Dialogue about the most Critical Issues of our time. Were gathered tonight albeit virtually at a time when so much feels uncertain. But over the past two weeks it has become abundantly clear there is no more urgent time to talk about Voter Suppression than ahead of the upcoming 2020 election. In this moment following ongoing unconscionable 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 long overdue change. We feel incredibly fortunate that you tonight suggest this f the most foremost expert on Voting Rights. Leader abrams is a bestselling author, entrepreneur, nonprofit ceo and political leader. She was the first black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major part in the United States. In the race for governor of georgia 2018 she won more votes than any other democrat in the states history. Stacey abrams again made history as the first black woman to deliver a response to the state of the union in 2019, and there is no doubt that her history making endeavors are far from over. In her new book our time is now power, purpose, and the fight for a fair america she draws on Extensive Research to offer concrete solutions to in Voter Suppression and empower citizens. Former u. S. Secretary of state Madeline Albright called the book and extensional cool toolbook. Tonight Stacey Abrams will be in conversation with errin haines, awardwinning journalist and editor at large at the 19th. She was present the National Writer on race with associate press, focus on the intersection of race, politics and culture. We are so grateful for her participation deceiving. Later in the program will take some of your questions. You can submit them using a q a button at the bottom of your zoom window. Where including a link in the chat box where you would definitely want to purchase an autographed copy of the United States. I am so to listen to and learn from these extraordinary women. Thanks again for joining us and please welcome Stacey Abrams and errin haines into your homes. Thank you so much, heather, and thank you so much to sixth and i for what i hope is going to be a robust conversation with somebody who ive covered for a long time and who could somebody i would want to hear more from in this moment in our democracy, and facing what i feel like is the most consequential election of our time. So welcome, leader abrams. We have got to stop beating like this. Its good to be with you again. Good to see you as well. Absolutely. So i feel like two georgians, and i am a native of atlanta, and not start this conversation without pocket what happened yesterday in our own state. Of course a talk about the primary which was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic but nonetheless turned out to be i think what we can agree was a debacle of democracy regardless of who you feel was responsible for that. You and others addicted this it yesterday, not lastly, not last month, you know, that two to yo go and maybe even earlier than that. I want to start by asking you what your assessment is of what happened in georgia yesterday. First of all, thank you so much for agreeing to do this and thank you to heather and sixth and i and their entire team. Thank you everyone whos tuning in. We know that yesterday was the result of a combination of incompetence and malfeasance. Lets start with the malfeasance. This is a state that has for the last decade practice Voter Suppression as an art form. In the 2018 election we sought put into sharp relief but we have to go back for the the 200 when the newly inaugurated secretary of state brian kip arrested 12 people for having the audacity to use absentee ballots to win an election. That began at the most recent efforts about her suppression. You fastforward to 2018, at that time brian camp has been secretary of state for eight years. Hayes persia 1. 4 million voters. Has overseen the closure of 214 precincts. He has been the architect of exact match which is ace egregious system that held five and 53 Voter Registration hostage those are people of color who is responsible for multiple infractions. He then use that power to run for governor and was three placed by brad ratzenberger. Brad came into play, sued the state and said what we saw happen will never be undone. I will never be the governor in 2018. But the process was wrong. The democracy didnt work. So one of their solutions was by new machines because we also had an issue with flipping. People would put in their votes and the person they picked to be brian camp and i was not brian camp brady went to frame of this for a reason. This doesnt disappear that action doesnt disappear simply because it goes underground. And what happened in part is the same structure sentiment deeply problematic in the state of georgia for at least the last decade reared their ugly heads again yesterday. You layer on top of that incompetence. That incompetence began with what brian camp has said when he was secretary of state on despite the constitutional obligation they hold to be the superintendent of elections mean they are responsible for directing, training, and investing in those elections they basically deprived any obligation they said its all on the county paid the constitution does not say that. The law gives the county certain responsibilities but what brad ratzenberger did was refuse to do his job so counties, not just the large ones like fulton and the two largest but smaller counties, republican counties all experienced terrible results from these new machines that brad purchase at the cost of 107 million, bringing this to a close 107 million spent on brandnew machines he was warned by everyone. In fact my organization, fair fight action a Progressive Group work with freedom work and hyper conservative group to say this was a bad idea. When i can agree with charles coke on an issue to deeply problematic. And