One familys story with an encounter with police in washington dc, followed by a panel with the citys police chief. Most people get defensive if they feel you are being offenses. Inng very respectful encounters and requested, if it is not a crisis or a dangerous situation, request a versus demand, those things change the dynamic. Announcer watch the issues spotlight at 8 00 eastern on cspan and cspan. Org. That cspan. Org, you can watch Public Affairs and political programming any time at your convenience on your desktop, laptop or mobile device. Go to the homepage cspan. Org and click on the Video Library search bar. You can type in the name of a speaker, sponsor of a bill, or event topic. Review the list results, and click on the program you would like to watch or refine with many search tools. You are looking for current programs and a want to search the library, the homepage has current programs ready for immediate viewing, like todays washington journal or the events we covered the day. Cspan. Org is a Public Service of your cable or service provider. If you are a watcher, check it out. On tuesday, faith and Community Leaders held a press briefing to launch a nationwide Voter Engagement program. We vote. Led together the groups involved plan to register voters and assist getting people to the polls. This is about 35 minutes. Ok, well welcome everyone. Thank you for joining us. Because thereere is too Much Division in our country. We are being divided across race, geography and across religion. We are here today as religious leaders to watch a history of voting effort called launch our historic voting effort called together we vote. A are partnered with pico and multiphasic Voter Education turnout effort focused on racial justice. Voter education turnout effort focused on racial justice. We will talk about all of the conversation with voters across the country. We are going to be talking to over one million voters in conversations with people who have been regularly bypassed by conventions and parties and candidates. We be turning out hundreds of thousands of voters in key swing states including florida,olorado, ohio, indiana pennsylvania. We want to lay the groundwork for policy change around mass incarceration and gun violence. Raising benefits for the families and keeping immigrant families together. Today you will hear from speakers from Pico National Network, the National Latina evangelical coalition, the 11th episcopal district of ame church in florida, the ohio baptist state convention, religious Action Center of reform judaism, United Church of christ, sojourners bread for the , world. You can follow the conversation hashtag g the and we woulde, like you to know there is a callin option, and that will be listened only to respond, respond to email requests. Id like to begin. We have a range of speakers today and coming from all of the all over the country. I would like to start with Bishop Royster who serves as pico National Director political director. [applause] dwayne good afternoon. As you heard, my name is bishop duane royster. Im the political director of the Pico National Network ecosystem providing bishop international. We have gathered today to lay out a plan for people of faith to engage in how they want to see this country develop in the years to come. The Pico National Network is a network of 45 federations in 21 states made up of over 40 different religious traditions and over 200 cities and towns representing over 2 million families of africanamericans, latinos, Asian Pacific islander, white, and native american descent. We believe that every person of faith should exercise their right to vote as an act of faith in cocreating with the divine the beloved community that we all desire here on earth. As much as such, the Pico National Network and allies will engage in the together we Vote Campaign to do the following. We are going to talk to 1 million voters, in particular those voters that have been wiln to do the following. To onegoing to talk million voters, in particular, are considered not as relevant, those low propensity voters, where we know as we did the work in 2014, if people reach out to them, they will come and vote. Ourill train volunteers in organization to go and do the work of knocking on doors, having phone conversations, supermarkets, at in their streets, in their congregations, making sure they vote. E will be working in 19 states and some of the key states in ohio, we are going to talk to 150,000 people. In florida, we are going to talk to 50,000 people. In pennsylvania, we will talk to 50,000 people. In colorado, we will talk to 10,000 people. We are laying out a framework, a Public Policy framework, so in 2017, these voters whom we are talking with now will continue to engage at the local, state, and National Level on issues like aid family leave. In endinggage predatory payday lending. Close privately run immigrant Detention Centers that Holding Families and separating families in this country. And they will work by dollars we seek to Work Together to unify the faith voice, to speak for this country in a way that builds us into a place where all can not just barely survived, but everyone can thrive. Thank you very much. [applause] i would like to introduce blackmon. Raci [applause] i find mylackmon responsibility to be twofold and to let you know that the united is not a christ partisan organization, but we care about the people on the margins of society. We believe we have a theological mandate, it is a biblical mandate to care for the least of these, the left out of these, and to that extent, we must vote our conscience, not necessarily along political lines, for