10/16/18 10/16/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! democracy is unrr sault.t. and d is under assault and th most subtle, seeming reasable kin of ways that arin fact very perciouous, very class-based. amy: in georgia, the democratic candidate for governor stacey abrams, who could become the

first black woman governor in the country, is calling for republican opponent brian kemp to stand down as secretary of state for placing 53,000 voter applications on hold, 70% of them african-american. we go to georgia this big with professor carol anderson. her new book "one person, no , vote: how voter suppression is destroying our democracy." then to flflorida, where a a bat initiative could resestore votig rights to 1.4 million felons. > you havave an american citn waiting over 1717 years after he has cocompleted his sentence,, after he h has repaid hihis debo societety, but yet he still l ct acachieve citizenship status. and that is against democracy. amy: we will speak with desmond meade, a voting rights advocate who is leading the charge. we will also speak with mother jones senior writer ari berman about ballot initiatives that

would ease voting restrictions in seven states. all that andnd more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. saudi officials are preparing to say that after nearly two weeks of denials, prominent saudi journalist jamal khashoggi was killed by mistake during an interrogation gone wrong. the change in the official saudi narrative over khashoggi's disappearance came as turkish for an sick investigators wrapped up the research of saudi arabia's consulate in istanbul nearly two weeks after prominent journalist and "washington post" columnist entered the building and vanished. turkish officials have said khashoggi was tortured and murdered by a squad of 15 saudi hitmen, who dismembered his body. video filmed outside the consulate monday showed workers

carrying buckets, mops, cleaning products, trash h bags, and a cacarton of blea i into ee buildingng hours ahehead of the arrival of turkish crime scene vestigators,s, who repororted ty smelleled cleaning chemicals w n they arrived on n the scene. on monday, president trump said he'd spoken by phone with saudi king salman who denied any knowledge of khashoggi's whereabouts. pres. trump: the king firmly denied any knowledge of it. you did not really know -- i don't want to get into his mind, but it sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. who knows? we're going to try getting to the bottom of a very simple stuff but his was a flattened out. amy: trump has claim saudi arabia would suffer severe consequences if it was responsible for khashoggi's disappearance, but he's repeatedly said the u.s. should not limit weapons sales to the kingdom. a growing number of u.s. lawmakers, including some republicans, have called for

sanctions against saudi arabia. mike pompeo has arrived in the kingre m met with to discuss the disappearance of khashoggi. apparently, they spoke for 15 minutes. president trump visited florida and georgia monday in the wake of hurricane michael's destructive path, which has killed at least 19 people with dozens still missing. trump, who was accompanied by first lady melania, visited storm-ravaged towns in florida with republican governor and senate candidate rick scott before heading to georgia to meet with farmers. this is trump responding to a reporter asking if the damage caused by hurricane michael caused him to rethink his decision to withdraw from the paris climate agreement. crystalump: i want clean water. i want the cleanest air on the planet -- by the way, which has gotten even better. tough on that.

we talked about environmental, i am truly an environmentalist. a lot of people smile when they hear that. mean we have to put every one of our businesses out of business. amy: the category 4 hurricane has left behind a trail of devastation, flattening entire towns and destroying homes and businenesses. at least one million people are still without power and the need for basic necessities is growing. residents are speaking out on the lack of relief, reporting shortages of food, water and medical care. trump's tour of hurricane michael's devastatioion came afr he spentnt much of sundaday golg at trump national golf club in sterling, virginia. msnbc reports it was trump's 210th day spent golfing since he became president. florida prison officials say they're evacuating over 4000 prisoners who were left stranded in dire conditions after hurricane michael hit. buzzfeed news reports that families of prisoners at the gulf correctional institution

who were not evacuated ahead of the storm reported heavily dadamaged infrasastructure and shortages of food and water in the prison. in georgia, where early voting in november's midterm election is already underway, election officials in gwinnett county outside of atlanta have rejected far more absentee ballots than any other county in the state, nearly one out of mail-in 10 ballots thrown out. the move has alarmed voting rights groups who note that more than 60% of the county's residents are latino, black or asian. georgia state officials say the ballots were rejected because of allegedly mismatched signatures, incomplete forms, or missing residential addresses.s. this comes as georgia's african-american democratic gubernatorial candidate stacey abrams has called on her republican opponent to step down from his position as secretary of state following an associated press report alleging voter suppression ahead of the election.

