Transcripts For CSPAN3 National Urban League Voting Rights R

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