Efforts to Restrict Voting Access Gain Traction Nationwide

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KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2021

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

During the past year, state legislatures across the country have implemented restrictive voting laws that experts say will stop some voters from casting ballots. Voter suppression is not a new phenomenon in the United States, but lawmakers are coming up with new ways to restrict voting access. In Texas for example, a recently passed state law limits the use of ballot drop boxes and impedes election officials from promoting vote-by-mail, according to the New York Times. Efforts to protect voting rights and access at the federal level have stalled in Congress. Meanwhile, California finds itself in the middle of a gubernatorial recall election in which a small minority of voters could decide the fate of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who overwhelmingly won his office in 2018. We talk about laws and policies limiting voting access and their threat to democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:44.3	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. All across the country, Republican legislators have been working hard to make it more difficult to vote. As their older, wider base loses demographic weight. The conservative response across many states has not been to shift policies, but rather cut back on who can vote and how they can do so.
1:13.6	Today on forum, we'll check in on the tactics of individual states and deconstruct the ideology of minority rule that's migrating from the hard right into mainstream conservatism.
1:23.9	That's all next on Forum after this news.
1:56.2	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. During the past year, state legislatures across the country have implemented restrictive voting laws that experts say will stop some voters from casting ballots.
2:01.2	Efforts to protect voting rights and access at the federal level have stalled in the Senate.
2:07.0	Meanwhile, California finds itself in the middle of a gubernatorial recall election in which a small minority of voters could decide the fate of the nation's most populous state.
2:12.0	Governor Gavin Newsom won 7.7 million votes in 2018.
2:16.4	If he's recalled, the winning challenger will almost certainly get fewer votes than Newsom then or this week and will be lucky to net one or two million votes.
2:25.5	And that's to say nothing, a radical gerrymandering and the Republican tilt to the Senate added all up and a small minority of the country,
2:32.8	whiter, older and less urban than the country as a whole
2:35.6	has a wildly disproportionate influence on the country's politics.
	...

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