abrams and civil rights groups have accused brian kemp of using minor discrepancies in voters' registrations and id cards to bar them from casting a ballot, a system that has resulted in 53,000 voter applications being put on hold. seven out of 10 of the stalled applications are for african american voters. after headlines, we'll spend the rest of the hour on republican -led voter suppression efforts ahead of the midtermrm election. buzzfeed reports united arab emirates hired u.s. mercenaries to kill politicians in yemen. the uae hired the american mercenary company spear operations group, founded by abraham go on, hungarian-is really living there pittsburgh, pennsylvania. the group's first target in yemen was a local leader of a political party that has been labeled a terrorist group by the uae. a top commander from spear operations said he could not

rule out a target could simply be someone that the uae crown prince did not like. in syria, a monday deadline for anti-government fighters to retreat from a buffer zone around syria's last major rebel-held region in idlib province has come and gone, with rebels refusing to surrender. the u.n. has warned a large-scale offensive could force some 800,000 people to flee and provoke a humanitarian catastrophe. elsewhere, syria reopened a major commercial gateway into jordan on monday, simultaneously reopening a crossing into the israeli-occupied golan heights territory. meanwhile, the bbc has published a new investatation cumementg the extent twhwhich emicical weapons helped syrian esesiden bashar al-sasad tu the tidin the wa the study found the use of chemical weapons has been widespread, with at least 106 chemical attacks since 2013 with evidence in most of the attacks pointing to the syrian government. "the new york times" repeports that burma's militaryry orchestrated a widespread facebook misinformation and hate

campaign targeting the muslim rohingya minority, exacerbating violence that displaced some 700,000 people. the united nations has called it a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. the campaign involved creating troll accounts, posing as burmese celebrities, and spreading false information about the rohingya population. in august, facebook removed the accounts of senior military leaders after coming under fire for its inaction, but the new report from "the new york times" shows that the extent t of the misinformation is far greater than previously believed. in nigeria, the militant group boko haram has killed 24 year-old hauwa leman, a nurse for the international committee of the red cross who was kidnapped in marchch, along with two other aid workers. boko haram killed another of the captives, saifura ahmed, in september. boko haram has killed over 20,000 people, kidnapped thousands -- including many children -- and fighting between the group and government forces

has displaced some 2 million people since 2009. a caravan of 1600 honduran migrants fleeing violence and poverty are headed for the u.s. border. the caravan, which includes families with small children, crossed into guatemala on monday, where they were met with police at the border. after a two-hour standoff, the massive group was able to keep going as they make their way north towards mexico. this is mother of four, andrea aleman. >> there are no work opportunities here. one has to look for the best. >> how many children are you traveling with? >> with four. and we are heading to the united states. we're going to arrive with donald trump. he has to just as we received the americans over here. they will have to accept us over there. amy: last week, vice president mike pence urged the leaders of honduras, el salvador, and guatemala to tell their citizens to not attempt the journey to the u.s.

reports suggest that the trump administration is considering resuming family separations at the u.s.-mexico border. in southwestern france, at least 12 people are dead after a powerful storm brought the equivalent of seven months' worth of rain in just a few hours, flooding whole villages and forcing authorities to evacuate residents trapped on rooftops. the floods are the worst to hit the area in over a century. they came as meteorologists said exceptionally warm sea water along the mediterranean coast added to the storm's ferocity. the increased ocean temperatures are e consistent with global warming g caused by human activity. back in the united states, president trump said monday he would not apologize for repeatedly using a racial slur, saying pocahontas, to describe democratic senator elizabeth warren. trump's comments came after he denied earlier on monday that he never offered to donate $1 million to senator warren's favorite charity if a dna test proved her claims of native

american ancestry. video of a july 5 trump rally in montana shows the president said exactly as much. senator warren has said her mother told her she has cherokee and delaware aesestors on monday, she reaeased dnaa test t tt provides strong evence of tive amecan lineagin h her famy y tree datingacack sito 1 10 gerations. she soso relsed d a deo ababt her family herite e with commen from foer colleues who sa s she ner claim tive anctry whenpplying fojobs. >> heritage during the hiring process? >> no. her riritagead no bearing on her hiring, perd. >> i was cheering the committee -- chairining the committee. it never came up. amy: the controversy comes as many native americans have criticized senator warren's use of a dna test. chuck hoskin jr., secretary of state of the cherokee nation, said -- "sovereign tribal nations set

