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Will it happen again in November?
We are witnessing #VoterSuppression tactics disenfranchise voters.
These attacks on voting rights have evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether it’s discrediting Vote By Mail, Poll Closures, Voter Purges, or Delayed Registrations, the end goal of #VoterSuppression is to silence your right to vote.
In 2018 Brian Kemp successfully suppressed hundreds of thousands of votes to become the governor of Georgia, beating out Stacey Abrams. Suppressed: The #FightToVote uncovers the insidious voter suppression tactics, Kemp and politicians, all across the country use to stay in power.
From poll closures to voter purges, these voter suppression tactics targeted majority African-American communities. That’s what racism looks like.
Our basic rights are at stake, and in 2020 and beyond we need to #FightToVote. Share this film with your family and friends. Help us get to 2,020 screenings before the 2020 election by signing up for a home watch party, or to host a screening in your community, school, or faith community.
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:04
how will i be able to vote
00:06
without putting my life in danger the
00:09
black lives matter actions make voting
00:11
more important than ever
00:14
will this health crisis become a
00:15
constitutional crisis
00:18
am i going to be able to vote in
00:28
november
00:30
we have a historic decision today
00:33
striking down a key part of the voting
00:35
rights act a civil rights law passed
00:36
back in 1965.
00:38
the supreme court essentially said
00:40
racism is over
00:42
in these communities don’t need to
00:44
pre-clear these changes
00:46
anymore this decision leaves virtually
00:48
unprotected
00:49
minority voters in communities all over
00:51
this country it let the dogs out
00:53
it led these racially discriminatory
00:57
voting laws
00:58
to just run wild within hours of the
01:01
voting rights act being gutted
01:03
texas had a new strict photo id law
01:06
and within days alabama announced its
01:09
own repressive voter i d
01:11
law we are witnessing a
01:15
tidal wave of voter suppression around
01:17
the country
01:20
two hundred thousand more people would
01:23
have voted in wisconsin
01:24
if not for their strict voter id law
01:27
voter purges have become rampant since
01:30
the 2016 election
01:31
states have removed almost 17 million
01:34
voters nationwide
01:37
you describe georgia as the epicenter of
01:40
the current voter suppression battle
01:42
what has earned georgia that distinction
01:46
george’s tight race for governor is
01:48
getting national attention brian kemp is
01:50
not only the republican gubernatorial
01:52
nominee he’s george’s secretary of state
01:54
stacey abrams looking to make history by
01:56
becoming the nation’s first
01:58
female african-american governor
02:00
volunteers who are picking up phones and
02:02
knocking on doors across the state
02:03
come in and register to vote we are very
02:06
excited to register as many
02:08
people as we possibly can what do we
02:10
want
02:12
when do we want it today i come
02:15
as one but i stand as ten
02:20
thousand
02:25
pull back that veneer
02:28
[Applause]
02:32
and you see something really rotten
02:35
happening
02:38
there’s almost like termites coming in
02:41
they’re in the wood they’re eating the
02:43
wood away and you don’t even realize
02:45
your house is getting ready to collapse
02:46
until it’s almost too late
02:48
we’ve got to understand this isn’t a
02:50
clan cross burning
02:52
this stuff is very bureaucratic it’s
02:54
very mundane
02:55
it’s very routine but
02:58
it is lethal
03:07
[Music]
03:12
my name is bobby jenkins i live in
03:15
cuthbert
03:16
georgia the county is randolph county
03:19
i spent about 30 almost 35 years in
03:22
education
03:23
i’m a superintendent of schools my name
03:26
is loretta brown
03:27
i live in morgan georgia and i grew up
03:31
in randolph county
03:32
i am the state advisor for the georgia
03:35
naacp youth and college division
03:38
my name is louis brooks i live in
03:42
thompson georgioson county and i’ve been
03:45
living here
03:46
my whole 89 years except the two years i
03:49
spent in service
03:50
in korea in 19
03:54
i believe it was 55 or 56.
