Are the Democrats Blowing It on Voting Rights?
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 23 June 2021
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Senate Democrats tried to open up debate on sweeping voting rights legislation Tuesday but were stopped by a lack of support from their Republican counterparts. Would a more incremental approach have succeeded?
Guest: Rick Hasen, professor of law and political science at the University of California–Irvine School of Law and the author of Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust, and the Threat to American Democracy.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Rick Hassan is an election law expert, but for the past few weeks, he's been watching |
| 0:08.4 | these videos. |
| 0:09.3 | Hi, babe, it's me, Sarah Silverman. |
| 0:12.1 | I know what you're thinking. |
| 0:13.9 | These are celebrity videos. |
| 0:16.0 | Videos endorsing the kind of election reforms, Rick's been advocating for years. |
| 0:20.7 | Whatever your personal politics are, whatever side of the aisle you find yourself on, |
| 0:24.7 | you need to know that your vote matters. |
| 0:27.3 | They all focus on one bill in particular, H.R. 1, the For the People Act. |
| 0:32.8 | It's called the For the People Act, and it's going to do a lot of amazing things like |
| 0:36.6 | end gerrymandering and secure our elections. |
| 0:39.8 | But either night... |
| 0:40.1 | We're dead. We have no voice. |
| 0:43.0 | In one of the more dramatic clips, Katie Perry and Orlando Bloom travel back in time from a dystopian future. |
| 0:50.0 | And they warn Americans. |
| 0:51.9 | Polling places closed. We lost our right to vote. |
| 0:56.3 | Save democracy while you can. |
| 0:59.2 | Call your senator now. |
| 1:01.5 | Tell Daisy. |
| 1:02.4 | Here's the funny thing. |
| 1:03.7 | Rick, who's been warning legislators |
| 1:05.6 | about the booby traps in American election law for decades. |
... |
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