their own legal requirements for citizenship, and while dna tests can be used to determine lineage, such as paternity to an individual, it is not evidence for tribal affiliation. using a dna test to lay claim to any connection to the cherokee nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong." last month, senator warren said at a town hall meeting that she would "take a hard look" at a 2020 presidential run after the midterms. and a new report from stanford university shows that 99.7% of public comments made to the fcc were in favor of preserving net neutrality. the study looked at 800,000 unique comments that were submitted last year after fcc chair ajit pai unveiled a plan to roll back net neutrality, reversing obama-era rules barring corporate service providers from blocking access to websites, slowing down content, or providing paid fast lanes for internet service. last month, the justice department sued california after governor jerry brown

signing in of the state's own of net neutrality bill into law. a number of legal challenges have been filed in response to the net neutrality repeal including a lawsuit backed by 23 state's attorney general. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. juan: and i'm juan gonzalez. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. wiwith the midterm elections jut three weeks away, voting rights advocates are accusing republican officials in several states of orchestrating a campaign of voter suppression targeting people of color. in georgia, the democratic candidate for governor stacey abrams who could become the first black woman governor in the country is calling on her republican opponent, brian kemp, to step down from his role as georgia's secretary of state for placing 53,000 votes on hold. abrams, along with several civil rights groups, have accused kemp

of using the state's exact match system to disenfranchise voters. with exact match, even a minor didiscrepancy in a voter's registration and their official id could bar them from casting a ballot. this is stacey abrams speaking to cnn on sunday. >> you have 53,000 new peoplple who are e being forced t tgo through unnecessary hururdles to prove they are bonona fides.s. the secocond is you have 159 counties them of thousands of volulueer and p pd poll wororkes who are e going to bee asked to substantiaially verify that thee idids are suffificient. ththis is a subjbjective standn. votiti should not be a question ofrust on the part of voterss whether ththey can trust t the system.. and right t now he is youou rung ththe public trurust in the sysm because 53,000 people have been told, you may be able to vote and you may not, it is up to you to prove it. i would say we have known since 2016 that the exact match system has a disproportionate effect on people of color and on women.

he was sued for this exact problem. he was forced to restore 33,000 illegally canceled registrations . he turned around and got the state legislature to pass a law to allow him to make the same mistake again. amy: in other news from georgia, election officials in gwinnett county outside of atlanta have rejected far more absentee ballots than any other county in the state, with nearly one out of 10 mail-in ballots thrown out. the move has alarmed voting rights groups who nonote that me than 60% of the county's residents are latino, black or asian. for more on voter suppression in georgia, we're joined by carol for more on voter suppression in georgia, we're joined by carol anderson, chair of the african american studies department at emory university and author most -- the new book "one person, no vote: how voter suppression is destroying our democracy." her previous books include "white rage: the unspoken truth of our racial divide," which won the 2017 national book critics circle award for criticism. welcome to democracy now!

so talk about this latest controversy. people are already voting in georgia right now. what is at stake? welcome the democratic candidate casey abrams could be the first african-american woman governor in u.s.s. history. talk about what brian kemp, the secretary of state, republican candidate running against her, has done with these 53,000 voter forms. he has puty say is it in pending status. they're basically suspended. they are in a kind of election limbo or they have not been automatically put on the register -- voter registration rolls. asct match is exactly initiates and malicious as stacey abrams has said, as the courts have said because what it does is it looks at minor

things. hen in yourave a- hyp name when you fill out your footer registration but your driver's license does not have then that registration is kicked out and is put in this kind of limbo status. and because things like a hyphen or accent mark or why instead of those things immediately begin to go after the names s fr african-americans, for hispanics, and for asians. this is why you are saying t tht kind of disproportional -- disproportionate elimination of these registration cards. it is as pernicious as kris crosscheck. juan: and the issue of having one of the candidates for the seat also be in charge of overseeing the election process.

could you talk about that as well? >> imagine this. you are playing a game where you win, you areb alsou thet referee. so you get to choose when a foul is c called. anyone would look k at that and say, w wait a minute. that game is skewed. and that is what is happening here. integrity would require brian kemp to recuse himself, to step down as secretary of state in this kind of high-profile election. instead, he has not. and so we see things going on like prior to this, we had the trying to shut down the polling places in majority afrirican-american counties or counties that have sizable black populations. so like e in randolph county whe one of kemp's allies try to recommend that seven of nine polling stations shut down

