Monthly Archives: April 2020

On Election Day in November, some polling places could be patrolled by off-duty police officers and veterans, according to a plan hatched by Republican operatives.

The idea is a reprisal of once-illegal Election Day ballot security intimidation tactics, intended to challenge voter registration and remove voters from the rolls. At a strategy session in February attended by conservative donors and activists, several people expressed a specific need for Republican poll watchers in inner city and predominantly Native American precincts, according to audio recordings of the event obtained by The Intercept and Documented.

You get some [Navy] Seals in those polls and theyre going to say, No, no, this is what it says. This is how were going to play this show, said Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of True the Vote, a group that lobbies for voting restrictions and organizes volunteers to go into precincts and aggressively challenge voters who they believe are improperly registered. Thats what we need. We need people who are unafraid to call it like they see it.

The election strategy discussions occurred during a three-day conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Orange County, California, and was sponsored by the Council for National Policy, a secretive foundation on the religious right. The Intercept has previously reported from CNP gatherings.

Several GOP-aligned leaders gave remarks at the conference, including Ralph Reed, a key figure mobilizing conservative evangelical voters; Marc Lotter, a senior communications official with the Trump reelection campaign; FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon, and Ken Blackwell, a member of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, the now-shuttered group that sought but failed to find evidence of voter fraud in the 2016 election.

Using former soldiers and law enforcement as poll watchers was banned in 1981 by a judicial consent decree imposed on the Republican Party, but that ban was lifted in 2018 when a New Jersey judge declined to renew it. The ban came explicitly in response to an effort by the Republican National Committee to intimidate voters in African American communities by creating a so-called Ballot Security Task Force, threatening arrest and a $1,000 fine for improper voting.

Participants in the meeting also spoke of vote-by-mail initiatives as an impending threat to Republican power. Attendees did not identify any specific examples of voter fraud around vote-by-mail rather, they expressed concern that the measure would benefit Democrats. The meeting, in February, came at least a month before the coronavirus pandemic raised the issue of vote-by-mail as a public health measure nationwide. Since then, Republicans all the way up to the president have repeated the claim that mail-in ballots proliferate voter fraud a claim for which there is no evidence.

The groups at the conference have wasted no time in acting to implement the measures mentioned in the meeting. True the Vote has already made efforts to recruit former military and law enforcement to watch the polls, and filed a lawsuit to block New Mexico from instituting universal vote-by-mail as a response to concerns that in-person voting could expose voters to coronavirus.

Engelbrecht gave a lengthy presentation at the strategy meeting. True the Vote, Engelbrecht said, intends on rolling out a new phone-based app and other tools to monitor precincts in battleground states this year for alleged fraud.

This is an absolute front-line fight. Around every corner, you find a new way to cheat this process, said Engelbrecht. Democrats, she warned, would use mob rule to siege elections with fraudulent votes. The swarming tactics of a radicalized socialist mindset is a dangerous thing to behold.

Of interest here, we have a new initiative called Continue to Serve, which is about recruiting veterans and first responders to work inside the polls, she said, before suggesting that former Navy Seals should be tapped to watch the polls. You want to talk about people who understand and respect law and order and chain of command.

Do you want to go into an inner city precinct or a tribal precinct and be the Republican there to oversee things? I mean, that is not a comfortable place to be and that is where the fraud happens.

The idea to bring veterans and police into the fold as poll watchers piqued the interest of a number of attendees at the event. One unidentified participant during the meeting claimed that Democrats had long relied on voter fraud among Native American communities to win elections.

Trent England, executive director of the Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs, a local conservative think tank, agreed, recalling his own experience as a Republican volunteer and noting that Engelbrechts solution for first responder poll watchers could correct the problem among inner city and Native communities.

Do you want to go into an inner city precinct or a tribal precinct and be the Republican there to oversee things? I mean, that is not a comfortable place to be and that is where the fraud happens, said England. We have to find people.

Brad Smith, a former Federal Election Commission member under President George Bush, echoed Engelbrechts warnings and called for participants to seek training from the Republican National Lawyers Association. We need poll workers and we need good ones, Smith added.

Later during the discussion, Morton Blackwell, a member of the RNC, praised Engelbrechts proposal and said he would push for the RNC to devote significant resources into ballot integrity. Blackwell observed that since the court-ordered ban had long prevented the party from aggressive poll watching had recently been lifted, the RNC now has unrestricted authority to weigh in on ballot security operations.

The original consent decree came as a result of the Ballot Security Task Force, a plan used by the RNC to sway the 1981 New Jersey gubernatorial election, which Republican Tom Kean clinched by a mere 1,797 votes.

That year, RNC officials sent nonforwardable letters to voters in heavily African American neighborhoods. The party then recruited off-duty police officers, many of whom reportedly carried holstered guns, to patrol nonwhite precincts with lists of people whose names appeared on the 45,000 bounced letters, claiming that the list was enough evidence to show they were illegally voting.

The Ballot Security Task Force placed posters nearing polling stations that read: Warning: This Area Is Being Patrolled by the National Ballot Security Task Force: It Is a Crime to Falsify a Ballot or to Violate Election Laws, along with an offer for a $1,000 reward for any information leading to arrest and conviction of persons violating New Jersey election law. There was no effort to make clear that the deployed officers were working for the GOP or any disclosure that RNC had paid for the posters.

The Democratic National Committee filed a lawsuit over the tactic, alleging that the task force harassed poll workers, refused prospective voters from entering polling places, ripped down Democratic posters, and forcibly restrained volunteers from helping voters cast their ballots.

The resulting court order, which forced the RNC nationwide and the Republican Party of New Jersey to obtain advanced permission for certain poll watching and ballot security initiatives, had been in place for more than three decades. That changed finally in 2018, when District Judge John Michael Vazquez ruled that the order would not be renewed, lifting any future restrictions on the party. In a brief filing, Vazquez noted that he was ending the consent decree in part because the DNC had failed to show the RNC in violation of its terms.

That consent decree was one of the dumbest things that they ever did, said Hans von Spakovsky, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation and opponent of expanded voting rights who spoke alongside Engelbrecht during the session. Von Spakovsky said he wasnt sure if the party had reinvested in ballot security measures since the ending of the court order.

There is something that can be done, I can write to fellow members of the RNC and get resources directed to this, chimed in Blackwell.

Later in the meeting, Engelbrecht called repeatedly for more collaboration among conservative groups, suggesting that participants at the meeting work with groups like the Republican National Lawyers Association to formulate plans to challenge registrations and disqualify voters.

We have to have someone to be able to pass the baton off to. Because of the New Jersey consent decree, we are rusty, said Engelbrecht.

The Trump campaign, notably, has voiced support for the end of the RNC consent decree. Last November, at the Republican National Lawyers Association conference, Justin Clark, a strategist and attorney for the Trump campaign, gave remarks on the importance of winning states like Wisconsin. During his speech, he explained what is going to be different about Election Day operations in 2020 versus 2016.

There are a lot of huge differences, said Clark. First and foremost, the consent decree is gone, OK? The end of the consent decree, he explained, would mean increased ballot security work, but also expanded coordination between various GOP committees and the Trump campaign, which he, called a huge, huge, huge, huge, deal.

