I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Tuesday, July 6th.

Hope you had a great three-day weekend and got to use the 4th of July to think about our country a little bit,

not just blow up fireworks till 3 in the morning, like some people I heard out there Sunday night. And here we go.

Reentry into all kinds of news that will define who we are as a nation, as a democracy, if we can

keep it, as a democracy, if we can achieve it for the near future and maybe longer.

Locally, absentee ballot results from the ranked choice voting primary for mayor of New York

and other offices are coming out today.

And we'll start to talk not only about who won, but also about whether this ranked

choice adventure in democracy is expanding the right

to vote and have your vote mean more than before like it's supposed to. Absentee ballot day will be

our second, a later topic on the show this morning, including what's being released today

and with the new results announced over the weekend that decided some big races.

We'll get to that.

We will also meet one of the most interesting victors from primary night in New York in Buffalo.

We've talked about her on the show.

India Walton.

She upset the incumbent Democratic mayor, Byron Brown, as a Democratic Socialist of America

and Working Families Party back candidate.

Indie Walton will join us and we'll talk about what her victory in Buffalo for the

Democratic nomination for mayor means to New York State, the nation, and the world.

We'll give the first words today to President Biden and Frederick Douglass.

Before we take anything about the present as a given,

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