before the general election. i mean, that kind of interference, that kind of skewed decision-making is what is stacey abrams is talking about when she says that it is calling into question the lelegitimacy of the election. it is calling it is question the legitimacy of our e electoral processes. so as secretary of state, that is the bedrock foundation of his role. it is to ensure the integrity of the election process. ones sitting on top of this and it undermines that. amy: brian kemp, the secretary state and a republican candidate for governor tweeted sunday -- "my opopponent is unapologeticay extreme. she's banking on illegal immigrants to secure victory for her at the ballot box." professor anderson? >> yes. so that --kemp so much like kris kobach out of kansas. that lies been riding

ofnoncitizens voting enmass, skewing the elections in kansas and only he can block them. so by raising the flag of illegal immigrants, it is playing to a racist trope that is in the body politics, that these immigrants are going to somehow steal our elections. -- thecannot point to same way kris kobach could not .2.2 -- all of these illegal immigrants. it is a fiction. it is a lie. it is a myth that is b being usd to stir up fear and to justify the kind of unwarranted voter suppression techniques that these secretaries of state, like brian kemp and kris kobach, are using. juan: i want to go back to the issue of the closing of polling places. most people really don't be attention to what happens in

polling places other than theirs. could you talk about the impact , either closing the voting places or shifting voting places from one location to another just before an election? >> absolutely. so one of the things to pay attention to is that after the supreme court gutted the voting rights act with the shelti county beholder decision in 2013, at the time we got to the 2016 election, states that had been under preclearance, and that is where because of their history of racial discrimination at the polls, they had to have all of their voting rights -- voting changes approved by the department of justice. after the voting rights was wered, 868 polling places shut down of the time we got to the 2016 election. brian kemp has been responsible

for 214 of those polling places being shut down. what the research shows is that for every 10th of a mile that a polling place is removed from the african-american community, black voter turnout goes down by .5%. so the more you move these polling places, the further and further come of the more and more you're able to depress the black voter turnout. so we had an instance in sparta beingunder the guise of fiscally responsible, they were going to consolidate the polling well, when they consolidated the polling station, the one for the black community -- and i can say the black community because we do have residential segregation in the united states. so for the one in the black community, that one was moved 17 miles away. now, think about that for trying to vote. and what we also know is that

many in the african-american privatey dodo not have cars. they don't have personal transportation. so they have to rely upon public transportation. so when you move a polling place further and further away from , by that community very moment, that very instance is designed to depress the black voter turnout. amy: in june, democracy now! spoke with stacey abrams, democratic candidate for governor in georgia. >> kemp hasas built a strong record o of voter suppression. yes, he and i have conflicted a number of times. think, i knowon't i'm very proud of our record of beating him come of forcing them to restore the canceled registration of thousands of compelling's office to do the right thing when it comes to voter registration. it also, i think it a challenging conversation to have both with secretary kemp and

with lieutenant governor cable because rather than focusing on how we move the state forward, they both focus, virtually, on this quite reform of bigotry of how they want to harm communities and hold as back. amy: that is stacey abrams speaking on democracy now! about brian kemp and georgia lieutenant governor casey cagle. i also want to turn to the republican senator david perdue of georgia who was captured on video saturday as he snatched a cell phone out of the hands of a constituent who asked about republican gubernatorial candidate brian kemp, who perdue was stumping for. senator perdue is on the campus of georgia tech in atlanta to -- when a student tried to ask them about his endorsement. >> how can you endorse a candidate -- that is our property. give me my phone back. amy: senator perdue returned the

phone after the student demanded it back. on sunday, perdue's office called the incident a misunderstanding, saying the senator thought the student wanted to take a selfie with him. professor anderson, if you could comment on this? and as we wrap up this discussion about georgia, who is voting right now? in some states, there is no voting takaking place. what is happening in georgia? >> first on senator perdue. remember, senator perdue is the one who opened one of those christian breakfasts by praying by quotingdeath, left a"may your wife the widow and her children homeless and records. -- and beggards." stacey abrams is right that the language that we are getting

from brian kemp and casey cagle has been the language of fear, has been the language of stoking racial animosity, racial anxiety and bigotry. theirre selling fear as component for why they should be in office. so what we're seeing right now is we have early voting going on . i am not sure how the risk had it has b been, but i know the grassroots organizations have been very active in getting people registered to vote, getting people out to vote. and because stacy abrams has a message of hope, has a message of how do we build georgia for all of us, that is in fact stoking the fear on the side of the republicans because the

are changing so much in georgia are changing so much in georgia that the vote for african americans, asians, latinos has to be stuffed down because the message that brian kemp and the republicans are bringing art messages that resonate with that population. because those populations are in fact targeted by the message. amy: carol anderson, chair of the african american studies department at emory university, and author most recently of "one person, no vote: how voter suppression is destroying our democracy." we will be back with her and other guests in a moment. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: well, as the midterm elections approach, we're continuing our discussion on