Lets start playing offense a little bit. Thats what youre going to see in 2020. Its going to be a much bigger program, a much more aggressive program, a much better-funded program, said Clark.

The efforts to again recruit law enforcement and veterans to serve as partisan poll watchers has raised concerns with voting rights experts.Police violence has historically been used as tool for voter intimidation in America, especially in communities of color, said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Common Cause. This is why many states have laws stating police cannot be at polls, Albert added. Encouraging law enforcement to monitor polls is another old tactic that partisan operatives are trying to use to stop Americans from exercising their constitutional right to vote.

If law enforcement joins in with groups like True the Vote, they will be making it very clear that they have no interest in serving as a trusted resource to the community, said Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change. They havent been able to prove voter fraud, so theyre including law enforcement and military folks in search of a problem that doesnt exist, added Robinson. We actually dont have a problem with voter fraud, we have a problem with voter suppression, and in a country with incredibly low rates of voter participation, we want to create another barrier to voting?

True the Vote has since released appeals on its website, along with a sign-up form, to recruit police officers and former military to serve as poll watchers.

My brothers spilled their blood on the battlefield so people can vote their beliefs, said Ed Iron Hiner, a retired Navy Seal and volunteer with True the Vote, in a recorded message promoting the effort. Hiner, who has been outspoken in the press in support of Eddie Gallager, the Navy Seal accused of murdering a prisoner and attempted murder of civilians in Iraq, described the poll watching program as a continuation of service formembers of the military.

Once you get out and retire like I did, theres a hole, theres something, youre used to having a mission, said Hiner, speaking next to Engelbrecht in the video.

True the Vote grew out of King Street Patriots, a local tea party chapter in Houston, Texas that was involved withintimidating voters at multiple polling locations in predominately nonwhite neighborhoods during the 2010 election. Volunteers with the group werereportedlyseenhovering over voters, blocking lines, and engaging in confrontations with election workers. In 2012, True the Vote deployedpoll watchers in Wisconsin who attempted to prevent students from voting.

Blackwell, Engelbrecht, and True the Vote did not respond to a request for comment. The group, organized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit claims that it is nonpartisan and simply devoted to upholding election integrity. The organization, however, maintains extensive ties to the Republican establishment.

Brent Mudd, one board member, previously served as the treasurer for the Super PAC supporting Newt Gingrichs 2012 presidential campaign. Greg Phillips, another True the Vote board member, worked at the same Gingrich Super PAC and was previously an official with the Alabama and Mississippi state Republican parties.

True the Vote is also supported financially by a number of foundations run by prominent conservative donors. Eric M. Javits and Lawrence Post, two frequent donors to Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, are among the disclosed donors to True the Vote. Richard Sackler, a member of the billionaire family that founded Purdue Pharma, the company that invented Oxycontin and marketed the highly addictive opioid to millions, also donated to True the Vote, tax records show.

In recent days, the issue of election integrity has come into focus as Republican officials lobbied furiously against postponing in-person voting in Wisconsin and have opposed universal vote-by-mail policies as a safety measure for other elections this year.

True the Vote has filed a lawsuit to block New Mexico from instituting universal vote-by-mail as a response to concerns that in-person voting could expose voters to the coronavirus. The True the Votelawsuit, prepared by James Bopp, who identifies himself as an election adviser to Trump, alleges that the push to mail a ballot to every voter in New Mexico would violate the voters fundamental rights, including the fundamental right to vote because voters had not expressly voted on such a plan. The group has also blasted Democratic efforts to provide federal funding for other states to expand vote-by-mail efforts.

The barbs against distance voting mirror a wider push among Republicans. Mail ballots are very dangerous for this country because of cheaters. They go collect them, Trump exclaimed at the White House on Tuesday. They are fraudulent in many cases. They have to vote. They should have voter ID, by the way.

The GOP has strained to present actual evidence for vote-by-mail fraud. One of the rare examples of a campaign going door to door to collect and manipulate ballots was North Carolina Republican Mark Harris, whose victory in 2018 was invalidated over widespread evidence that his consultants illegally collected and forged ballots from voters.

There is no evidence of widespread voting fraud in America. Studies have revealed isolated cases of a few voters voting improperly for both major parties, but no determined effort to break the rules has been discovered.

But there is a belief among some conservatives that vote-by-mail, which costs less to administer than in-person polling and tends to increase overall turnout, could boost the Democratic Party. Earlier this month, David Ralston, the Georgia state Speaker of the House, said that Georgias shift to mail-in ballots will be extremely devastating to Republicans and conservatives, in part because it will certainly drive up turnout. He later walked back the comments, claiming he misspoke.

The fear of expanded voting rights contrasts sharply with the experience of the Republican Party of Florida, which hasoutperformed Democrats in vote-by-mail ballots. Trump, in fact, voted by mail in 2018 as a New York resident and also voted by mail this year in Florida, his newly adopted state of residence.

During the Ritz-Carlton election strategy meeting, England, of the Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs, also raised the concern that vote-by-mail would help Democrats.

Republicans, England said, were once competitive in Oregon, Washington, and California. And ever since they went to vote-by-mail somebody told me this, I havent done the research myself but I dont think a single Republican has won statewide in Oregon or Washington since they went to vote by mail.

That claim is unfounded. Washington states current state treasurer and secretary of state, both elected by mail, are Republicans. Oregon has historically elected many statewide Republicans using vote-by-mail. Another state that has universal vote-by-mail, Utah, currently has a statewide elected government composed entirely of Republicans.

Asked about his remarks, England said in an email that he didnt speak about vote-by-mail at the conference, though the topic probably came up.

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Conservative Operatives Float Plan to Place Retired Military, Police Officers as GOP Poll Watchers on Election Day - The Intercept

WASHINGTON In his daily briefings on the coronavirus, President Trump has brandished all the familiar tools in his rhetorical arsenal: belittling Democratic governors, demonizing the media, trading in innuendo and bulldozing over the guidance of experts.

Its the kind of performance the president relishes, but one that has his advisers and Republican allies worried.

As unemployment soars and the death toll skyrockets, and new polls show support for the presidents handling of the crisis sagging, White House allies and Republican lawmakers increasingly believe the briefings are hurting the president more than helping him. Many view the sessions as a kind of original sin from which all of his missteps flow, once he gets through his prepared script and turns to his preferred style of extemporaneous bluster and invective.

Mr. Trump sometimes drowns out his own message, said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who has become one of the presidents informal counselors and told him a once-a-week show could be more effective. Representative Susan Brooks of Indiana said theyre going on too long. Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said the briefings were going off the rails a little bit and suggested that he should let the health professionals guide where were going to go.

Even the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board chastised the president for his behavior at the briefings. Covid-19 isnt shifty Schiff, it wrote in an editorial on Thursday, using Mr. Trumps nickname for Representative Adam Schiff. Its a once-a-century threat to American life and livelihood.

With only intermittent attempts to adapt to a moment of crisis, Mr. Trump is effectively wagering that he can win re-election in the midst of a national emergency on a platform of polarization.

In interviews, Republican lawmakers, administration officials and members of his re-election campaign said they wanted Mr. Trump to limit his error-filled appearances at the West Wing briefings and move more aggressively to prepare for the looming recession. Some even suggested he summon a broader range of the countrys leaders, including former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, in an all-hands-on-deck moment to respond to the national emergency.

