Dialogue around the most Critical Issues of our time. We are gathered tonight virtually anytime of uncertainty over the past two weeks its become abundantly clear theres no more urgent time to talk about Voter Suppression head of the upcoming 2020 election in this moment following ongoing tragedies of Racial Injustice in our country, i have more hope than ever that our declaration that black lives matter and our protest in support of freedom for all will be unrelenting in bringing about equitable and longoverdue change. We feeling credibly fortunate tonights guest is one of the nations foremost experts on Voting Rights, leader abrams is a bestselling author, nonprofit ceo and political leader and was the first black woman to cover the good between zero nominee for a major party in the us and in the race for governor in georgia in 2018 she won more votes than any other democratic in the states history. Stacy abrams again made history at the first black woman to deliver a response to the state of the union in 2019. There is no doubt that her history making endeavor is far from over. In her new book our time is now she draws on Extensive Research to offer concrete solutions to an Voter Suppression and empower citizens. Former us secretary of state Madeleine Albright called the book essential toolkit for citizens of all backgrounds who believe as i do that democracy is not a spectator sport. Tonight, stacy abrams will be in conversation with karen haynes, a word and editor at large. She was previously the National Writer on race through the associated press, focused on the intersection of race, politics. We are so grateful for her participation. Later in the program we will take some of your questions you can submit them using the q and a button at the bottom of your zoom window and we also include a link in the chat box where you will want to purchase not act copy. Im excited to listen to and learn from these extra and a women again for joining us please welcome stacy abrams and aaron haynes into your home. Thank you so much, heather and thank you so much for what i hope is to be a conversation with someone who i have covered for a long time and who we went to your more from in this moment in our democracy and facing what i feel like is the most consequential election of our time. Welcome, leader abrams. We have got to stop meeting like this. Good to be with you again. Good to be with you as well. I feel like to george us and im a native of atlanta. We have to talk about what happened yesterday in their home state, the primary which was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic, but nonetheless turned out to be what i think we can agree was a debacle of democracy regardless of whos responsible. You and others predicted this, not yesterday, not last week, not last month, but two years ago it may be earlier. I went to ask you what your assessment is of what happened in georgia yesterday. Thank you so much for doing this and thank you to heather and the entire team and thank you to everyone tuning in. We know that yesterday was the result of a combination of incompetence and malfeasance. But start with buffy since. This is a state that has for the last decade practice Voter Suppression is an art form. In the 2018 election we saw it, but we go back to 2010 when the newly integrated secretary of state arrested 12 people for having the audacity to use absentee ballots to win an election. They followed the rules, did everything they were supposed to them because they were africanamericans who beat white men and women who they didnt think should lose, they were arrested and charged with 120 felonies. They spent three years with their lives 20 part. They lost their jobs, their seat on the school board and lets be clear, it was a School Board Election took their lives were destroyed and one woman nearly committed suicide. That began, at least in my window, that began the most recent evidence of Voter Suppression. Passport to 2018, at that point brian kemp has been secretary of state for eight years and purged 1. 4 million voters, overseeing the closure of 214 precincts. He has been the architect of exact match, which is the system that helps 553,000 application for Voter Registration hostage, 83 work people of color and was responsible for multiple infractions in the news that the power to run for governor and was replaced by brad ratzenberger. He comes into play and through Fair Fight Action Organization i started suited the statement said that we saw happen will never be undone. I will never be the governor in 2018. The process was wrong. That democracy didnt work, so one of their solutions was to buy new machines because we also had an issue of flipping where people would put in their vote and the person they selected, namely me, would suddenly become brian kemp. I am not brian kemp and i want to frame them for this reason, malfeasance doesnt disappear prevent action doesnt disappear because it goes underground and what happened in part was that the same structure that had been deeply problematic in the state of florida for the last decade reared its ugly head again yesterday, but then you layer on top of it incompetence and that in car finance what brian kemp said when he was secretary of state and what brad said which was despite the constitutional obligation they hold to be the superintendent of elections meaning they are responsible for directing, training and investing in those elections, they basically do pride any obligation and set is on the county. The constitution doesnt say that. The county has certain responsibility, but what brad ratzenberger did was refuse to do his job so the county smaller counties, republican counties, all experienced terrible results from these new machines that brad purchased at the cost of 107 million. I am bringing this to a close. 