03:58
that’s when they started to letting
04:00
black people
04:06
it was tough they asked me all kind of
04:08
questions
04:09
they tried to keep me from rushing i
04:12
passed the test once i got my voter
04:16
right
04:16
i decided i wasn’t gonna let anything
04:19
stop me from holding
04:20
[Music]
04:26
because i used to walk
04:29
you go up the street in across the
04:32
next street over there i’d walk over
04:34
there and walk back and go
04:37
and i didn’t miss the voting except
04:40
when they close the pole i’m a citizen
04:43
it’s my right to vote and speak my
04:46
opinion
04:54
i saw this ad saying that there was a
04:56
proposal to close seven of the nine
04:59
precincts in randolph county i said what
05:03
then they put it in the papers that they
05:05
were closing
05:06
polls costing them too much money first
05:10
of all randolph is a poor county
05:12
just to give you an example of what it
05:13
would mean as a community benevolence a
05:16
little north of town
05:18
had that precinct been closed some of
05:21
those individuals would have to go 30
05:23
miles
05:24
round trip in order to vote it would
05:27
have been a terrible hardship on our
05:29
poor
05:30
on our elderly and on those who are
05:31
least able to afford
05:33
transportation now i got disabled and i
05:37
couldn’t do no driving
05:38
i know i couldn’t afford to go that far
05:40
to vote
05:42
this was on the black neighborhood it
05:44
made me feel like they were closing down
05:47
to keep the black people from voting
05:49
called most black
05:51
they own the people one fight voting
05:52
place everybody come out here in the
05:55
black said and go clean over there to
05:56
the white section to vote
05:58
we’re human and we have our rights to
06:01
vote just like anybody else voters in
06:06
randolph county georgia are
06:07
outraged randolph county residents
06:09
expressed their concerns with the board
06:11
of elections
06:12
our citizens turned out in full force
06:16
they were behind us 100 trying to keep
06:19
those polling places open
06:21
convenience of the voter you all are not
06:24
considering that
06:26
at all there’s no disenfranchisement for
06:29
the
06:29
african-americans i went to the meeting
06:32
found out that they were trying to close
06:35
seven
06:35
of the precincts got to stand up you
06:39
cannot allow this to continue
06:40
they gave a couple of reasons saying
06:43
that would save money
06:55
the other one was that several of the
06:57
polling places
06:59
were not ada compliant but the thing
07:01
that was so ironic is we voted that way
07:04
in may you know they weren’t any worse
07:06
november than they were in may
07:08
it will be impossible for rural voters
07:10
without vehicles to vote
07:12
on election day it will be impossible
07:15
for them
07:16
they will have to walk three and a half
07:18
hours just to get from one of these
07:19
polling places
07:20
to cuthbert and shellman we
07:24
did petition to keep it open pressure
07:27
from
07:27
the residents civil rights organization
07:30
speaking up speaking out
07:32
[Applause]
07:34
[Music]
07:39
they call the meeting to order and they
07:42
only had one
07:44
motion
07:49
they voted to keep them open
07:51
[Applause]
07:54
the news about what was happening here
07:55
in randolph county went worldwide
07:57
the incident that we experienced through
07:59
the spotlight on everything else
08:02
that had been going on you know we find
08:05
out
08:05
that in the state of georgia there were
08:08
two over 200
08:09
other polling places had been closed
08:14
if you move a pole four miles it is the
08:18
equivalent
08:19
of a 20 drop in black voter turnout
08:23
that’s what shutting down these poles
08:45
with two months to go the race is
08:47
heating up in georgia stacy abrams
08:49
campaign feel they have the momentum
08:51
behind them
08:51
and many of the posts we’ve seen so far
08:53
support that you know the democrats are
08:55
working hard
08:56
registering all these minority voters if
08:58
they can do that
08:59
they can win these elections in november
09:02
there’s no law
09:03
in georgia that requires the secretary
09:06
of state
09:07
to process voter registration forms on a
09:10
particular timeline
09:11
kemp withheld putting the names of
09:14
thousands