The consternation reflects a new sense of urgency over Mr. Trumps re-election efforts as Joseph R. Biden Jr. emerges as his likely Democratic challenger. Three new polls this week show Mr. Biden leading the president, and the Trump campaigns internal surveys show he has mostly lost the initial bump he received early in the crisis, according to three people briefed on the numbers. Public polls show he badly trails the nations governors and his own medical experts in terms of whom Americans trust most for guidance.

I told him your opponent is no longer Joe Biden its this virus, Mr. Graham said.

One of Mr. Trumps top political advisers, speaking on the condition of anonymity so as not to anger the president, was even blunter, arguing that the White House was handing Mr. Biden ammunition each night by sending the president out to the cameras.

Vice President Mike Pence, this adviser said, should be the M.C. because he projects more empathy than the president, rarely makes mistakes and, as a former governor and the chief of the coronavirus task force, has a better grasp on the details of the response.

Yet the publicity-obsessed president is unlikely to relinquish his grip on the evening sessions: Mr. Trump has told aides he relishes the free television time and boffo ratings that come with his appearances, administration officials say.

He also views it as an opportunity to put forth his version of events and rebut the negative coverage he is receiving, as he showed in a tweet Thursday afternoon. On a day that New York State reported 799 deaths from the coronavirus in a 24-hour period, Mr. Trumps focus was on himself, and his feuds.

There is some preliminary evidence that Mr. Trump is heeding the Republicans concerns. On Wednesday and Thursday, Mr. Trump made what were for him relatively brief appearances before leaving the room and turning the podium over to Mr. Pence and Drs. Anthony S. Fauci and Deborah Birx. Whether it lasts remains to be seen.

Deep divisions remain in the White House and the Republican Party over how quickly to ease social distancing orders and urge Americans to return to school and work. Some who have Mr. Trumps ear, like Mr. Graham, are urging prudence. But a number of Republican lawmakers and Fox News personalities are lobbying the president to reopen the economy as quickly as possible.

Amid the conflicting advice, the presidents gut instincts and fondness for showmanship have won out, prompting him to frequently contradict or simply obscure the scientists who polls show are most trusted by voters.

And its not just an overwhelming majority of voters who believe the medical experts should be center stage: Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, personally urged Mr. Trump at the start of the crisis to let Drs. Fauci and Birx be the face of the response, according to a Republican official familiar with their conversation.

Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, said: Any suggestion that President Trump is struggling on tone or message is completely false. During these difficult times, Americans are receiving comfort, hope and resources from their president, as well as their local officials, and Americans are responding in unprecedented ways.

Some of Mr. Trumps aides have quietly suggested to him that he ratchet back his public attacks on the governors who have emerged as leaders in the response to the virus. But they acknowledge their efforts can be something of a fools errand; the president has his style and he wont change, they say.

His attacks on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, a popular Democrat and potential vice-presidential pick for Mr. Biden whom Mr. Trump called a half-Whit and that woman were of particular concern to some aides and political advisers, who believe he risked alienating voters in a pivotal state.

Representative Paul Mitchell, a Michigan Republican, said he had contacted a senior White House official, as well as Ms. Whitmer herself, to express his unhappiness about their mutual sniping.

It is not helpful to hurl names and talk about badly about people, Mr. Mitchell said. We need to focus on the problem.

At Mr. Trumps re-election campaign, staff members have closely monitored internal polling data showing an erosion of the gains Mr. Trump made immediately after he put social distancing guidelines in place. Advisers are torn between knowing that a less abrasive approach would help Mr. Trump and their awareness that he cant tolerate criticism, regardless of the setting.

Mr. Trumps limited gains in the polls are all the more striking when compared with those made by governors in both parties; many are enjoying double-digit gains in their approval ratings. And Mr. Trumps penchant for ad hominem attacks, Republicans say, illustrates why he has little room for growth among the electorate.

He cant escape his instincts, his desire to put people down, like Mitt Romney, or to talk about his ratings, said former Representative Carlos Curbelo, a Florida Republican. Thats why hes not getting the George W. Bush post-9/11 treatment. A leader in this sort of crisis should have a 75-to-80-percent approval rating.

That would prove difficult for even a more conventional president at a time the country is so politically divided, but a number of prominent Republicans believe Mr. Trump has hurt himself by making only the most halting attempts at demonstrating an above-the-fray unity.

For example, aides to both Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama said that neither had been asked by the White House to do anything to aid the response to the crisis.

The model of Obama asking Bush and Clinton to work on Haiti is a really good model, said former Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee, recalling how Mr. Obama deployed Mr. Bush and former President Bill Clinton to lead the United States assistance to Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake there.

But Mr. Haslam and other Republicans believe Mr. Trump needs to go much further. Mr. Haslam called for creating a recovery team and installing the economic equivalent of Dr. Fauci as its leader. Asked whom he had in mind, Mr. Haslam suggested Mitch Daniels, who previously served as the governor of Indiana, the head of the Office of Management and Budget and as a top executive of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.

A number of senators, including Mr. Graham, are also pushing for a sort of economic task force to complement the virus task force.

The administration needs to be thinking through what does it look like to get back to business, said Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, suggesting that it should give a lot of thought to how we scale back up economically, because thats going to be the next big challenge for us.

The health of the economy may pose the biggest challenge to Mr. Trumps re-election.

Mr. Toomey said he wont be surprised if we have 25 percent unemployment, which would match the height of the Great Depression, by the start of the summer. But he said that if voters believed the president has handled this well under the circumstances, and were on a good path, he has a shot.

Other Republicans are more skeptical that Mr. Trump can win if hes still saddled with double-digit unemployment in November. I think that makes it really hard, said Tony Fratto, a former Bush administration official.

And then theres the matter of Mr. Trump and his conduct at the daily briefings.

Mr. Toomey has been outspoken about the need for Americans to wear masks when they leave home. Last week he had a 20-minute conversation with the president, whom he described as thoughtful and engaged.

By weeks end, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had issued guidelines: People should wear cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain. The agencys decision was based in part on recent studies showing that people without symptoms can give the virus to others.

But in the same briefing where he announced the guidelines, Mr. Trump diminished the move as a recommendation.

I just dont want to wear one myself, he said, explaining that he had no symptoms. I am feeling good.

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Trump Keeps Talking. Some Republicans Dont Like What Theyre Hearing. - The New York Times

Tuesdays mess of an election in Wisconsin is the culmination of a decade of efforts by state Republicans to make voting harder, redraw legislative boundaries and dilute the power of voters in the states urban centers.

The Republican-dominated state legislature, which has held a majority since 2011, due in part to gerrymandered maps, refused to entertain the Democratic governors request to mail absentee ballots to all voters or move the primary. Then the State Supreme Court, which is controlled by conservative justices, overturned the governors ruling to postpone the election until June.

Now Wisconsin is conducting an election that the states largest newspaper which previously endorsed Republican leaders including former Gov. Scott Walker called the most undemocratic in the states history.

Heres a look at how it came to this point.