yes purchase these machines and failed to do the most basic responsible behavior which is making sure everyone in charge of administering this machines to how to do it, make sure enough machines to be available, and so what we saw happen were three things. One, absentee balloting increased dramatically because we are in the midst of a pandemic he did one good thing of saying application should be made available to every voter who is active. That was good. He then vented out the program to accompany an arizona that was woefully behind in sending out those ballots including thousands of people who never received them. Number two he failed to manage and to train appropriately for counties to give them the investment they needed. For example fulton county, on saturday said we need 250 extra people just to meet the basic needs of our increased turnout. The state did nothing. In fact the state said it was not their fault it was not their issue. Him instead he spent 400,000. The secretary of state spent 400,000 during an advertisement thanking himself or buying these machines. That 400,000 could have paid for 1600 poll workers yesterday that could help reduce the five to seven hour line people stood in. The third issue is this. We have fewer polling places, fewer workers, and not only with those resources provided for that, he did nothing to ensure communities that desperately needed to be able to vote were going to be able to do so safely. Incompetence and malfeasance comes together and make Voter Suppression not only a disaster, it makes it a solvable problem. You remove the people with bad parts for you cant change a lot to make them do good you have to demand those who are elected to hold these offices, the secretaries of state, do their jobs. And that is what didnt happen yesterday in georgia. Yeah. I think you make so many good points there because you saw what was coming. You are not surprised by so much of what we saw yesterday. Although i i think and it did and should alarm the rest of the country. Right . But a thing to your point, you are somebody that pushes back. You are somebody that says it is not normal for voters to be in line for hours waiting to cast a ballot. But what we saw and what i was struck by were the number of black voters in particular in georgia who showed up with what i basically have is a bottled water, extra phone charger, stadium chair, snacks. They were ready to be a night and expected to be in line for a long time. They did not expect casting the ballot to be an in and out process. What does that tell you about how much those hours long waits have been normalized . Particularly in black communities. Absolutely. The Brennan Center just did a fantastic study if anybody wants to go to their website, its a really good analysis of the poll tax thats assessed against black and brown communities through long wait times. In 2018 georgia had the single largest longest wait time for africanamerican voters in the country at an average of four hours. What happened yesterday was that people have gotten used to it because theyve gotten used to being under resourced. Theyve gotten used to having a secretary of state who points fingers at the counties in the counties that point the fingers back. The constitution did not mention the counties. The constitution gives a responsibility to the secretary of states. But we also saw yesterday was the fact that people were reacting to the long lines in early voting because we have so many new voters entering the process and that is the one bright spot it wont hold onto. We sought new voters showing up yesterday. Showing up over the process of this election. And those new voters they strained the system. But the point of having leadership is that you look at whats happening and you scale to meet the moment. For africanamerican voters who comprise more than 32 of the voting population in the state, they knew that they were going to be voting in communities where they would be least likely to be resourced. The most likely to be pushed out of the system because of faults we found existed in the databases. My father for instance, is trying to track his ballot. He didnt exist that turns out they put in the wrong birthdate for him. I had to get a lawyer to help me figure it out. My absentee ballot arrived, but the return envelope was sealed shut and i couldnt open it so had to vote in person. We have normalized us africanamerican communities of color. Import communities have normalized the maltreatment we receive in casting a vote. That should not happen in a democracy but we often forget access to that democracy did not become real until 68 or 1970. Or having a much shorter period of axis the maid had of malfeasance. The living memory of that mouthpieces continues to have a spur paired its lowered our expectations of what we deserve. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so i guess in thinking about that im wondering what your messages for what the georgia primary revealed about what Voter Suppression could look like across the country in 2020 and voter depression. So Voter Suppression is three things. The bottom line is is an eligible voter denied access to the right to vote. The three ways it happens as you register pursuant my dog is joining us. Stomach he is ask upset about as well. The United States is one that has delegated to 50 different states. The authority to create their own version of democracy. The rules differ from state to state. Thats one reason Voter Suppression is so insidious and pervasive. It looks different depending on where you are. We know for example the challenges i spoke of with secretaries of state yesterday at the same time having our election in georgia South Carolina had their election as did nevada and they both experienced challenges we know that around the country Voter Suppression is