11/03/20 11/03/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! pres. trump: remember what i said four years ago, i am your voice and we will make america great again. america has heard, the message should be loud and clear, it is time for donald trump to pack his bags and go home. amy: it is election day but already history has been made.

more than 100 million people early in-person or absentee, shattering old records. that's nearly three quarters of the total vote in the 2016 election. today we look at how latinx voters could play a key role in the battleground states of florida, texas, arizona, and pennsylvania. we will speak to former bernie sanders advisor chuck rocha and the award winning journalist maria hinojosa. than racial justice, reproductive rights, immigrant rights, rank choice voting -- just some of the issues on this year's ballot thrgh citizen -- being voted on today. measures and in candidate races. americans will decide how we will risk on to this moment of racial reckoning. amy: we will speak to ronald newman of the american civil liberties union. all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. today is election day. over 100 million people have already voted -- a record-shattering number that is more than two thirds of the total votes cast in 2016's -- 2016, with tens of millions still casting their ballots today. election officials have warned full results could take days, or possibly weeks, to be verified due to the much higher number of mail-in ballots this year. but president trump has decried post-election day ballot-counting and threatened to "go in with our lawyers." on monday, trump claimed on twitter, that a supreme court ruling that allows pennsylvania to count mail-in ballots postmarked by election day and received up to three days later will "induce violence in the streets" and "rampant and unchecked cheating."

twitter labeled the tweet with a warning that its content might be misleading. reports emerged sunday that trump is preparing to claim victory tonight if he even appears to be ahead of joe biden. biden told reporters in response, "the president is not going to steal this election." trump and biden made their final pitches over the last 24 hours, with trump traveling to four pivotal states. both candidates spoke at rallies in pennsylvania, where trump has already vowed to challenge results if they are not in his favor. this is joe biden addressing supporters in pittsburgh. mr. biden: tomorrow we can into the presidency that has divided this nation. folks at home would know tomorrow template and into to a presidency that has built to protect the nation, to presidency that has spanned the flames of hate across this nation.

pouring gasoline on every racial incident in the country. amy: bite not so i. in ohio monday. trump campaigned in north carolina, pennsylvania, wisconsin, and michigan, where he attacked democrats and reiterated many of his racist attacks against immigrants. pres. trump: the open border lobbyist that killed our fellow citizens with illegal drugs and gangs and crimes, they support biden. the far-left democrats that ruined our public schools depleted our inner cities, divided our police and demeaned your sacred faith and values. they support biden. the anti-american radicals defending our noble history heritage and euros, they support sleepy joe biden. amy: meanwhile, non--scalable fencing was installed around the white house monday in anticipation of possible election day protests. many businesses in new york city, washington, d.c., and other cities have boarded up their windows while the

government center in minneapolis was also boarded up. a federal judge has thwarted an attempt by texas republicans to throw out nearly 127,000 drive-thru votes already cast in harris county. the 10 drive-thru polling sites were set up to help texans vote safely amid the pandemic. the republican plaintiffs are appealing the decision. following the ruling, harris county clerk chris hollins announced late monday nine of the 10 polling drive-thru places would be closed today in order to protect votes from any challengesuture after the judge in the case said election day polling places must be inside buildings. most of the drive-thru sites were inside tents. meanwhile, a judge in nevada blocked a lawsuit by the nevada republican party and the trump campaign that sought to halt mail-in ballot counting in clark county, nevada's most populous county and home to las vegas.

about 70% of nevada's voters live in the county. republicans claimed observers were unable to closely watch the counting of ballots, among other complaints. deborah birx, the white house coronavirus task force coordinator, warned in a new report, "we are entering the most concerning and most deadly phase of this pandemic." dr. rx slamm the government's response to the pandemic thus far, writing -- "this is not about lockdowns. it's about an aggressive balanced approach that is not being implemented." dr. birx's remarks and recommendations in the internal report are in direct opposition to trump's claims about the actions, including massive maskless gatherings, which birxarns against. she also notes testing is down and that the u.s. now has more county-level hotspots than at any other time.