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Bernie Sanders are on the ballot in Wisconsin, but the main event is the State Supreme Court race between the conservative incumbent justice, Daniel Kelly, and a liberal challenger, Jill Karofsky.

The winner will be in position to cast a deciding vote on a case before the court that seeks to purge more than 200,000 people from Wisconsins voter rolls in a state where 2.6 million people voted in the last governors race. When the matter was first before the court in January, Mr. Kelly recused himself, citing his upcoming election. He indicated he would rethink his position following the April election, which comes with a 10-year term.

But the election proceeding on Tuesday is not just about the voter purge case. It is the latest example of what many in the state see as a decade-long effort by Wisconsin Republicans to dilute the voting power of the states Democratic and African-American voters.

Since 2011, when Mr. Walker led a Republican takeover of the state government, the G.O.P. has enacted one of the nations strictest laws requiring government-issued identification to vote. In 2020, a voter must have a photo ID with a current address, or an ID and acceptable proof of residency often a hardship for poorer black Milwaukee residents who live in neighborhoods with some of the highest eviction rates in the country. A 2017 study by the University of Wisconsin found nearly 17,000 registered voters were unable to cast a ballot during the 2016 election, and untold more were deterred from voting.

The Republican majority also drew legislative and congressional boundaries that are widely considered the most gerrymandered in the country. During the 2018 election, Democratic candidates won 190,000 more votes for State Assembly seats, but the G.O.P. held a 64-35 advantage in the chamber.

Forty Republican lawmakers on Monday wrote to Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, asking him to reopen the states golf courses.

If Mr. Kelly wins, it would cement the conservative majoritys ability to block any future Democratic efforts to change voting laws and litigate an expected stalemate over congressional and state legislative boundaries during redistricting that will follow the 2020 census.

Wisconsin is, by many projections, a key state for clinching an Electoral College victory. And in the last four years it has seen some of the closest statewide races in the country.

In 2016, President Trump won the state by less than 23,000 votes.

In 2018, Mr. Evers ousted Mr. Walker by less than 30,000 votes.

In 2019, a State Supreme Court race was decided by just 6,000 votes.

In a state so closely divided, any adjustment to voting procedures or voter eligibility has the potential to swing enough votes to tip the state.

This is truly a mystery that has consumed Democrats both inside and outside Wisconsin.

For weeks Mr. Evers insisted he didnt have the power to change the election date without consent of the state legislature, which consistently refused to entertain the idea.

Instead he sought other remedies, such as sending absentee ballots to all voters and extending the time for voters to return ballots by mail ideas that Republicans resisted and that were eventually struck down in courts dominated by Republican appointees.

Mr. Evers, a bland former state education secretary who won in 2018 on the backs of liberal anger and disgust with Mr. Walker, spent the run-up to the election grandstanding with impossible demands, said John Langeland, the Democratic Party chairman of Oneida County, in Wisconsins Northwoods. He had to know that there was no way to print, distribute and tally enough ballots for an absentee-only election.

But Mr. Evers wasnt helped by disunity among leaders and national figures in his own party. While Mr. Sanders last week called for postponing the states election, Mr. Biden predicted the contest could be held safely.

In Wisconsin, the pandemic is hitting hardest in Milwaukees black neighborhoods, which are home to a critical Democratic voting bloc. Of the 83 coronavirus deaths in the state, 33 have been black residents of Milwaukee 40 percent of the total in a state that is 7 percent black.

Democrats had hoped postponing the contest to June and changing it to an all-mail election would alleviate fears of the pandemic and allow people to vote safely. With the state so divided, any tangible drop-off in urban turnout is likely to tip the State Supreme Court race to Mr. Kelly.

Public health officials across the state have closed hundreds of precincts because of the coronavirus pandemic. In Milwaukee, just five of 180 planned polling places are open, leading to hourslong lines of masked and socially distanced voters.

This comes as Milwaukee voters an electorate that includes nearly all of the states black population have lagged well behind suburban counterparts in returning absentee ballots.

During the 2018 election, the number of votes from Waukesha County made up about 57 percent of the total number of votes from adjacent Milwaukee County. Two-thirds of Milwaukee County voters backed Mr. Evers, the Democrat, while two-thirds of Waukesha County voters picked Mr. Walker, the Republican.

Absentee ballot data from the Wisconsin Election Commission shows that, as of Tuesday morning, Waukesha County voters have returned 78 percent as many absentee ballots as have Milwaukee County voters a drastic narrowing of the voting gap between the two counties.

The data also shows that absentee turnout is far higher in the states major metropolitan areas than it is in the rural counties.

Statewide, 864,750 people had returned absentee ballots by Tuesday morning, according to the elections commission. But that data shows voters in urban centers were returning ballots at a far higher clip than rural Wisconsinites.

Seven counties have returned absentee ballots that account for more than 80 percent of the total turnout from the 2019 spring election, which also featured a State Supreme Court race but no presidential primary. Five of the seven are in greater Milwaukee, and the other two include Madison and La Crosse, both college towns.

Some predominantly rural counties saw comparatively few absentee ballots returned. Clark County, in the states north, and Menominee County, whose population is largely Native American, had an absentee ballot return rate of just 17 percent of their 2019 turnout.

Bruce Johnson, the Democratic chairman in Pepin County, along the states western border with Minnesota, said he pushed for absentee balloting but people were less concerned because they rarely wait in lines to vote. Pepin Countys absentee ballot return rate is just 24 percent of its 2019 turnout.

The primary risk is to poll workers and weve had some difficulty filling those positions because most trained workers are of vulnerable, elderly populations, Mr. Johnson said. Given the proclaimed inevitability of a Biden nomination and the risks involved in voting, I fear that the Republican voter suppression efforts will succeed.

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Why Wisconsin Republicans Insisted on an Election in a Pandemic - The New York Times

The Republican leader said he understood the economic peril his decision would cause the people in his city -- even some of his good friends. But the alternative, the science and public health experts told him, was that people would risk getting coronavirus and the hospitals could get overrun.

"I ran for mayor because I didn't feel like our city was aiming high enough," he told CNN in a virtual interview from his home, which he has turned into his Covid-19 command center. "I thought we ought to be aspiring to be greater than we were, and one of the sectors that I drew inspiration from in our community were the entrepreneurs that built up this great restaurant scene here. Many of them young professionals who risked everything that they had and put everything into these businesses.

"And to have to knowingly put in place an order that I knew would cause thousands of people, who are wonderful people, to lose their jobs -- and to close down those dreams of so many people I admire -- it was terrible, but the alternative was worse."

It's put in Bynum in a difficult position of being out of step in terms of messaging with his governor and fellow Republican.

"Just to be candid, yes, it makes it harder as a mayor when I'm telling my neighbors that we have to sacrifice in these ways to close businesses and that we need to be sheltering in place when the pushback I get from a lot of people is, 'Okay, we're willing to do this, but we don't want our bed in the hospital taken up by somebody in an outlying county that didn't do these things. And so, don't ask us to sacrifice here in Tulsa when there are people in other parts of the state who don't have to make the same sacrifices who could get one of our ICU beds and somebody in my family wouldn't have access to it.' And I think that's a fair concern for people," he said.