107 million that are brandnew machines and was worn by everyone. My organization, a Progressive Group worked with freedom groups to tell them this was a bad idea. When i agree with charles koch on an issue, its deeply problematic. That he perfect purchases these machines and fails the most basic responsible behaviors which is making sure everyone in charge of administering those machines knew how to do it, made sure enough machines were available and so what we saw happen were three things, one absentee ballot he increased radically because we are in the midst of a pandemic and georgia [inaudible] heated one good thing to say applications should be made available to every active voter, but then the company that was woefully behind in setting out the ballots including thousands of people that never received them. Number two, he failed to manage and train appropriately the county. For example, full 10 county most populous counties said we need to under 50 extra people to meet the basic needs of our increased turnout to the state did nothing. The states that it was not their issue. Instead, he spent 400,000, the secretary of states them for thousand dollars doing an advertisement saving himself for by these machines. That could have paid for 1600 poll workers yesterday to reduce the seven hour line people stood in. The third issue is this we had fewer polling places, fewer workers and not only with the resources have provided for that, he did nothing to ensure communities that desperately needed to vote would be able to do so safely. Incompetence and malfeasance come together and make Voter Suppression not only a disaster, it makes it a solvable problem. You can change the laws to make them do good and also have to demand that those elected to hold office, the secretary of states do their job and thats what did not happen yesterday in georgia. I think you made so many good points and because he saw what was coming, you are not surprised by so much of what we saw yesterday. Although, i think it did and should alarm much of the rest of the country; ray . To your point you are someone that pushes back. You are one that says its not normal for a voter to be in line for hours to cast a ballot, but what we saw it when i was struck by were the number of black voters in particular in georgia who showed up with basically a survival kit, bottled water, extra phone charger, stadium chair, snacks. They were ready to be in line and expected to be in line for a Long Term Care didnt expect to cast their ballot to be it in and out process. What does that tell you about how much those hours long wait has been normalized particularly in black communities quebec absolutely. The Brennan Center did a fantastic study, a good analysis of the [inaudible] in 2018 georgia had the single longest wait time for africanAmerican Voters in the country with an average of the four hours what happened yesterday was that people have gotten used to it because they are used it to be in under resourced, how many secretary of state who points the finger at the county and the county that points the finger back to the constitution doesnt mention the county. The constitution gives the responsibility to the secretary state. What we also saw was the fact that people were reacting to the long lines in early voting because we had so many new voters entering the process and that is the one bright spot i want to hold onto. We saw new voters showing up yesterday, showing up over the process of this election and those new voters strained the system, but the point of having leadership is that you look at whats happening and he scaled to make the moment and for africanAmerican Voters who comprise more than 32 of the voting population in the state, they knew they would be voting in communities where they would be the least likely to be resourced, the most likely to be pushed out of the system because of what we found existed in the databases. For example my father is trying to track his absentee ballot and i put him into the page managed by the secretary state. He didnt exist and it turns out they put in the wrong birthdate so i had to have a lawyer help me figure it out. My absentee valid ballot arrived but the return envelope was sealed shut so i had to vote in person. We have normalized as africanamericans and communities of color and poor communities have normalized the maltreatment that we have received in casting a vote and that should not happen in democracies, but we often forget stint of the didnt become real for many people until 68 or 1970 , so we have had a much shorter period of access than we have had of malfeasance and the living memory of that malfeasance continues to not just galvanize us to show up prepared, but unfortunately has lowered our expectations of what we deserve it. Absolutely. So, i guess in the speaking about that im wondering what your message is of what the georgia primary revealed about Voter Suppression across the country and voter depression. Voter suppression is theory things. Bottom line is an eligible voter denied access to the right to vote. The three ways it happens, when you register. Hes upset about malfeasance as well so can you register and stay on the role, can you access a ballot at is your ballot counted. The United States is what the few industrialized democratized nations that has delegated to make 50 different states the authority to create their own version of democracy so the rules differ from state to state and thats one of the reasons that Voter Suppression is so insidious and pervasive it because it looks different depending on where you are. We know for example the challenges i spoke of with the secretaries of state, yesterday the same time we were having our election in georgia, South Carolina had their election as did nevada and they boast experienced challenges because republican secretary of state that made it more difficult for voters to cast their vote primarily among communities of color, so we know around the country Voter Suppression