we are made up of republicans and democrats and independents, but voting along moral lines, voting about issues that will have a tremendous impact on those who are marginalized in our society. I also stand before you today on behalf of the moral movement of revival across this region, led by dr. William barber, who many of you sought the Democratic National convention a few days pastor andso the. Yself from nuns on the bus we are going out to many states including north carolina, georgia, alabama, texas, ohio, pennsylvania, massachusetts, south carolina, wisconsin, missouri, washington, d. C. , tennessee, indiana, new mexico, kentucky, virginia. Tonight we will be in boston and the message is clear. We are coming to reclaim the biblical their death, to snatch jaws of capitalism and partisanship and square it back where jesus, that palestinian jail we follow for people who are marginalized at the center, we are suggesting the theological mandate that those of us who follow jesus have is we must care for the hungry, we must care for those who do not have shelter, we must care for those that others turned their backs on. That must be the center of our narrative in everything we do, from the polls to the pulpit to the pews must line up on this accord. And we are suggesting that we must have a Linguistic Liberation that separates separates capitalistic ideals from language that appears to be faithful. We are suggesting that you are not right religiously based on political parties, but you are by following the mandates of scripture. We are suggesting that you cannot be faithful to the word without being faithful to those that the lord came to serve. Thank you. [applause] now let me welcome pastor Michael Harrison to talk about the amazing work he is doing in ohio. Reverend harrison thank you. I have been privileged to lead a group of faithbased organizations and workers. This year, and our response to the attack on voters rights, it it is our goal to register over 200 thousand people in the state of ohio, and as of today, we have already registered 135,000. But registering them is not enough. We are going to turn them out to the polls this fall and beyond. It is our plan to knock on every voters door at least three times, but were not going to stop there. We are going to send each and every one of them an application for early voting and not only that, but we are going to call them several times as well as text them. We are going to chase every new registered voter to the polls. In total, we are going to have over 125,000 conversations with new voters as well as those of low propensity to vote this fall. We will knock on over 500,000 doors and these new voters will be registered. These 200,000 voters are going to decide the election in ohio this fall because people cannot be denied their voice. We have been running programs to register and turn out voters ever since 2007 and we will continue to do so beyond 2016. This is not just one election, its about people of faith, regular, everyday people having the power to control and lead in their own communities. We cannot take elections off. We cannot be silent. When the time comes, we must vote because there is an attack that has been launched against voters rights, and it is our responsibility to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to express themselves at the ballot box. [applause] director andreollicomstock thank you, pastor harrison. Now i would like to invite jose jr. From the National Latino coalition. Arce good afternoon. Im here representing the National Latino coalition and im an assemblies of god minister. We are here because we wont the latino voice to be heard. Many families have been divided and famies have been deported, but one of the things we want to be heard is that many of these families that have been divided, their kids are citizens and they are coming of age. And they are ready to vote. And we are ready to register them. We are going out into the cities in florida and pennsylvania and we are registering them. We are moving in all these major cities and we have been mobilizing the congregations right after the Worship Services and registering all the families and we are doing it now in the d. C. Metro area and we are starting to do this in all the other major cities. One of the things we want everyone to understand is that we want everyones voice to be heard. We want our people to be heard and we want our families to be kept together. And so the organization is not standing still, we are moving because family comes first. So we are here standing on the gap, ready to get our voice heard and get the vote out. Thank you. [applause] director andreollicomstock thank you. Now i would like to invite bishop adam j. Richardson jr. From florida. Im herechardson representing the ame church, celebrating 200 years this year of Civic Engagement beginning with our founder, whose lapel pin i show here today, represented on the forever staff. From richard l into right now, Civic Engagement has been what we are about. Aligned withe are faith in florida and will take the lead in coordinating early voting that would deliver 100,000 africanamerican voters in nine counties. Through the engagement of 725 churches across denominational lines. We will account are put patient through individual churches, commitment cards from voters of each congregation, and not by the congregations that sign up. The counties will consist of miamidade, broward, hillsboro, duval, orange, seminole, leon, osceola and st. Lucie. , faith in florida has a formal partnership with agreement with the ame church and the 11th district in florida, one of the strong africanamerican