Stitt faced national backlash last month by sending a now-deleted tweet: "Eating with my kids and all my fellow Oklahomans at the @collectiveOKC. It's packed tonight!"

Tulsa's mayor says that was "hard" because it was the same day, he began to limit public events in his city, one of Oklahoma's biggest.

"That night, that picture popped up on social media for a while. And that's hard because it's sending mixed messages to people from their elected leadership as to what they ought to be doing," Bynum said.

But he also says it was understandable.

"He has the same concern that I do, and I think any elected official should, which is worry about what's the impact on the economy going to be and when is the right time to start putting in these social distance practices? I just got there, I think, maybe earlier than he did in the decision-making process as far as putting those types of practices in place," Bynum said.

Bynum's decisions sometimes also run against residents who are resistant to abandoning a culture that takes pride in protecting personal freedoms.

"Dealing with a public health emergency like this, it creates a great challenge when you're trying to tell people everything they can't do," Bynum said.

Since he first began implementing restrictions in mid-March, some Tulsa constituents were so angry, they even compared him to Adolf Hitler.

"I was shutting down businesses and telling people where they had to be and that they couldn't leave their homes except for particular instances. And so, most people react to that in a pretty stoic, calm way, but when you have this level of stress, there are always going to be some people that can't handle it. And their outlet for that is to accuse me of being some sort of authoritarian dictator when the only power I have as a mayor is derived from the citizens who elect me to protect them," Bynum said.

Leaning on fellow mayors

Like other mayors CNN has spoken to who are trying to navigate this unprecedented situation, Bynum says he is in constant touch with his counterparts in other cities, many of whom he has met through groups like the US Conference of Mayors, or the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.

In fact, Bynum became friends with Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, a Democrat, who was one of the first to have a novel coronavirus hotspot in her city. He says he reached out to her for guidance on how to proceed in Tulsa, based on her experience.

"It gave us the opportunity to adjust earlier in the process simply because I could see what my colleague, my friend, was dealing with in another city," Bynum said.

He says he relies the most heavily on his counterpart in Oklahoma City, a longtime friend, who is also putting strict restrictions in place.

"I cannot imagine having navigated this event over the last month without the partnership that I have with Mayor [David] Holt. We're really lucky because he and I, we've been friends for 20 years. We both started out as a low-level rookie staffers on the Hill and became friends back then," Bynum said.

"I'll also say, just from a purely human standpoint, it's a lot easier to make a really hard decision when you know that your colleague in your sister city is going to make the same decision," he added.

Dismantling swing sets on playgrounds

Bynum says that when he was elected Tusla's mayor, one of his campaign promises was to overcome increasing isolation from one another -- from shrinking church and civic engagement to people spending more time on social media than in public spaces.

One of his proudest accomplishments in Tulsa is a $500 million park called the Gathering Place, which opened last year. He says that makes the pain of having to close all parks and playgrounds right now even more sharp.

One of the heartbreaking images the mayor's office sent to CNN shows city officials dismantling basketball hoops and taking apart swing sets.

Bynum said they had to take that extreme step because residents were still using it all, despite orders to the contrary.

"As both a mayor and as a dad of two kids, that's tough when you see people so badly wanting to come together and be together and know that the best way to protect them is to take away and to disincentivize those things that are drawing them together," he said

Working from home

Although he does leave home every so often to join local leaders for a press conference, or check in at city hall, for the most part, Bynum is fighting this virus by working the phones morning until night from his house.

It is a deliberate decision he knows may be perceived as extreme or paranoid, but that's fine with him.

"We have a city workforce of 4,000 employees of a metro area of over a million people, and they require a mayor who has their wherewithal and their judgment and their health to make decisions that can protect them. And you can't do that if you've contracted the virus and are laid up," the Tulsa mayor said.

He keeps in touch with residents largely via social media, which he says he has always done himself "for better or worse."

The comments on his Facebook page -- many of which he replies to -- are largely positive, thanking him for what he is doing in this time of crisis. But there is also some tough criticism, like from a resident who wrote: "The stupidest thing you've done so far is to close the golf courses. You must think we're stupid and unable to take care of our own situations."

Bynaum said he gets that a lot.

"Some of the angriest people I've dealt with in the course of this have been golfers, which I think is ridiculous. And as I've told them, we're trying to save people's lives here. If you're arguing about your ability to play golf, then you're clearly not taking this seriously," he said, noting that golfers have been more upset with him than restaurant owners who are suffering tremendously economically.

Tulsans are used to natural disasters. The Mayor calls Covid-19 much worse

Tulsa is in tornado alley. It is a city prone to flooding and ice storms.

But, just like Tampa Mayor Jane Castor told CNN about their history with hurricanes, Tulsa's mayor says its frequent natural disasters are nothing compared to the way Covid-19 is hitting the city.

"In each of those challenges, usually the event happens very quickly and then we pull together as a community to solve that and help one another. In this case, it's a more slow rolling challenge," the mayor said.

"The best thing that we can do for one another is to stay away from each other, he added.

What keeps him up at night, more than anything else?

"How we get back to normal. I think that's probably the biggest one that I'm trying to think through. When testing is not readily available at every drug store and doctor's office, how do people get the confidence, not just governmentally how do we lift orders, but how do everyday people get restored confidence that they can go out and go to a movie theater or go to a restaurant or go to a concert? And that is something that I think, in my mind, is a real challenge for us so long as testing is so limited in supply and is really only available for those who are the most ill," he said.

But, he insists, being a mayor now means he doesn't have the luxury of philosophizing about what went wrong. Not yet.

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This Republican mayor is taking a more aggressive approach to stop coronavirus than his GOP governor - CNN

Bill Moyers guest in this episode is the journalist David Daley. His best-selling first book, RATF**KED-WHY YOUR VOTE DOESNT COUNT showed how Republicans used gerrymandering to lock up control of many state and local government for years, possibly decades and remains their strategy.In his most recent book UNRIGGED HOW AMERICANS ARE BATTLING BACK TO SAVE DEMOCRACY he travels America to report on the grassroots activists devoted to voting rights for all citizens.

He and Bill talked by phone on the eve of the Wisconsin primary where the governor of Wisconsin tried to postpone the election to help protect voters from the pandemic only to be blocked by the conservative dominated state supreme court and then by the five Republicans on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Theres a link to Davids Rolling Stone report on analysis of the Wisconsin fracas at billmoyers.com.

Heres Bill Moyers.

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BILL MOYERS: David, Are you comfortable talking about down and dirty politics, the very week a killer pandemic maybe reaching its peak?

DAVID DALEY: I am. Yes. I think that there is a really big connection between how we got here and down and dirty politics, and where we go from here. We have to be really careful that in this moment, a public health crisis doesnt also turn into a full blown constitutional crisis. And theres lots of evidence that it may well turn in that direction.

BILL MOYERS: You say in your Rolling Stone report that this is an urgent moment. What do you mean?

DAVID DALEY: If you look around the nation right now, [you see] the number of cancelled or postponed elections and primaries. If you look at the lack of preparation towards safeguarding the presidential election in the fall, my concern is that our elections in November may face the exact same chaos that elections in Ohio and Wisconsin are seeing now.

We have to be really careful that in this moment, a public health crisis doesnt also turn into a full blown constitutional crisis.