voting rights for the voters in hour. flororida are preparing g to von a measure that would restore voting rights to 1.4 million people. that's right, 1.4 million people with nonviolent felonies who have fully completed their sentences. one of five african-americans in florida and 10% of the state's adult population are ineligible to vote because of a criminal record. across t the united states, more than 6.1 really people with felony convictions are not eligibible to vote. florida is one of jujust four states t that bar ex-felons from voting for life. the other states arere iowa, kentucky, and virginia. the brennan center for justice reports that florida disenfranchises more citizens than alabama, georgia, louisiana, mississippi, north carolina, south carolina, and tennessee combined. amy: we are now joinined by desmond meade, president of the florida rights restoration coalition who is leading the fight to re-enfranchise felons in florida. he's also chairman of the

floridians for a fair democracy. he himself is an ex-offender who was previously homeless. he is still disenfranchised. we are also joined by ari berman, senior writer at mother jones, a reporting fellow at the nation institute, and author of "give us the ballot: the modern struggle for voting rights in america." his latest piece is titled "inside the unlikely movement that could restore voting rights to 1.4 million floridians." we welcome you both to democracy now! desmond, talk about what is on the ballot in november in florida and what this means. >> good morning, amy, and thank you for having me on the show. when you ask what is on the ballot, i think what is on the ballot is solutions. i think amendment 4 bank is all about solutions in a different way of really moving issues in this country. when you are seeing people from

all walks of l life, from m all political persuasions, all races that have actually come together and create a very impressive grassroots movement, it is poised to make history on november 6, ththat is whwhat is right about ththis movement, tht is what is right about this country. so we are very excited about it will stop juan: could you talk about what the situation is now for an extra one, how difficult it is to regain your voting rights and what this law, if it four bankin amendment would do? >> of coururse. in the state of florida, and probably the worst in the entire country, person has to wait five to seven years before they are just about to apply. and once they apply, what we have seen our people waiting upwards of 10 plus years just to get a shot at having a hearing. and if they're lucky enough to get a hearing, when they walk into the door they probably have about 1% of chance of actually

getting their civil rights restored, and so that is indicative of a broken system. i think the courts have declared it a broken system. amendment 4 seeks to fix that. amy: ariri berman, talk about te history of this. >> the history of this lot dates back to ththe jim crow era. in 1850 eight, florida had ratified the 13th, 14, and 15 commitment to rejoin the union. -- amendment to rejoin the union. florida massively expanded the felonies felonies in the state. they made it so if you have a felony, you u could not vote. in this disproportionately targeted african-americans to the point after the law passed, 95% of prisoners in florida's camps were african-american. it has spread beyond african-americans to the entire state. you u have a situation where in floridida, about 1.7 million

people can't vote. this amendment would restore million of those. 500,000 are african-american. the rest are white and latino. i think that is one of the reasons you have seen such a big coalition rally behind this because it is not just african-americans being disenfranchised. a lot of white republican trump supporters cannot vote in florida, either. but the numbers are so staggering. 10% of people in the country's most important swing statate not being able to vote. i think all of the attention on georgia voter suppression is warrananted, but we're talking -- 53,000hrough people. in florida, we're talking about 1.4 million people that mike at the right to vote back. more people right now are disenfranchised in florida than any other state. that is why amendment 4 is so important. juan: could you talk about the movement that is built around it terms of what kind of support it has? it has bipartisan support? >> it is remarkable movement

they have built. you're talking about groups from the a so y you to the e christin coalition to the koch brothers network that are supporting this. these groups rarely agree on anything. what is fafascinatingg is it nes 50% of support from voters to pass. that is a pretty high bar. right now polling shows it has about 70% to 75% support, so that is amazing.g. is you everinating movement by resolve those across the e country to makake harder o vote will stop at on the ground in florida, republicans are supporting. what it tells me, if you get out of the politics, get out of talking to politicians they go straight to the people, this kind of stuff is popular, that restoring voting rights to voting, there is broad-based support for democracy and justice agenda in this country. what is happening in florida right now shows that. amy: just to show the significance, b back to 2016. trump won florida, beat hillary clinton by almost 113,000 votes.