denominations in the state. A minimum of 60 congregations in 69 cities, each with a trained volunteer, will reach out on the phones, knocking on doors, to low propensity africanamerican voters in precincts close to their congregational sites. The program will engage 50,000 conversations in the seven aforementioned counties. Our goal is to get each congregation to 100 voting congregations by the november election day. Faith in florida will partner with local organizations to educate africanamerican and latino electorate about the powers of the state attorney, concretely that they significantly impact their most pressing racial criminal justice issues. Together the organizations will contact 45,000 voters, knocking on doors and ringing telephones, moving 10 of the likely turnout based on an average turnout in countywide races during previous president ial election years. In addition to the program, this partnership will pay for newspaper and radio ads to lift up the importance of the state attorneys race and organize one candidate for him to further lift the profile of these elections. And so we are on the case, florida is on the case. Florida is on the case. [applause] director andreollicomstock thank you. I would like to now invite Barbara Weinstein who will be talking to us from the religious Action Center of reform judaism. [applause] einstein good afternoon. Im here on behalf of the religious Action Center and the commission on social action of reform judaism. We are the Largest Organization in north American Jewish life and like all my friends and colleagues gathered here this afternoon, we have a deep and abiding belief in the holiness of every individual and an understanding of the power and strength that exists when we come together as individuals and we form a community. We know as well that there has been a systematic silencing of individual and communal voices at the ballot box in the form of closed polling stations, limitations on early voting, and onerous voter id law. That brings us tremendous pain as it does everyone here today. But we feel a particularly acute form of that pain because we know that the Voting Rights act itself was drafted in large part in our Historic Building here in washington dc and we take tremendous pride in that history. But our commitment to Voting Rights is not something thats just a historic one. Its something we engage in today with the meaning and the deep meaning and deep purpose. And so later this month we are proudly launching a program which in hebrew means we are standing together. We are standing together in a nonpartisan voter registration, Voter Engagement and Voter Protection initiative that will carry us from august all the way through election day. And we are launching this later this month in north carolina, which has been in so many ways on the front lines when it comes to voter issues that have of lifted communities across the that have afflicted communities across the country. We are doing it as well as a community in partnership with other communities, many of which are here today, with the naacp, with pico, with the Lawyers Committee, and were doing that because were reminded, do not separate yourselves from the community. We chose that word because it is the word that appears in a portion of the bible where moses gathered the community together. All members of the community, young and old, rich and poor, people of different classes in status and skin color, everyone had a place within the community. Everyone today must have a place in our National Community when it comes to the right to vote. Those are fundamental values that we have as jews, as people of faith, and as americans, and we are proud to be part of this initiative today. Thank you very much. [applause] director andreollicomstock thank you. Next we have Lisa Sharon Harper from sojourners. Ms. Harper reverend harper in matthew 25, jesus said, what you did to the least of these, you have done to me. The least of these, this was called the quartet of the vulnerable. This included the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the immigrant. Why would jesus care about the least of these . Jesus cares because the least of these are made in the image of god, just like any other human being within our borders or in our world. Those made in the image of god are called by god and created by god with the capacity, according to the scriptures, to exercise dominion, to exercise stewardship over our world. But Voter Suppression laws and policies negate and deny human beings their divine call and right to exercise stewardship. Now, the aclu reported in january this year that 10 states will be putting into practice this year suppression laws in 2016. The Fourth Circuit just as last just this last month declared that north carolinas suppression law was unconstitutional because it targeted the vulnerable. It targets the least of these. For other states had their voter four other states had their Voter Suppression law struck down in july. Yet we see that new tactics are being borne by locations and districts all over the country. Just today or yesterday, the New York Times reported that in different districts, Police Officers are now being used in order to intimidate voters and challenge their capacity to vote. We say that they are made in the image of god, and if they are citizens, they have the right to vote. And so, sojourners is launching the witness the vote Voter Suppression project. Is calling on churches and faith communities to show up at the polls on election day and especially we are targeting five specific states. Ohio, florida, pennsylvania, north carolina, and michigan. These a