There are really simple steps that we could take to guard against that happening. We could expand vote by mail, most importantly among them. And really ensure that every American have the right to vote without risking their health.

But what you see are Republicans who are talking about non-existent voter fraud in this moment, a state representative in Georgia talking about how increased turnout would be bad for the Republican party.

And what it adds up to is this intense politicization of democracy and voting rights itself. And that plays against a background of this last decade and longer, what has become extreme minority rule in this country. Fifty-nine million Americans right now live in a state in which one or both chambers of the state legislature are controlled by the party that won fewer votes in 2018.

So, this backdrop of toxic partisan gerrymandering, of voter roll purges, of voter ID, of disingenuous voter fraud commissions, precinct closures, all of which are designed to make it harder for specific people to vote. And if this is what is going to be the response to a pandemic, our election in the fall is in deep trouble.

BILL MOYERS: Whats your worst nightmare?

DAVID DALEY: My worst nightmare is that it is very difficult for individual states, perhaps in some swing states, to hold elections or that it is not safe for folks in big cities in swing states to line up. And you see some state legislatures invoking the right under Article II, section 1 of the constitution to appoint Electoral College electors themselves.

And if that were to happen from, say, Pennsylvania or Wisconsin or Arizona or Michigan or Ohio, youre talking about swing states that have Republican legislatures that could, if they wanted, appoint electors that would vote in the opposite direction, perhaps, of the wishes of the people of that state.

BILL MOYERS: So your nightmare is that we still might not have a winner after the election til, say, December? And that the individual state legislatures have the constitutional opportunity to nullify the results if they wish, right? By exercising the authority to appoint the states representatives to the Electoral College so they could say, Were gonna reverse the decision of the majority of voters in November because of X, Y and Z. Right?

DAVID DALEY: They most certainly could, and I fear that what we are hearing from many of those state legislators now, suggests that they are not of a mind not to do this. This would be one of the greatest crises of democracy that the nation has faced. And we could be staring at it.

You know, you wrote in Moyers on Democracy maybe the very first line is A democracy is a series of narrow escapes. And we may be running out of luck. I dont know if we will have the luck to escape this particular crisis.

BILL MOYERS: So youre not vesting any credibility in the speculation about Donald Trump cancelling the presidential election? You say its deeper than that. Its more institutional and widespread throughout state by state.

That the speculation whether the president would just say, We cant have an election with conditions like this threatening peoples health. So Im gonna remain on it til the situation is resolved. You dont see that happening?

DAVID DALEY: I hope thats not what happens. The president I dont think has the ability to do that. Election Day is set by Congress. I cant see Congress changing Election Day. I think that it would be extraordinarily difficult to see where in any presidential emergency powers he would seize that authority from.

The bigger threat comes from state legislatures acting in such a way as to overturn or nullify the wishes of voters in those states, and awarding electoral college electors to the president. And giving him a second term in office that most voters may or may not want to see.

And its the very gerrymandered nature of those particular states that has given all of the power to Republicans. Republicans deeply gerrymandered in the legislature in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin. [In] all of these swing states, you see with regularity Democrats winning more statewide votes for the state house, and Republicans holding huge advantages, even sometimes veto-proof supermajorities. The lines they drew themselves have been that stout. So if you were to have those gerrymandered legislatures already representing a minority of the state able to pick electoral college electors, this is a huge crisis.

BILL MOYERS: This was the subject of your first book, of course. You took on gerrymandering, which as most of us realize, is a very old features of democracy in America that allowed partisan state legislatures to draw congressional districts to their advantage. Both parties did it.

Then it got out of control. This is stunningly clear in your book. You showed the country how Republicans had weaponized gerrymandering. Just briefly summarize the story you told for our listeners and our readers. You know, what The New York Times review called the true story behind the secret plan to steal Americas democracy.

DAVID DALEY: Well, I would say that Republicans after the 2008 election needed to find themselves a pathway back to power. In 2008, you not only had the election of Barack Obama, our first black president, but you had a Democratic supermajority in the U.S. Senate and a renewed Democratic majority in the U.S. House.

And you had these changing American demographics that many observers, both Democrats and Republicans, looked at and thought that it meant that the Democrats were going to be the majority party in this nation for a generation.

And as we know, it didnt exactly work out that way. Right? And I think the most important reason for that is because these Republican strategists recognized that as historic as 2008 was, 2010 had the ability to be much more of a consequential election.

Because 2010 is a Census year, which means its a redistricting year. Because we would redraw every congressional and state legislative seat in the country in the year following the U.S. Census. So elections ending in zero are just much more consequential. Because you can win back the power to draw all of these districts.

Republicans recognized the opportunity in this. Its state legislatures that have the ability to draw most of these lines, both for themselves and also for Congress. So a handful of Republican operatives, something called the Republican State Leadership Committee, they launch a plan called The REDMAP, which is short for the Redistricting Majority Project.

And its a $30 million strategy, centered around flipping and winning state legislative chambers control in swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida. And by winning 117 state legislative races in 2010 across these states, they are able to lock in the power, not only to redraw all of their own maps, but to redraw Congress.

And so in 2012, Democrats win 1.4 million more votes for the U.S. House than Republicans. But Republicans hold onto the chamber, 234-201. Barack Obamas second-term agenda is dead in the House before his second term even begins. And it lays the groundwork in all of these states for the same sort of deeply anti-majoritarian decade that we have seen.

BILL MOYERS: When I read your book, I agreed with the Republican strategist, Ben Ginsberg, who said that David Daley has exposed, The strategy of shadowy, but thus far, legal hacking, splicing, and dicing of congressional districts to secure Republican domination, and in turn, subvert the will of the American voter.

Thats a Republican saying that. Admitting that gerrymandering was crucial to the Republican partys strategy of undermining democracy. Some people were shocked, David. But I wasnt. And I wanna take a step back here, I mean, back to 1980.

I was reporting for a documentary on the founding of the Moral Majority. Thousands of religious conservatives gathered in Dallas, Texas, to launch what is now the most influential base of the Republican party. Ronald Reagan running for the Republican nomination, spoke to them.

And one of the most influential Republicans of the past 60 years was there. Paul Weyrich was his name right-wing Catholic, brilliant strategist, outspoken partisan [who] founded the Heritage Foundation, founded the Moral Majority, on and on and on. He really was an architect of the Republican domination today. Heres a brief excerpt of what he said. It brought cheers from those religious conservatives.

Paul Weyrich: Now many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome good government. They want everybody to vote. I dont want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.

DAVID DALEY: Thats the whole game plan right there. And it is shocking to hear people admit it. But Republicans are beginning to say the quiet part [out ] loud now as well. This is an intentional strategy. What Republicans have done over the last 50 years in this country is attempt to make it harder for people who are not going to vote for them to vote.

They have built barriers between specific groups of people and the ballot box that have been surgical, that have been specific, and that have been deeply intentional. They have appointed judges to the federal bench that have backed up this deeply pinched vision of voting rights.

And they have developed a sustained sense of minority rule in states across the nation. They have insulated themselves from the ballot box. And it is because they are afraid that they will lose an honest election. One of our two political parties is so afraid that it will lose an honest election that they have spent 50 years building barriers between voters and the ballot box.