votes. millionlking about 1.4 voters now -- more voters being eligible to vote. >> the number of people disenfnfranchised in floririda s far lalarge and then m margin or victoryry. winning at a time that 1.4 million people could not vote in the state. you go back to the 2000 election in florida, thousands of voters were wrongly labeled as ex-felon s and purged from the rolls, which likely cost al gored the election. this law has swung elections, disenfranchise millions of peopople. a thick a lot of people realize it is a relic of jim crow in time we end this and move on and give people second chances.

juan: desmond meade, when was the last time -- you are an excel and who has not been able to vote. it was the last time you voted? >> i think it was during the time of moses. no, actually, the last time i voted was when i was serving in the military, and that is been quite a number of years. it is an act that now i think i treasure even more than i did back then. that is sosomething i'm looking forward to doing. we have citizens across this great state of ours who have made mistakes s in the past and have paid their dedebt. and this is a countrtry that really belieieves that when thee debt is paid, it is paid. it is time for us to move on and experience what being g a citizn is all about. there is no greater expression than being able to vote. to a map ofto turn the country and talk about the

states. two states in the country, which everyone, including people with felony convictions, are allowed to vote, maine and vermont come you can vote from jail. in the most restrictive states, florida, virginia, kentucky, and i welcome all people with felony convictions are permanently disenfranchised. florida has the highest number of disenfranchised voters, 1.4 million adults in the state can vote -- can't vote because of having a felony conviction. desmond meade, in this bipartisan coalition that has formed, talk about what it is like to work with these different groups and what to the polls indicate for november? >> first of all, we don't even call ourselves a bipartisan movement. we are an organic, grassroots movement that welcomes and enjoys bipartisan support. we are not leading with the partisan nature of this topic or

the issue of f voting. what we arare leadining with ise human nature. that there are real people whose lives are impacted by these policies. and because of that, we have been able to, first of all, recognize that some of disenfranchisement now impacts people from all walks of life, which now allows us to go into communities in rural and urban parts of florida and have real conversations with real people, and really connect with the pain they are feeling. because of that, what we have seen is indicativeve of what w'e seseeing now with the hurricane relief e eorts that t we have always seen. in the aftermath of her hurricane, no one cares how their neigighbor voted no one cares how much money they make. billy thing they see is another human being in need. that is the beautiful part of this campaign that we have embraced and we hold onto for dear life. areususe at the end, we

organizing folks along the line of humanity. and because of that, we have been able to get people that cloak af their partisan comes together as brotothers and sisisters in thihis movements, s americans, rally around each other knowing once the debt is paid it's paid. so we e can have organizations like christian coalition, freedom p partisan to stand up d say, you know what? it is time to bring second chances back to the state of florida. and they can do that -- a.c.l. you come advancement projects, alliance for safety and justice and others. that to me is the most beautiful thing that we are witnessising here. i believe we are becoming a shining light for the rest of the country about what is good when people can elevate themselves above partisan bickering, above racial discord, and connect along the lines of humanity for the good of all

people. juan: ari berman and i want to move from florida to another state that is also a scene of disproportionate targeting up racial minority, the supreme court has ruled it will allow the state of north dakota to enforce a new voter id requirement that will make it harder for native americans to vote during the midterm elections. the state new voter id law requires voters to show identification that demonstrate a residential street address, but this has already rendered many tribal ids invalid since many native americans who live on reservations depend on post office boxes to receive their mail. the law could make a big difference in the close race between democratic senator heidi heitkamp and republican challenger kevin cramer. the race is expected to help decide who controls the senate. can he talk about that? >> the north dakota voter id law has fallen under the radar of georgia, but it is just as

serious. the way it is written, most tribal ids are not going to be accepted because they do not have a residential address in them. most native americans live in rural areas and get their mail at the post office. there's nothing wrong with that, but this law is specifically written to not allow po boxes as an address. what is happening is thousands of native americans in north dakota could be disenfranchised by this republican voter id law. 20% of eligible native american voters don't have the correct id. that means about 5000 native american voters might not be able to vote in the next election. we're running out of time to try to get them the correct ids right now. basically, 20 days away from the election. heri heitkamp only won first race for senate by 3000 votes with strong native support. this one v voter id law in north dakota could cost heidi heitkamp

for senate seat and could cost them a credit control of the senatete. it is a very serious situation. we're also talking about the most historically disenfrancnchised group who facs all sorts of barriers today. and now 30 days before the election, they find out they might not be able to vote in a critical midterm election. absolutely shocking. amy: it is interesting this is happening at a time of trunk continually attacking senator elizabeth warned, trying to use the word pocahontas, the name pocahontas as a pejorative to describe her. she is now gone and gotten a dna test, which she says from a stanford professor that says she has nativeve american lineage ad ancestry as she looks like she is about to announce her bid for 2020 presidential -- for the 2020 presidential election? north dakotane if got just a fraction of this press.

