One of the things that I think, and Ari, maybe this is something you've covered or are thinking of,

is that one of the things that strikes me is, you know, these legislatures are part-time legislatures.

So you would think that, you know, here you are, you're a part-time legislature, you only have so many legislative days,

and you've got a pandemic that you have to deal with, and how much of their legislative calendar

is actually being used on

to pass voting suppression laws? Well, I mean, I followed most of the Georgia legislature,

and they devoted more time to voter suppression than any other issue. I'm pretty confident in saying

that if you look at the committees, the House, Senate, the debate, I mean, it was the

overriding issue in the state that they were dealing with. And I think it's been the same thing

everywhere around the country. This has been the top, the number one issue they've been

focused on is making it harder to vote and trying to succeed legislatively where they failed

through litigation or intimidation in 2020.

Hey, everybody.

Normally, we just lead off with our theme from Leo Kotke, but I just thought I'd

depart from the norm today by opening with that clip from Mark Elias and Ari Berman.

Mark, if you're a regular listener to this podcast, is the lead lawyer for the

National Democratic Party. Even if you're not a regular listener, that's still what he does.

And Ari Berman is a journalist and author who covers voting rights. Now, bring us in, Leo.

Thank you. who covers voting rights. Now, bring us in, Leo.

Hey, everybody, you got to mix things up, right? Huh? Huh? You know, I've lost count of how many times Mark Elias has done this podcast. Full disclosure, Mark is still my lawyer. More importantly,

he was my lawyer in 2008

2009 when I won my Senate seat in Minnesota by 312 votes out of 2.9 million cast the

...