BILL MOYERS: David, is it conceivable to you that one of our major parties could say to themselves that if they cant win free and fair elections, they will just get rid of democracy?

DAVID DALEY: I think that is what they have done. It is inconceivable to me that a party founded by Abraham Lincoln, founded in such beliefs of the equality of man is in this position right now, in which they believe that they cannot win.

They would rather try to keep people from voting than lose.

And so they would rather try to keep people from voting than lose. That is the position American democracy finds itself in in 2020. And I believe that it is there because of specific decisions that Republican leaders have made, and then doubled down on, year after year after year.

In 2012, after Barack Obama is reelected, Republicans do a famous autopsy, right? And they try to look and say, Well, what are we doing wrong that we keep losing national elections? And they say, Well, we have to do a better job of talking to young people, of talking to minority voters. They couldnt do any of those things. They couldnt change. Because the party had already set itself on this agenda of gerrymandering and voter suppression that put the base in charge.

BILL MOYERS: Where were the Democrats? I come from a part of the country where you were polite to each other until you discover that your opponent is using brass knuckles. And then you sharpen your elbows to fight back. Democrats just seemed unaware of the potential of being overly indifferent when your other side if fighting for the kill.

DAVID DALEY: They still seem that way, even today. It is just as inconceivable to me that the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate is not doing a stronger more fuller-throated job of trying to ensure that the elections this fall go off as Americans expect them to.

They need to work this into stimulus packages. They need to be really focused on this in a way that they have not been. Republicans are able to pull this strategy off in 2010 because Democrats fell asleep at the switch. Republicans reinvent and weaponize the gerrymander in the 2010 election.

And they didnt necessarily do so secretly. I mean, Karl Rove lays out on the Op Ed page of the Wall Street Journal the entire plan, and even tells the Democrats which states and which counties theyre going to be operating in, trying to flip state legislative districts with the goal of locking in a decade of control in state legislatures and Congress.

And its as if the Democrats simply didnt even get their newspaper that day. Because they did nothing to defend these crucial state legislative races. And in my new book Unrigged I talk with Eric Holder, who is leading the Democratic efforts, ahead of 2020 on this topic.

And I say, So when did you become aware of REDMAP, and what the Republicans were up to? And he says, I really hadnt heard of REDMAP. And he says he and Barack Obama were in the White House a couple weeks after the 2012 election. And theyre looking at the numbers. And they couldnt understand why their vote totals didnt lead to better outcomes across all of these states. And even after the 2012 election, the highest echelons of the Democratic Party didnt understand what had happened to them in 2010, or how deep the problem was and how long it was going to take for them to come back.

BILL MOYERS: David, you saw that in the stimulus bill that Congress enacted voting rights groups asked for, I think it was $4 billion to make sure our elections this fall are fair and square. Senate Republicans reportedly held out in the end. And it only provides about $400 million for election security. What did you take from this when you learned that this had happened?

DAVID DALEY: That the Democratic Party still is unwilling to use any leverage that it has to stand up to the brass knuckles being used by the other side. I dont think that the Democrats understand even in 2020 the extent to which Republicans have proven themselves willing to go to subvert the idea of free and fair elections.

All of these reform groups are saying this is going to take between $2 and $4 billion, which lets face it, is a rounding error in a package that is $2 trillion of economic bailout. Were talking about $2 to $4 billion for democracy. Because its going to take a lot of money to get states up and running for a vote-by-mail system.

This has to be established. You have to pay to print ballots, to translate ballots for optical scanners. You have to pay to train all of these new workers. There are laws that are gonna have to be passed in at least a third of our states that make it possible to have no excuse absentee voting.

Theres a lot that has to be done, and only about 200 days left in which to do it. And this stimulus package was going to be the best chance the Democratic leadership had to get something done. Whatever was in this package was going to move. This was the opportunity. We dont know if there will be another one. And this possibility went by with Democratic leadership securing about 10 percent of what the experts say is going to be necessary to safeguard democracy. Its not good enough.

BILL MOYERS: Well, Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said election assistance funding such as that in the stimulus bill, has nothing to do with COVID-19. Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas took exception to the provision that would establish early voting and access to equal vote by mail. He called it a naked attempt to use a public health emergency as a smokescreen for a radical agenda. And Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming said that new early voting requirements have no place in an emergency rescue package for the American people. How do you respond to them?

DAVID DALEY: They have every place in an emergency package for the American people. These are the provisions that are going to make it possible for the American people to have a voice in November. Its as if all of these senators are unaware of all of the elections that are being postponed right now.

BILL MOYERS: Ohio one of them, right?

DAVID DALEY: Ohio one of them, as well as Texas, Louisiana multiple states have been pushing their elections off into June. And frankly, theyre not even sure that theyll be able to hold them in June. All we have to do is look at the chaos in Ohio and Wisconsin and elsewhere and you see the connection between COVID-19 and our crisis is democracy so clearly that even a Republican senator from Montana and Wyoming ought to be able to understand it.

BILL MOYERS: Did you see The Washington Post story, quote Trump and GOP challenge efforts to make voting easier amid Coronavirus pandemic. Theyre open about it. President Trump told Fox and Friends last week about voting by mail,

Donald Trump:The things they had in there were crazy. They had things, levels of voting that if youd ever agreed to it, youd never have a Republican elected in this country again,

And in Georgia the speaker of the House, a Republican, opposed sending out absentee ballots applications. You saw probably what he said, quote, This will certainly drive up turnout and will be extremely devastating to Republicans and conservatives in Georgia.

And in North Carolina the Republican responsible for drawing the states voting maps admitted he rigged them. He said, I think electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats. So I drew this map to help foster what I think is better for the country. In other words, fraud as a patriotic act. I mean, theyre very open about what theyre doing.

DAVID DALEY: Theyve been open ever since the time of Paul Weyrich. Right? I mean, theyre not denying it. They are very willing to come out and talk about it. When I went out and reported my last book, I was actually staggered at how open and honest all of the Republican strategists were who worked on these issues. They were all willing to sit down and talk with me. And its not as if any of them had any trouble sleeping. They were largely proud of what they did.

BILL MOYERS: You describe the United States as a country covered with, quote, democracy deserts. Whats a democracy desert?

DAVID DALEY: We talked about supermarket deserts sometimes, you know, places in which its really hard to find fresh food. What we are seeing across this nation is an outbreak of democracy deserts as well. Places where it is very, very difficult to ensure that you will have free and fair access to the ballot box or that a majority of citizens are able to translate their votes into a majority of seats.

What you see as you look around the country are blue states, largely coastal states, that are making it easier for people to vote. You see things like automatic voting registration taking hold or expanding days of early voting, [and] making it possible to register online. All of these things that make it simpler and easier for people to vote. None of which, by the way, are partisan. All of these reforms are deeply nonpartisan and the academic studies make it clear that they do not help voters of either party.

What we are seeing is an outbreak of democracy deserts. Places where it is difficult to ensure that you will have free and fair access to the ballot box .