09:14
on the voter registration list until
09:17
after the election
09:19
80 percent were african americans
09:21
latinos
09:22
and asian americans
09:30
this is fulton county
09:31
[Music]
09:34
linda marshall is my name
09:38
[Music]
09:40
most of my professional career
09:43
has been in public service of one kind
09:46
or another as a teacher
09:47
as a government worker
09:51
i moved here in august of this year
09:54
but because of my emphasis on always
09:58
being registered
09:59
and always having the ability to vote i
10:02
did that almost
10:03
immediately when i got here of course i
10:06
also knew the importance of the
10:09
upcoming election and i wanted to be
10:12
a part of that
10:17
i got history and closer and closer to
10:20
the election
10:21
and i was getting a little bit concerned
10:23
so i called the
10:25
secretary of state’s office my name is
10:28
not on the roll they can’t tell me where
10:30
it is
10:32
so all of that paperwork that i sent in
10:36
i don’t know where it is
10:38
[Music]
10:40
i’m 65 and for the first time i did not
10:44
get a chance to vote
10:46
in a very close election
10:50
of historic importance and proportion
10:55
welcome to georgia
11:04
[Music]
11:12
the midterm election in georgia is only
11:14
29 days away
11:20
civil rights leaders say kemp is
11:22
illegally removing people from georgia’s
11:24
voters list republican brian kemp has
11:26
already gotten the backing of our
11:28
current president
11:29
thousands of purged from georgia’s
11:31
voters
11:32
voting goals no idea
11:38
over who’s been removed there has been
11:41
instance after instance of unlawful
11:44
voter purging
11:45
states are removing voters many of whom
11:48
have actually been found to have been
11:50
eligible but were unlawfully removed
11:52
from the rolls
11:59
i received the purge notice
12:03
so i open it up and i read the first
12:06
sentence
12:09
i along with 380 000
12:12
georgians receive the same notice that’s
12:15
an especially pernicious way to prevent
12:18
people from voting
12:19
because once you register to vote you
12:21
would think
12:22
that you should be able to remain on the
12:24
rolls and once you’re removed from the
12:26
rolls
12:26
you cannot vote
12:29
[Music]
12:37
i went out and got the mail and there
12:39
were two letters in there they looked
12:40
official
12:41
you’re hereby notified that the city of
12:43
thunderbolt has challenged your right to
12:44
vote
12:45
the city of thunderbolt states that you
12:47
no longer reside within the municipality
12:50
my license is valid my address is valid
12:52
i own this home
12:54
why are you questioning my right to vote
13:07
you know the purges they’ve been going
13:09
on for
13:10
decades maybe over a century in this
13:13
state
13:16
if you haven’t voted in the last few
13:18
elections they’ll purge you
13:20
as if you must not be in the state
13:22
anymore
13:25
if you move within the same county
13:27
they’ll purge you
13:28
assuming you’re not living in georgia
13:30
anymore
13:31
if you don’t return a postcard from the
13:33
secretary of state
13:35
they’ll purge you because to them it
13:37
means you’re not a resident at this
13:39
address
13:40
all of these tactics specifically and
13:43
disproportionately
13:44
target people of color poor people the
13:47
elderly
13:48
all of whom tend to vote for democrats
13:51
brian kemp is notorious for erasing the
13:54
polls and purging people right before
13:56
the election deadline
13:59
you have a candidate at the top of the
14:03
ticket
14:04
who is responsible for maintaining the
14:07
integrity of the election he needed to
14:09
have his hands on the levers
14:11
you have an umpire who is also playing
14:15
in the game
14:31
less than 20 days away from the midterms
14:33
now the race for georgia’s governorship
14:36
is a toss-up literally is a dead heat
14:38
this governor’s race is already won for
14:40
the history books but it’s also seeing
14:42
record numbers of requests for absentee
14:44
ballots especially from african-american
14:46
voters
14:46
at a time where we’re seeing roughly
14:48
almost half of the people who’ve turned
14:50
into absentee ballot
14:51
are people of color that’s a really
14:53
really good sign for stacey abrams
15:00
we caught them off guard by running such
