florida, an independent. Good morning. Caller i would like to know how requiring somebody to show an id is inhibiting them from voting . I dont understand that and never will. I mean, do you think that people do you think that people who are not citizens should be allowed to vote . Hillary lost because she lost, ok. Get over it. Have a nice day. Guest what a wonderful independent talking there. Let me walk you through how the iud piece works. The id piece, one of the reasons why work so well is because its also normal. How hard can it be because everyone has one . That is not how the states have crafted this. They identified, by race, certain types of id that whites have and that black people and latinos do not have and then made access to the ballot box based on the prevalence of those types of ids. Alabama,nstance, in alabama said you have to have a governmentissued photo id. So, your bank card is not going to work. Governmentissued id. Then they decided what type of governmentissued photo id. They decided that they decided that Public Housing id did not count as a governmentissued id, but does it get more public but as give more governmentissued then Public Housing . Housingthose in public are africanamericans, and for most of those, it is the only id they have. This has, with for alabama to carve out that electorate. Then what alabama did was they shut down the department of Motor Vehicles. For fiscal reasons to be physicallyresponsible, shut down the department of Motor Vehicles down in the black belt counties, requiring then people who dont have a drivers license and dont drive to go to the next county or 50 miles away, in order to get a drivers license. So that they could be able to vote. That is how it works. That is how it works in texas, in georgia, in North Carolina, in alabama. So, the voter id sounds reasonable, except it is not. Herehat is also happening is this mixture, this wild mixture of the systematic denial of rights systematic denial of the right to vote for american citizens, being merged in with his harboring fear that all of these ends are going to be building. I mean, that this one of the asngs that kris kobach used he carved out over 30,000 voters from the kansas city voter roles. But when he had to go before a judge and demonstrate, prove that you had massive, massive numbers of immigrants on the voter roles, who were trying to vote, he could only point to one. And that was a man who was going through the naturalization process. He did not realize he could not vote before he officially became a u. S. Citizen. So, the fear of immigrants voting in mass is just that. It is a fear that is being stoked by those who need these measures in order to block american citizens from voting. John in newe out to york, democratic caller. The way i see it, it is about demographics. When president obama won the election, it shocked a lot of conservative white people and when he won a second term, it shocked them more. Demographicrful of change. This reminds me of reconstruction, right after blacks started voting, they started finding ways for preventing them from voting. This happened 100 years ago and it is happening again. That is what i think. Guest mo, you know, it is interesting. Know, it is interesting. I like to what people through the history and that history deals with the mass of demographic change and deals with the state of mississippi that carved out what is called the mississippi plan. Mississippi looked up and said, how can we stop black people from voting . Saysut writing a law that we dont want black people to vote. The 15th amendment says you cannot write an amendment saying you dont want black people to vote, so what mississippi did is use societallyimpose conditions on africanamericans and use that as the axis point to the ballot box. Remember, this all sounds reasonable. Mississippi says, you know, elections are expensive. And we believe that if you are really committed to democracy and to the integrity of our elections, youre willing to pay a small tax in order to be able to vote. A poll tax. Well, we have had century of slavery. That is unpaid labor, followed sharecropping. Endemic in the africanamerican community. So endemic that the poll tax was going to require somewhere 6 of the annual farm income, family farm income, in mississippi. Of the annual family farm income. That is no small fee. That is where you are making a choice about, can i vote or can i put food on the table . Reasonable andso raceneutral. Fast did as did another test that said, we believe we ought to have an engaged citizen rate that understands our foundational principles, so we dont think it is too much to ask for them to be able to read and interpret a section of the constitution. Well, when you systematically swathseducation to large of the population and then you put a legal document in front of them and tell them to read it and interpret it, it is designed again to say, we dont want black people to read, to vote, without saying, we dont want black people to vote. U. S. Supreme court in fact, saw that the poll tax and literacy test were ratesneutral enough that they did not violate the 15th amendment. Of thewo pillars mississippi plan of 1890 were so 3 erful that by 1940, only of africanamerican adults were registered to vote in the south. 