And then you see all of these red states which are going the exact opposite direction. You see voter ID bills. You see toxic, extreme partisan gerrymandering. You see racial gerrymandering. You see purges of voter rolls, 16 to 18 million Americans knocked off of voting rolls in the last two years alone. You see precincts being closed, especially in minority neighborhoods. You see days of early voting being taken away and often those days of early voting are exactly the days that state legislatures know that minority voters are most likely to go to the polls.

You see all of these new voter ID requirements and that they have specifically chosen the forms of voter ID that they believe young and minority voters are least likely to have. I was able to obtain the files, tens of thousands of documents of Thomas Hofeller, the master Republican gerrymandering operative of the last 40 or 50 years after he died. And as I went through his files, and looked at his draft maps that he drew in North Carolina, he had on his computer the addresses of every single college-age voter in North Carolina along with whether or not they had a drivers license. Because he knew that if they didnt have a drivers license they wouldnt be able to vote. And he drew his districts knowing this. He drew these districts completely aware of who would and would not be able to vote.

BILL MOYERS: Can you give us some other examples of how particular information like that was used in drawing up districts that would advantage the Republicans?

DAVID DALEY: Oh absolutely. In Alabama, for example, you had a gerrymandered Republican legislature there passes a voter ID bill and they say, Well, if you dont have a state drivers license you can go to the Department of Motor Vehicles and fill out a form and get the specific ID that you need there. And then where people were going to be most affected by this they closed most of the drivers license bureaus for almost the entire month. It was just amazing to watch this.

In North Dakota, for example, and North Dakota is one of the best administered election states in the country. They actually dont require voter registration there because everybody knows each other. You are able to just walk up to the polls on election day and cast a ballot.

And in 2012, something interesting happened. A Democrat, Heidi Heitkamp is elected to the U.S. Senate there. And she wins a very close race. And its Native American voters in North Dakota that tip this Senate seat. So suddenly in the winter and spring of 2013, Republicans in the state legislature in a state where you dont even have to register to vote decide that theyre going to enact a voter ID bill.

Not only a voter ID bill but one of the most stringent in the nation. And theyre going to require one thing on that voter ID. It has to have a street address. Well, they are fully aware that the one thing you do not have on the Native American tribal land in North Dakota is a street address.

So they intentionally picked the one way to disenfranchise those Native American voters in North Dakota immediately after they made their voices heard. The exact same thing happens in North Carolina where the drivers license requirement for the voter ID there a federal court finds that this is surgically focused on black North Carolinian voters. Because the legislature actually did research into the form of identification least likely to be held by blacks in the state. And it was a drivers license. In a state like Texas you can vote with a gun license but not with a student ID. Why do you think that is? Its really, really clear.

BILL MOYERS: In 2013, as you know, Chief Justice John Roberts led the conservative majority of the Supreme Court in gutting the key enforcement of the Voting Rights Act that had been passed in 1965 so that states notorious for sanctioning discrimination over decades against minorities were now liberated from any federal oversight. What impact have you found that ruling had on voting in America?

DAVID DALEY: Its tragic. All of these democracy deserts begin to take hold after that ruling. The chief justice could not have gotten it any more wrong. He argues that its not 1965 anymore and that all of these states across the south you know, Bull Connor is not on the doorstep stopping people from going to school or voting.

And he said this, Its a different time, its a different south. Except its not. Because the very week that the court renders this sadly and tragic mistaken five-four decision, you have state legislatures in Texas, in Mississippi, across the south, beginning to add back all of these surgically focused voting restrictions.

And what you see, ever since 2013, is this explosion of new voting restrictions in all of these states that would have had to have proven to the Department of Justice that there was no racial impact of those moves in the past. And as soon as John Roberts wiped that away all of these states were ready.

And they came roaring back with all of these restrictions. They are more subtle than they used to be. You know, its no longer a fire hose, its no longer a literacy test or an obvious poll tax. But all of these new restrictions work in precisely the same way.

BILL MOYERS: You say it was a tragic mistaken decision that the court handed down. But what if it were not tragically mistaken but politically intended? What if it was part of the strategy that weve been talking about, of achieving partisan domination over American democracy?

DAVID DALEY: I think it well could be. I mean, that certainly has been the impact of it. That has been the consequence of that decision [it] has been rolling back the state of voting rights across all of these states in the south and the west, and elsewhere, that had been under the protection of section five of the Voting Rights Act.

And its gone. And as it has disappeared, so has the protection of this most elemental of American rights, the right that animates all others. And in many American states right now the right to vote is deeply and intentionally unequal.

BILL MOYERS: So the foundational notion of democracy, one person, one vote, depends largely on where you live. As youve written one nation, indivisible increasingly looks like two when it comes to voting rights. One inclusive the other exclusive. One that works to make voting easier and the other doubling down to make voting harder.

DAVID DALEY: If you live in North Carolina, you have to jump through very different hoops to get to the ballot box than if you live in Oregon. And this is increasingly separate and unequal. We are increasingly two nations when it comes to voting rights.

And this is going to be a huge problem, especially in the fall of 2020 if we dont have Congress step forth and safeguard elections. What we could have is a patchwork of states, some of which decide to make it easier for their citizens to vote and some which dont.

And the ones that dont make it easier for their citizens to vote could very well be blue-leaning states like Pennsylvania and Michigan and Wisconsin that are controlled right now by gerrymandered Republican legislatures, that are locked into place even though a majority of folks in those states election after election vote for the other side.

BILL MOYERS: But if parts of red America, as you just said, resemble democracy deserts, arent some blue states blooming with innovations?

DAVID DALEY: Yes. Maine is now using ranked choice voting which is a wonderful solution that ensures that winners of elections there actually achieve 50 percent of the vote. Maine has a proud tradition of third-party independent candidates. Theyve had independent governors and independent U.S. senators. And they wanted to hold onto that but they didnt want to keep electing candidates with 35 percent of the votes who most people didnt want. So they added ranked choice.

You have seen a dramatic expansion of vote by mail and absentee balloting across states that have recognized that its not simply enough to offer voting from 8:00 in the morning until 8:00 at night on election day.

That is not always convenient for people. So, you know, lets open it up. Lets make it possible for people to vote from home. Lets take away some of these things that make it difficult to vote. There are lots of really impressive innovations taking place, especially out west, that simply are not being matched elsewhere.

BILL MOYERS: As I said earlier, David, your first book stunned a lot of people. They just hadnt thought much, if anything, about how democracy was being undermined right around them. The new book is entitled Unrigged: How Americans are Battling Back to Save Democracy. You went across the country looking for those activists to tell their story. Summarize for us what you found.

DAVID DALEY: I went off in search of hope and optimism and inspiration. I needed it after talking about the decline of democracy. And I found what I was looking for at the state and local level around the country.

I met Katie Fahey in Michigan, a 27-year-old woman, who two days after the 2016 election, already afraid of whats gonna happen in her house on Thanksgiving with Bernie and Hillary and Trump people throwing mashed potatoes and gravy across the room.

And she goes to Facebook and she writes, I want to end gerrymandering in Michigan. If you wanna do this with me, lets go. And that starts a redistricting revolution in Michigan that leads to 430,000 signatures on a petition that successfully amends Michigans constitution. And theyre gonna have independent redistricting there in 2021.

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Republicans Admit They Lose When Elections are Fair and Free - Common Dreams