15:02
a large scale
15:04
program and mailed 1.6 million african
15:07
americans an absentee ballot in
15:08
application
15:09
in this midterm election the absentee
15:12
ballot requests are even
15:13
outperforming presidential years so that
15:15
is that is startling and eye-popping and
15:17
something that we need to dig in on
15:19
to see what’s going on there
15:30
my name is norman broderick i’m in
15:32
potter springs georgia
15:34
cobb county i did 24 years in the
15:37
military
15:38
deployed to iraq twice bosnia
15:42
saudi arabia i voted absentee before
15:44
when i was deployed
15:46
when i was in rank the first time i
15:47
voted absentee and when i was in iraq
15:49
the second time i voted absentee
15:51
the absentee ballot is a very important
15:53
tool that exists
15:54
to allow people not only just the
15:56
military but anybody who happens to be
15:58
away
15:59
from their voting station to be able to
16:01
cast their vote
16:03
[Music]
16:07
my name is peggy shu i’m from johns
16:09
creek georgia
16:10
i left georgia for dc in the beginning
16:14
of october
16:15
and before i left i mailed out my
16:17
absentee ballot application
16:19
so that our registrar would send an
16:21
absolute ballot to my new dc address
16:23
i work at a u.s army central which is
16:26
located at shaw air force base
16:28
in sumter south carolina i’m away from
16:31
home during the week
16:32
i knew i wasn’t going to be able to get
16:33
back to georgia to vote i could only do
16:35
this absentee
16:36
i filled out everything i was supposed
16:38
to fill out i
16:39
sent their documents in i got
16:41
confirmation that it was received
16:43
and to my surprise i did not receive
16:47
my absentee ballot i checked my mailbox
16:50
every day
16:51
it was like nearing the end of the month
16:53
um and so i started calling the voter
16:54
protection hotline i called my registrar
16:57
i sent emails and it was really really
16:59
getting close to the election date
17:01
and i just i never received my ballot
17:02
the election day came
17:04
and went and i wasn’t able to vote in
17:06
the end
17:11
when i contacted my wife and asked her
17:13
about it
17:15
i think it was a couple of days before
17:17
the election it came here
17:19
and i tried contacting the
17:22
georgia elections board i was told they
17:25
did receive my absentee ballot request
17:27
everything was filled out correctly but
17:29
that they mailed it to the wrong address
17:31
she admit that yes they did mess up it
17:33
was their fault
17:34
but there was nothing i could do about
17:35
it it’s too late it’s over with and my
17:38
vote will not be counted
17:39
during the selection it was probably one
17:42
of the most frustrating things i’ve ever
17:44
experienced
17:44
after having spent you know my entire
17:46
college career very invested in the
17:47
political process
17:49
it was i don’t know like a punch to the
17:51
god
17:53
it still pisses me off to this day being
17:56
in baghdad
17:57
voting absentee was
18:00
easier than me and four hours away
18:02
trying to vote absentee
18:03
in south carolina i took to facebook
18:07
and like the millennial activist that i
18:09
am i recounted my experience in a
18:11
facebook post
18:12
i wrote this is what happened i wasn’t
18:14
able to vote and if you had a similar
18:16
experience
18:17
let me know and my friend from high
18:19
school she reached out to me and she
18:20
said
18:20
i also had struggles trying to get my
18:22
ballot in voting absentee
18:25
so i submitted an absentee ballot it
18:28
came
18:28
two days right before election day over
18:31
the course of 48 hours we had
18:33
40 people so many people in our
18:35
immediate facebook circle
18:37
knew somebody who had a similar
18:38
experience to us people have requested
18:41
it like far in advance some people just
18:42
didn’t get their vote in
18:43
that was when we really realized that
18:45
this was not an isolated incident
18:47
it was a much bigger issue and a much
18:50
more
18:50
deeper rooted sort of phenomenon that
18:52
was going on statewide i
18:54
didn’t speak with the board of elections
18:56
and he just dismissed it as like a
18:57
hiccup and he’s like oh like no you
18:59
don’t really know what you’re talking
19:00
about
19:01