what we should be e focusing on instead of or in sestriere's all of the barriers beieing faced by native americans in this country. you can go down every single statistic and see the problem. particularly with voting, there's a long history of disenfraranchising native ameren vovoting's come o of making pulg places -- pulling places difficulult host of a new voterd law now is put into place that could disenfranchise houses of nader voters. to me this is outrageous. it is un-american. the fact this election of north dakota is tainted by voter suppression, you can't reverse it. right now people have to do everything they can to get native americans are they can get the id thehey need to vote. this law was specifically written to disenfranchise native american voters. juan: in terms of the fact we are only weeks away from the midterm elections, clearly, the florida referendum -- whatever happens there will only take

effect for the next election. but what can be done now in georgia and in north dakota to be able to have these folks have their right to v vote before ths electition? >> in georgia, there's a lawsuit filed to allow the pending registrations to go through. you can still show up to vote. in north dakota, the trouble authororities are going to basically have a temporary id they will give people, l letters sent have an address. ole workerers are supposed to accept that. we have to be very vigilant. peopletremely worried will show up in georgia, show up in north dakota and might even have their right documents and election workers won't be able -- won't tell them they are able to vote. theyballot initiatives will use restrictions in other parts of the country? >> this is huge. in seven states it would

dramatically expand voting. in michigan and nevada, they're cracking down on gerrymandering in places like colorado and utah. despite all of the focus on voter suppression, there is an opportunity to dramatically expand voting rights in 2018. there is the best opportunity in a decade to make it easier to vote for millions of people. i think that while all the focus is on suppression in 2018, the landscaper voting rights could look dramatically different in 2020 of all of these ballot initiatives pass, or even if some of them has in 2018. amy: thank you for being with us, ari berman of mother jones, and desmond meade of the florida rights restoration coalition. desmond, i will see you on saturday night in melbourne, florida. we will be doing a public conversation about this groundbreaking amendment that is the proposed in florida, amendment 4.

when we come back, we continue our conversation with carol anderson, author of "one person, no vote." stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: we continue our conversation on voting rights. still with us, professor carol anderson, author of the new book "one person, no vote: how voter suppression is destroying our democracy." the book looks at how african american voter participation has

been systematically compromised since the 2013 supreme court decision that gutttted the 1965 voting rights act. in her new book, anderson tracks the subsequent rise of voter suppreression laws across the united states are that by the election, the number of black 2016 voters nationwide dropped from 66% turnout to under 60%. the discrepancy was greater in certain key areas likeke milwaukee, where turnout went down from 78% in 2012 to less than 50% in 2016. president trump won wisconsin by a margin of fewer than 23,000 votes. amy: carol anderson is chair of the african american studies department at emory university. again, her book, "one person, no vote: how voter suppression is destroying our democracy." professor anderson, would you won int president trump

2016 because of voter suppression? >> absolutely. absolutely. rage," in the epilogue, one of the things i looked at was voter suppression in wisconsin and felony disenfranchisement in florida. in those two states alone, so were 60,000, there iner voters in votes cast 2016 in wisconsin. 68% of that drop came out of milwaukee where 70% of the state's black population lives. so -- milwaukee is a democratic stronghold. so the change there because of the voter suppression put in place by scott walker in the republican legislature, that specifically targeted milwaukee, that have a massive shift.

so that narrow margin that trump won in wisconsin, that is due to what happened there in milwaukee. in fact, a study showed that 8% of whites could not vote because of voter id lawaws. but 27% of african-americans in wisconsin could not vote because of voter id laws. voter suppression swung electoral college in wisconsin to trump. and then with felony disenfranchisement's in florida, .ust looking at the numbers the numbers showed 80% of those who are disenfranchised are democrats. and in terms of voter turnout rate, for those who have regained their full citizenship rights, their voting rights,, you're l looking at about a 20% turnrnout rate. just running those numbers

alone, it showed the 100 plus thousand margin n that trump won in fact what have flipped to over 200 plows and plus for hillary clinton. -- 200 plus thousand for hillary clinton. the victory in those two states alone would have swung to hillary clinton. trump won by voter suppression. juan: carol anderson, i want to ask you, in one of the chapters in your book, you detail the various ways that voter suppression has been used in recent years, especially after the supreme court shall be decision. chapter three you talk about voter roll perjury -- purging. the story read like something out of stalinist russia, but this cashel to list was the united states in the 21st 41,637 also virginia, purged. florida, 182,000 purged. 481,000 235 purged.

