This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Solvable. I'm Jacob Weisberg.

When you look at modern democracies across the globe, we rank always at the bottom.

Currently, we're about 26 out of 32 in terms of turnout levels.

Voting in America is optional.

In 2016, over 82 million Americans of voting age did not vote. Each year, people

cite a variety of reasons for choosing not to vote. But what about people who want to vote and can't?

Homeless people, people who are transient and move around a great deal, people who may have been

furloughed and lost their jobs and have been

displaced. All of these people are American citizens who deserve the right to vote.

There was a Supreme Court case that cut back on the protections of the Voting Rights Act. Are we

feeling the effects of that now? Every single day. Voter suppression is an

urgent problem. Between 2014 and 2016, over 16 million citizens were removed from state voter

registration rolls. And in 2016 alone, nearly one million ballots cast were rejected.

I don't understand why people aren't angrier. There's nothing more fundamental in a democracy

than the right to vote. Marching for the streets is absolutely one powerful vehicle for

reform.

The other way that you can achieve meaningful reform

is at the ballot box.

Voter suppression is solvable.

Kristen Clark is the president and executive director

of the National Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

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