3 . Just as the state is getting ready to do right now. That tells you the power of this. Now you move this to where we are. So, you take things like, you have to have like a drivers license to vote, but we are not going to put drivers license bureaus anywhere near you live or anywhere near public transportation. Same for polling stations. They a study out of the did a study here that found within number of polling stations that have been closed in georgia alone that have increased the distance from where black communities are to where there polling stations are, increased them so much, somewhere between 50 to 80 thousand votes were not cast between 50,000 to 80,000 votes were not cast. Crow 2. 0. Host lets go to cathay from los angeles, republican caller. Caller you are completing so many issues, in my opinion. Im a black american woman, and i can see there may be differences in the south and the needs urban cities, but six decades of ideology has destroyed black america. In these urban cities. Conceivably, maybe black americans did not vote for Hillary Clinton because of blades it because they know the data of how six decades in these urban cities has destroyed black america. Homeless in los right after slavery, we owned one half of a percent of the wealth of america. Today, we own one half of 1 of the wealth of america. We are not progressing moaning democrat, we are we are not progressing voting democrat, we are regressing. The Median Income for black women in boston is eight dollars, so maybe i guess you are not on social media, but as in academia, you have to know the data. Host lets get a response. And i i know the data, know that we cannot begin this conversation with the rise of lyndon johnson. I know that we must begin this conversation with 1619. We have to look at centuries of policy, and understand that when i talk about Voter Suppression, im not talking about black people didnt vote for democrats. Im talking about black people did not vote because republican governments have targeted ensure thaticans to they could not get full access to the ballot box. I want people to vote. That is my concern here. People must vote. They must engage. And the parties must engage all of those constituents. When we have a party that decides he cannot engage in suppresses abode, that does the dance of joy in North Carolina because it targeted the days that africanamericans, from church come from church to vote at the polls. When you have in florida marking out the days of early voting one have looked at the chart and figured out when africanamericans go vote, that is a problem. Problemwe get to not a is that when we have laws on the , thenthat are enforced recognize the rights of all american citizens. I,t whichot about blex is fake. This is about american citizen right to vote, period. States thatanderson far too many policymakers believe the right to vote is something to be earned after perhaps paying modernday poll tax or walking miles to the nearest polling station to cast a ballot. A major legal and political paradigm shift is taking place. The responsibility for upholding the right to vote is moved and has play squarely on the backs of individual citizens. Carol anderson, what are you saying here . Guest what im saying is you ofe a secretary of state out alabama saying that voting is a privilege, and so it needed to be earned, so that meant that you had to stand in line for hours in black precincts, but youre able to get in and out quickly in white precincts. Or what is happened in georgia, where you had four in five hour in the 2018 midterm elections. And people had to leave because they had to go to work. So they are making a choice because, i got to put food on the table. We understand the kind of economic deprivations that happen when you miss a days work ok because youre trying to stand in line to vote. So, but what you hear is, if they really cared about democracy, they would stand in line. So, we are putting the onus on the individual to see this through, to jump through all of these obstacles, to jump through all of the hurdles in order to have their right to vote honored. But we are not putting that same responsibility on the state to uphold the 15th amendment of the constitution. And that is just fundamentally wrong. Host on the Supreme Court what hasin 2013, happened now legally . Is there a case that could go before the court to put back what was, as you say, as you argue, coming from the Voting Rights act . Sost not that i have seen far, but i cannot quite speak to that. I know that women, the court has had an opportunity, for instance in the extreme partisan gerrymandering case, and gerrymandering was also covered under the Voting Rights act. When the court has had the opportunity to do that work, the court has backed off and said for instance that that extreme partisan gerrymandering, like in wisconsin, where the republicans sequester themselves in a hotel room for months, drafting a map with software, looking at who lives where, and they had two goals. One was to reduce overall voter turnout, and that is what a string gerrymandering does. By doing ital was by competitive districts. The other piece was that regardless of how many votes the republicans get, they would always have a majority power, the majority of seats in the legislature. Think about that. Regardless of the number of votes, always the most, and that is what happened in the initial election were democrats received 52 of the vote and got 32 of the seats, and with each subsequent election, has gotten worse. The u. S. Supreme court look