40 cases not really a hiccup it’s more
19:03
of like a wake-up call
19:04
today we’ve worked to get answers about
19:06
the claim that thousands of voters never
19:08
got the absentee ballots they requested
19:25
the race between abrams and kemp is
19:26
literally neck and neck their fate
19:28
is now in the hands of voters the day is
19:31
finally upon us
19:32
the midterm elections are happening
19:33
voters head to the polls in one of the
19:35
most intensely fought midterm elections
19:38
the race for georgia’s governorship is a
19:40
toss-up i live in the south i’m always
19:42
worried about election day
19:43
great morning and go vote oh yeah go
19:45
vote today
19:51
voting started here in georgia this
19:53
morning and if you think hitting the
19:54
polls early will keep you from getting
19:56
stuck
19:56
on long lines think again
20:18
the first thing i saw was just people
20:21
everywhere
20:22
so we stood there for a while without
20:25
moving
20:26
and then we would inch up
20:29
and then we wouldn’t move
20:33
we had a lot of people with children
20:36
there
20:36
pregnant mothers elderly people some
20:39
people have medical issues
20:44
i took my son to school that morning and
20:47
then i went to vote at ferguson
20:48
elementary
20:49
where i vote every election
20:52
just keeps getting home the line was so
20:55
long
20:57
through the school and wrapped around
20:59
the building
21:00
the lines was crazy everywhere all over
21:02
the county
21:04
it was real long i was in line for two
21:06
hours
21:09
i got to the door that’s when they was
21:12
checking your id before you go in
21:14
and she couldn’t find my name she
21:16
directed me to go downtown when that
21:19
and i was like i’m not gonna vote and it
21:21
was this older lady she came over and
21:23
she like held my hand and was like
21:25
please go do it we need this and i
21:28
looked in her eyes and said i will
21:31
[Music]
21:34
be about eight or nine we started
21:36
getting the calls about the long
21:38
lines long lines at the polling stations
21:43
lead to low voter turnout the research
21:45
is just crystal clear on that
21:48
everyone in the world knew we were going
21:49
to vote today and in my neighborhood
21:51
there are no power cords all these
21:54
dedicated people
21:55
waiting to vote this is what we call
21:59
voter suppression
22:00
people are like upset and angry i
22:03
started calling
22:04
the secretary of state’s office i was
22:07
either
22:07
hung up on placed on hold they want
22:11
people to go home
22:12
and not vote i ain’t going nowhere
22:15
i’ma be right here the reason they sent
22:18
me
22:19
from ferguson to the downtown gwinnett
22:22
was for the provisional vote
22:24
so i drove 25 minutes and then when i
22:27
got there was crowded in there
22:29
i waited 45 minutes to find out that’s
22:31
not where i needed to be
22:33
she told me that this was the wrong
22:34
place and that i can go back
22:36
to ferguson i had to call back and redo
22:40
my schedule
22:41
so now the voting i only cut on my time
22:45
got all my money
22:50
when we went in filled out all the
22:52
paperwork
22:53
had the id took it up to the lady i had
22:56
mine in my hand
22:58
one hand had hers in the other because
23:00
she’s legally blind
23:02
so we go give it to the lady and she
23:04
goes to scan
23:07
i barbara’s so she looked up at barbara
23:09
she said well miss barbara
23:10
when was the last time you my sister got
23:14
strong
23:14
i’ve been voted since i was 18 years old
23:18
and i’m 82. i was disappointed she was a
23:21
little upset
23:22
um my girl wanted to vote and they were
23:25
trying to keep her from voting
23:28
since i became a citizen i have not
23:30
missed an election
23:31
i showed up and a very nice lady she
23:33
looked at my id and said no you’re not
23:35
registered
23:36
and i said no no wait a second here’s my
23:38
registration card and
23:39
show them that i was registered and they
23:40
said yeah but your name is del rio with
23:43
a space
23:44
but your voter id says del rio one word
23:46
and therefore it doesn’t match
23:48
in the voter registration my name shows
23:50
as
23:51
del rio with a space my id
23:54
is del rio no space that was a non-match
23:58
i said this is not legal and i need to
24:00