is alive and well. Fair fight action created a i have a Second Organization called fair fight 2020 which is our Political Organization targeting 18 battleground states in the 2020 election where we know some version of Voter Suppression will come to fruition we saw that play out and we are confident in the midst of the pandemic forced voters to stand in line and long lines where they shut down hundreds of precincts and refused to allow the normal use of absentee ballots of people could stay home and be six. What we know this predicts 42020 november election is number one the obligation to understand the need to scale up the resources. States arent going to be able to do this alone. More people are energized, excited and terrified so more people will show up. We also have to put guardrails on the system, so no bad actor i could bad secretary of state has the authority to deny access to the right to vote 21 eligible. Those are things we can accomplish and im happy to talk to the details, but i want people to be aware and be a great, but i also want folks to understand that there is a way through this and theres a way to make it right. Yeah, and i also underwrite me speaking directed to voters voters right, i mean, what you say to someone who is concerned our baby doesnt have confidence that their vote will counted november or how to get folks to vote with a read headlines like the ones that were coming out of georgia today . Voter suppression is the most effective not simply by blocking access to the right to vote, its the most effective when it convinces his communities that its not worth trying to one of the reasons post 2018 that i decided to focus my attention on the production and amplify the issue of Voter Suppression is that i spent 11 years in the legislature watching people tell me that their votes didnt count, that it didnt matter if they participated. They were denied healthcare because georgia is a state that refuses to expand medicaid. Theyre losing access to reproductive choices because georgia outlawed abortion after certain amount of time. They are facing environmental challenges that are completely ignored by those in charge and whats happening in georgia is happening across the country, but would also happens is that we had the two year the first two years of the Obama Administration and we saw glimpses of what was possible in those glimpses are what we have to hold it to, but whats more important as we saw 2018, i didnt become governor, but we tripled the turnout of latino voters, the turnout of a vision American Voters and increased Youth Participation by 139 black participation by 40 . We increased white participation for the First Time Since bill clinton ran in georgia and those of numbers and these are all democratic voters, those numbers proved people still have hope. They still want more and so its incumbent upon those in office were those of us who care about democracy, we have the affirmative obligation to go to those voters and say if you try it will work. What we should not do is alive and say if you try it will work instantly and all will be well. Thats the unfortunate message that people took from the 2008 election which is why in 2010 we were set back by a decade. Now, we will say it will work but it will take time. It will be tedious. There will be setbacks. It will require our relentless and affirmative engagement every civil time because we are pushing against people who want to hold onto power so desperately that they are willing to break the machinery of democracy to do so. Our responsibility, those of us in elected office or those of us that just believe in america, our affirmative obligation is to acknowledge those who feel depressed, who feel suppressed and who were legitimately pushed out of the system. Its our job to tell them why its happening and tell them how to get back in and for us to carve a path. Yeah, i mean, obviously adding to that because the remarkable expansion of the electorate that you are able to a call bush and 2018 even though as you say it didnt become governor. You did not concede, which id knowledge. Expanding that electorate, balancing of the fact that we are in the midst of a pandemic and you have a voter especially africanAmerican Voters who are being disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, 30 of the deaths are africanamerican even though we only make up 13 of the population and so what do you say to americans who wonder how they can participate safely in our democracy this fall i mean particularly vulnerable populations like the elderly and africanAmerican Voters . I would add to the litany and i know you mean this, the native american population, whats happened to the Navajo Nation that how now has among the highest rates of covid19 infection death despite their population in the population. We know what is happening in communities of color especially that has that coexisting not only people of color, but they are impoverished or they are working for. The challenges that the only way we get to through and recover from the pandemic and its affects, the devastating Public Health crisis, the economic collapse and the lack of faith in our system because we have watched our leaders lied to us about whats happening in the fact that we had to lionize a man for telling us the truth and hes just emblematic of how broken our country is at this moment, but we are still here and particularly for communities that are the most vulnerable in the least resilient, the only way through mr. Voting, the only way through is to elect new leadership and select new representation, representation that sees us and listens to us and part of the responsibility i think each of us holds to not given to suppress it evil. That is strong language, but theres nothing that is less evil than watching people die when you know you could do something about it. In fact, when you accelerate it because of your deli