georgia, 591,000 purged. ohio, 2 million purged. the issue of how the purging of roles, clearly, many roles in many cities especially need to be purged because people move and they forget to reregister. or they reregister and the old address is still there. and these are astounding numbers in terms of purges across the country in many of these states. >> absolutely. absolutely. in the national registration act, it is great clear about how voter roll maintenance is supposed to happen. what we see are very aggressive secretaries of state who are skipping over many of those steps and going straight to nonvoting as the reason why people are being purged. what we have here, for instance in georgia, is that brian kemp's

office has said we don't purge people because they haven't voted regularly. we purge people because they haven't had regular contact with election officials. but if you haven't changed your name, then you're not one have a contact with election officials. of onehaven't moved out voting precinct, one jurisdiction to another -- not moving within, but moving outside of -- then you're not goining to have contact. so the only reasas you haven't had regular contact then is that you haven't voted regularly. well, what we know from the minorities,that poor people, and young people don't vote regularly. so it becomes a way by using that characteristic as a way to wipe them off of the voter rolls. from 2016 to 2018, so in the past two years, a brennan center

report shows that kemp's office has removed 10.6% of registered voters off of the roles in georgia. over 10% have been removed off of the roles in the past two years. that is not maintenance. that is really beginning to cull the electorate. amy: seems like the pastor governorships or senate is to be ,ecretary of state of any state where you're going to determine he was going to vote. , carolcould talk anderson, probably the country but using specific examples as you talk about your professor chair of african american studies at emory, what the research shows about the limitations that are put on voters and who that disproportionately affects? why people of color and poor people are most affected? using

specific examples. >> the best way to talk about this, for instance, voter ids. voter ids sound really innocuous, but they are based on ally, the fraud of voter fraud, the lie of voter fraud. voter fraud is a myth. justin levitt, professor out of california, proved that out of -- from 2000-2014, there has been one billion votes in the united states. out of those one billion, he was able to document 31 cases of voter impersonation fraud. 31 out of one billion. that is about two a year. massive that lie a voter fraud, we get to this move toward voter id to protect the ballot box. berman talked about.

you write the laws, for instance, in north dakota so now native americans are not going to be able to vote in mass the way they could have because of a simple tweak in that law v voter id that is based on a lie. so what we see as well in alabama, what alabama did in terms of voter suppression, its voter id law, is said, ok, you have to have a government issued photo id. the lelegal defense fund n noted that somehow public housingg id was not on that list of government issued photo id. alabama is a poor state. they have many people in public housing. 71% of whom are african-american. but alabama ruled that public housing id was not an acceptable form of government issued photo id. bubut it doesn't get more government issued them public housing will stop and then whatt alabama did wawas say, ok, but r

driver's license will count. in alababama shut down the department of motor vehicles in the black belt counties. those are counties in alabama that are overwhelmingly poor and that also have a large number of african-americans. and so now you had at least about a 50 mile trip in order to get to the nearest department of motor vehicles. well, alalabama is ranked 48th n the nation and public transportation. so you don't have public transportation to go the 50 miles to get the drivers license . if you don't have a drivers license, how do you drive 50 miles? juan: carol anderson, i want to ask you to talk about gerrymandering, which many people accept these states as a fact of life. what h has the effect of gerrymandering on voting? >> gerrymandering, extreme partisan gerrymandering h has

diluted the vote. it depresses the vote because you have noncompetitive racists. it is also put 16 to 26 additional republican seats in the u.s. house of representatives. ofhas created these kinds safe, ron burrow districts where politicians were able to choose their voters instead of the voters choosing them. this is why you see that kind of massive disparity when congress is moving to cut and get thehe affofordable care act, but 70% f americans want that act strengthen. they want accecess to health ca. or easy the majority of americans -- were you see the mamajority of americans did not want the tax bill that move what $.5 trillion to the uber wealthy, yet you had congress sailing that bill through. that is because they did not have to be responsive to the will of the voters. that is what gerrymandering does. amy: carol anderson, thank you for being with us, chair of african american studies department at emory university, and author of no vote: how voter suppression is destroying our

democracy." here and i speaking will be speaking in gaineille, florida, on saturday. democracy now! is looking for feedbackck fro

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