be allowed to vote
24:01
after my discussion they said to me this
24:02
time will allow you to vote but it’s a
24:04
little bit like they’re
24:05
doing me a favor the right to vote
24:06
should be something that we should make
24:08
easier rather than more difficult
24:10
latinos and asian americans are six
24:12
times more likely than white georgians
24:14
to be cut from the voter rules because
24:16
of exact match
24:18
and black americans are eight times more
24:20
likely
24:21
to be cut because of exact match i have
24:24
voted in every election all of a sudden
24:26
i’m not there
24:27
controversy surrounds the state’s exact
24:30
match law
24:31
that put the registrations of 53
24:33
thousand voters
24:34
most of them african americans on hold
24:37
because of discrepancies in the way
24:39
their names are spelled in state
24:41
databases
24:42
people of color have names that are a
24:44
little bit less
24:45
typical and that’s where the errors are
24:48
at their highest
24:49
brian kemp knows this
24:52
a group of students will not have their
24:53
voices heard at the polls at least not
24:55
in georgia
24:56
they’re turning a bunch of students away
24:58
over here we’re showing up
25:00
here in at the booker t washington
25:01
location and their names were not on the
25:04
actual
25:12
the student was role turned away i
25:15
talked to
25:16
over 50 students that morning
25:20
first they told me i was at the wrong
25:22
polling station they said you’re uh you
25:24
didn’t get registered
25:25
what do you mean there was only about
25:27
like what four
25:28
voting valley booths didn’t process my
25:30
registration my registration to go
25:32
through i walked back to my door and
25:33
said i guess i just won’t vote
25:35
just before i went to vote i had been in
25:37
an african-american history class
25:39
where we were actually talking about
25:41
voter suppression you know about
25:43
what was it like for people that were
25:44
going to vote i filled out a little slip
25:46
of paper gave it to the
25:48
poll workers they looked up at me and
25:50
said it’s coming up in
25:52
our system as though you’re not a
25:54
citizen of the united states
25:56
i just sort of looked at them like they
25:58
had two heads like
26:00
i’m sorry i was born in new york what
26:02
when i got to the front of the line they
26:04
informed me that i was registered to
26:06
vote but not
26:07
in doherty county they were telling me
26:09
that i was registered back home in
26:10
winter robins where i was from and i’ve
26:11
never voted there i’ve never even been
26:13
registered there
26:14
the thing was that i had brought proof
26:17
that i was a u.s citizen i had with me
26:18
my driver’s license
26:20
my passport card and my emory student id
26:23
but they would
26:24
not look at the passport card whatsoever
26:26
to prove that i was a citizen
26:28
i walked out crying what i learned in
26:31
history class
26:32
just hours before this happened to me in
26:35
2018.
26:36
i had been through and participated in
26:39
voter registration drive
26:40
on campus within the community it was
26:42
just like wow after all of this
26:44
i’m not going to be able to vote myself
26:46
like when i was growing up
26:47
voting was a thing it was an event it’s
26:49
a little me is trailing behind my
26:50
parents watching them vote
26:52
my parents would take me to the voting
26:53
polls every time when i was little
26:55
i would go in and i would help them fill
26:57
out the bubbles i get a chance
26:59
to vote and then you get there and the
27:01
experience is just terrible
27:02
and you have to call your mom and be
27:04
like why is it so hard you never told me
27:06
to be
27:07
this hard this was huge for us
27:10
because stacey abrams was actually a
27:12
spelman alum
27:13
history would have been made and it
27:14
would have been made by my spelman
27:16
sister
27:17
if there is no one who gets to 50
27:19
tonight robin there will be a runoff in
27:21
december
27:22
we’ll find out as the day and evening
27:24
goes on
27:25
voter protection hotline how can i help
27:27
you are they letting you know
27:31
all people who can’t vote there’s young
27:33
people who can’t vote there’s people in
27:34
every county who can’t vote it just
27:36
created this intense fog of confusion