live and well. Verify action create a second i have a Second Organization fair fight 2020 which is a political organizations this targeted 18 battleground states in the 2020 election were we know so vote on trend some version of Voter Suppression will come to fruition pretty sought in wisconsin with the Republican Legislature in the midst of the pandemic forced voters to go and stand in line, and long lines for the shut down hundreds of precincts and refused to allow the normal use of absentee about balance. But this critics for 2020 for the november election to scale up the resources more people are energized, more people are terrified of more people to show up. We also have to put guardrails on the system so that no bad actor like a bad secretary of state has the authority to deny access to the right to vote to anybody whos eligible the reality is we want people to be aware there is a way through this i also wonder, speaking directly to voters, what do you say to somebody who is concerned may be doesnt have confidence that their vote will count in november. When the reading headlines that the kind of headlines coming out of georgia today. Voter suppression is the most effective in blocking access to right to vote its the most minutes worth trying. But i decided to focus my my vision on Voter Suppression i spent 11 years in the legislature watching people tell me that their votes did not count. It did not matter if they participated. They were denied thats one of the states that refuses to band medicaid. Theyre losing access to reproductive choice because they outlaw abortion after certain period of time. They are facing environmental challenges that are being completely ignored by those in charge. Happening across the country with the twoyear we saw glimpses of whats possible and what we have to hold two was more important to me as we saw in 2018. I did not become governor but we tripled the turnout of latino voters and american voters. We increase participation by one had a 39 . We increase black participation by 40 . The increased white participation by the First Time Since bill clinton ran in georgia. And those metrics, those number numbers, they prove that people still have hope. People still once more. It is uncommon upon those of us who stand for office or those who care about democracy. We have the affirmative obligation to go to those it will work. We should say if you try it and all will be well for that is the unfortunate message people took from the 2008 election which is why in 2010 we were shellacked in setback by a decade. Our responsibility is to say its going to work its going to take time its going to take our affirmative engagement every single time theyre willing to break the machinery of democracy to do so. And our responsibility, those who are in elected office or those who just want to believe in america, our affirmative obligation is to acknowledge those who are depressed, suppressed and legitimately being pushed out of the system to tell them how they can get back in and carve a path as often as we can. So yeah. Yeah. I think obviously adding to that the remarkable expansion you were able to accomplish in 2018 even though you said you did not become i didnt say you lost you did not concede. Expanding an electorate, balancing that with the fact we are in the midst of a pandemic. There being disproportionately what do you say to americans about how they can participate safely in our democracy this fall . Particularly vulnerable population like the elderly and africanamerican voter . I would add to this and i know you mean this parade the native American Population we watch without him to the Navajo Nation which now has the highest rates of covid and death despite the population is the percentages as a nation. We know it is happening in communities of color. Especially those that have the coexisting, and only their people of color their impoverished. Or they are working poor. The challenge is that the only way we get through recover from the pandemic and its effect is a devastating Public Health crisis, the economic collapse, and the lack of faith in our systems because we watched our leaders lie to us about what is happening. The fact we had to illini a man for telling us the truth and dr. Fauci at 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 his through voting is to elect new leadership and new representation. Representation sees us and listens to us. It is of the responsibility each of us hold to not give in to the press of evil. 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. In fact when you accelerate because of your deliberate in action. That is what were watching happen. I believe the solution is twofold. Number one, winning the u. S. Senate to pass the heroes act. Heroes act will allocate 3. 6 billion to our elections across the country. That 3. 6 billion will pay for vote by mail. We are going to hear all the stories wife vote by mail is fraudulent, with fraud. The only fraud weve heard recently with mailin ballots is the fact that donald trumps, his press secretary, the two of them have been using false addresses and that may be an issue of fraud. But other than that it is a not an issue. We know the Heritage Institute has said they have been able to have 1300 cases of been really generous thats 2000 of voter fraud of any kind. That is out of 625 million votes cast. And so we know voter fraud is not real we know Voter Suppression is. Being able to vote by mail can be made real if we have the heroes act in those dollars. Thirtyfour states already have no excuse absentee ballot. But as we saw in georgia yesterday having the right to do something doesnt mean it actually works out. The resources necessary to scale up the volume of voters for going to likely heavenly pandemic requires early investment. Thats why the heroes act needs to pass