27:39
across the state
27:48
in here for three hours four or five
27:50
hour wait five hours
27:52
this is way way too long for us to stay
27:54
uh and vote how long have you waited in
27:55
line here
27:56
about three and a half hours have you
27:58
decided you can’t stand
27:59
you can’t take it anymore are you gonna
28:00
go home i’m heard not i’ll be back i got
28:03
to go take some medicine
28:06
it was really good the lines weren’t too
28:08
long and everyone was super helpful
28:10
we don’t hardly ever have to wait here
28:12
it’s always a pleasant experience up
28:14
here
28:15
if you have a fixed resource an easy way
28:17
to suppress the vote
28:19
is to just make that resource
28:20
unavailable to the people who you don’t
28:22
want to vote
28:23
and that’s exactly what happened in the
28:25
2018 election here in in the state of
28:28
georgia
28:28
in places like north fulton county which
28:30
are wealthy there were more machines
28:32
than anyone could ever use
28:34
in black neighborhoods there were a
28:35
quarter of the number of machines that
28:37
were needed to service the population
28:39
lots of people left without voting
28:43
it was people just dropping off when it
28:46
became
28:47
two hours three hours fourth hour
28:51
it was very heartbreaking all it takes
28:53
is a little walking away
28:55
at 159 counties to influence an election
28:59
a little here a little there and then in
29:02
a race like this
29:03
which was so close there you go
29:06
[Music]
29:11
all night on twitter a trending topic
29:14
stay in line
29:16
[Music]
29:18
i had to go and pick my son up he had to
29:21
be picked up before
29:22
six i picked my son up and he went with
29:24
me and sat in the car
29:26
and then i went back to ferguson
29:28
elementary
29:29
and by this time the evening crowd is
29:31
there and the line has
29:33
tripled and i was like oh there is no
29:36
way just
29:36
for my one vote it took me like six
29:38
hours
29:40
and i wanted to give them because i
29:42
promised that elderly lady
29:44
outside that i would do it
29:48
five hours so about five hours took me
29:50
to
29:52
vote it sucks the life out of you
29:55
[Music]
29:58
i’d been in people’s homes i’d been in
30:00
their neighborhoods i’d held their hands
30:02
and so to get to election night and to
30:05
start hearing more and more stories of
30:07
voter suppression
30:08
to hear more and more from people who
30:10
were told
30:11
they couldn’t vote or who were turned
30:13
away or had to give up
30:14
because of four-hour lines
30:17
that broke my heart
30:27
[Music]
30:38
[Music]
30:55
republican brian kemp holds a narrow
30:57
lead over democrat stacy abrams the tens
31:00
of thousands of ballots left to be
31:01
counted in this election
31:03
they were counting provisional ballots
31:05
for hours
31:06
provisional ballots are basically
31:08
placebos they’re being given to voters
31:10
to kind of
31:11
shut them up make them go away the next
31:14
day
31:14
i was so excited because they were
31:16
saying that it was a close race
31:18
i was like oh let me make sure it in my
31:19
vote count so i called there the number
31:22
that was on the paper that i got from
31:23
the voting poll
31:25
and she go oh no they counting every
31:28
vote
31:28
you don’t need to call i call my mom
31:31
to double check my mom worked for the
31:33
poll for 20 some years
31:35
and she said no that’s not true you call
31:37
back to make sure the vote count
31:39
and someone else says to the phone and i
31:41
got the same thing
31:42
no you don’t need to call back we’re
31:45
counting all the votes
31:46
we just started discovering so many
31:48
people voting provisionally
31:49
we realized oh you voted provisionally
31:52
so
31:52
you might have to come back here the
31:54
next day and show your id is that
31:55
something you know and
31:56
they’re like no no i already voted like
31:58
i’m good but you have to come back
32:01
within three days with the documentation
32:04
to prove you
32:05
are who you say you are when you have a
32:08
large working-class population that has
32:11
to punch a clock
32:12
that’s really tough you’ve lost pay
32:15
from work trying to vote that’s a poll
32:20
[Music]
32:26
tax
32:28
[Music]
32:30
i wanted to confirm if my vote was
32:33
counted
32:34
or not all right what is your
32:37
last name kimble
32:42
let’s see there was no participation
32:45
um so does that give him credit for
32:48
voting
32:49
my vote was not counted
32:53
it looks like it on he likes
32:57
thank you goodbye
33:11
last night my opponent ended her
33:14
campaign
33:14
the election is over and i’m honored to
33:17
be georgia’s governor elect
33:19
i acknowledge that former secretary of
33:21
state brian kemp
33:23
will be certified as the victor in the
33:25
2018 gubernatorial election
33:27
but to watch an elected official baldly
33:30
pin his hopes for election
33:32
on the suppression of the people’s
33:34
democratic right to vote
33:35
has been appalling this is not a speech
33:38
of concession
33:40
because concession means to acknowledge
33:41
an action is right
33:43
true or proper as a woman of conscience
33:46
and faith
33:47
i cannot concede that
33:50
i don’t want everybody to vote elections
33:53
are not
33:54
won by a majority of people they never
33:56
have been from the beginning of our
33:57
country
33:58
and they are not now as a matter of fact
34:00
our leverage in the elections quite
34:01
candidly goes up
34:03
as the voting populace goes down georgia
34:06
2018
34:07
was a case study of voter suppression
34:10
and as we approach the 2020 elections
34:12
we’re seeing a coordinated effort to
34:14
suppress from lawyers
34:16
millions of dollars and potentially the
34:19
biggest tool of all
34:22
the coronavirus the coronavirus pandemic
34:27
is creating concerns ahead of the 2020
34:29
election with no official end in sight
34:31
to the crisis there are questions about
34:33
whether voters will be able to head to
34:35
the polls to cast their ballot in
34:36
november
34:37
out of a large city of milwaukee we
34:39
almost got 600
34:40
000 people in the city limits they only
34:43
have
34:44
five polling sites open doing a pandemic
34:47
in wisconsin
34:48
today thousands waiting for hours forced
34:50
to choose between protecting their own
34:52
health
34:53
and exercising their right to vote this
34:55
is so wrong this is just so wrong
34:58
stop playing politics with our lives
35:04
the 2020 primary in georgia was like the
35:07
2018 election
35:08
all over again this
35:11
is primary day in georgia lines in
35:13
atlanta stretching for blocks
35:15
there were people and seniors who had
35:17
been sitting out waiting to vote for
35:19
more than
35:20
five hours this is wrong
35:23
this is america i think that mail-in
35:26
voting is a terrible thing
35:28
if you ever agreed to it you’d never
35:29
have a republican elected in this
35:31
country again
35:35
[Music]
35:39
we are not going to let them take from
35:42
us with our grandparents and parents
35:45
fought
35:46
and suffered and died to give us in the
35:48
first place
35:50
we are here to resist an id law
35:53
that is undemocratic unconstitutional
35:56
and immoral people are demanding
35:59
democracy
36:00
new mexico now has same-day voter
36:02
registration
36:04
iowa colorado nevada florida and arizona
36:08
all passed laws restoring voting rights
36:10
to those formerly incarcerated
36:12
maine has enacted automatic voter
36:14
registration
36:16
delaware and virginia enacted early
36:18
in-person voting
36:19
and in response to the coronavirus
36:21
pandemic michigan
36:23
illinois new hampshire and california
36:25
have all committed to expanding mail-in
36:28
and absentee voting
36:29
in the 2020 election we belong together
36:33
we are all part of the fabric of this
36:35
country and we understand what’s at
36:37
stake
36:38
any voter suppression laws is not just
36:41
about
36:41
black people it is about america itself
36:45
when my mother’s dying bed at 92 years
36:47
old former sharecropper
36:49
her last words were do not let them take
36:52
our votes away from us no one
36:56
should have to risk their life to vote
36:58
and for the politicians that put you in
37:00
front
37:00
of a corona virus firing squad
37:04
vote them out
37:08
[Music]
37:22
[Music]
37:36
[Music]
37:49
[Music]
37:58
[Music]
39:13
[Music]
39:26
[Music]
39:32
[Music]
39:50
you
—
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The post Suppressed 2020: The Fight to Vote [Video] appeared first on The Good Men Project.