nearly 9.3 million cases have been reported in the u.s., over 231,000 deaths -- by far the highest totals anywhere in the world. in international pandemic news, britain is preparing for another month-long lockdown this week, as many european countries grapple with a surge in cases. prime minister boris johnson said his government is extending its 80% wage subsidies for another month. in afghanistan, gunmen stormed kabul university monday, killing at least 22 people. the islamic state claimed responsibility for the attack, though some, including afghanistan's vice president, said the taliban were to blame. this is the latest deadly attack to hit afghanistan as intra-afghan peace talks continue in qatar. on tuesday, students came out to protest the ongoing violence. proteste here today to

against the injustice. we want to raise our voices to the world and say we will never give up and no matter how much they try to kill us, we will continue our studies. amy: in austria, at least four people were killed and over a dozen injured after a series of shooting and stabbing attacks in six different locations in vienna. several people have been arrested, but authorities say they're unsure of how many suspects are still on the run. one suspect was killed by police, an unnamed 20-year-old man with north macedonian and austrian citizenship. this comes as austria begins a partial lockdown today amid a sharp rise in coronavirus cases. u.n. human rights chief michelle bachelet said monday strikes on civilians in the ongoing nagorno-karabakh conflict could constitute war crimes and called again for a halt to attacks on towns, schools, and hospitals. this comes after armenia's leader asked russia for military assistance after azerbaijan's

army pressed deeper into the disputed region of nagorno-karabakh over the weekend. the conflict has entered its sixth week, with three failed ceasefire agreements. armenia has also called for an investigation into the presence of foreign mercenaries after armenian forces said they captured two fighters from syria. azerbaijan's president said monday he is ready to end fighting if armenia pledges to pull out of nagorno-karabakh. a day earlier, he warned his army is prepared to fight armenia "to the end." back in the u.s., protests are continuing in washington state over the police killing of 21-year-old kevin peterson, jr. in the city of vancouver. peterson was fatally shot by three clark county sheriff's deputies thursday in a parking lot. according to reports, peterson was sitting alone in his parked car when police approached. he got out and ran, though it's still unclear what happened just prior to his fatal shooting.

over the weekend, anti-police brutality protesters were confronted by right-wing counter protesters. at least seven people were arrested after a vigil friday night. an independent investigation into peterson's killing is underway. mo information has emerged about a black family that was attacked in their car by a horde of philadelphia police officers last week during protests over the police killing of walter wallace, jr. video of the attack was caught by a nearby observer from their rooftop. an attorney for rickia young, the black mother who was driving the suv at the time, confirms police busted all the car's windows, assaulted and arrested young, pulled her 16-year-old nephew frothe car, and grabbed her 2-year old son -- who suffered a bump on his head from the assault. the police union then posted a now-deleted photo of an officer holding the child on social

media and claimed he was "wandering around barefoot in an area experiencing complete lawlessness." the post also said -- "we are the thin blue line. and we are the only thing standing between order and anarchy." the police union, the fraternal order of police, have also published posts urging people to vote for trump to preserve law and order. the u.s. supreme court on monday against a case activist deray mckesson. the lawsuit involved a police officer who was injured at a protest over the 2016 police killing of alton sterling in baton rouge, louisiana. the unnamed officer was hit with a piece of concrete or rock allegedly thrown by a protester. the officer sued mckesson for damages because of his affiliation with black lives matter.

even though the identity of the alleged assailant is unknown. kentucky governor andy beshear vowed to take immediate corrective action friday following reports kentucky police used three hitler quotes in a training slideshow and urged officers to be "ruthless killers." one of the hitler quotes was -- "the very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence." the slideshow was first reported by a high school newspaper. a police spokesperson said it was removed in 2013 and no longer in use. and hurricane eta is nearing into category 5 strength as it barrels towards nicaragua. the hurricane is expected to cause catastrophic damage in the region, including flooding and nearly three feet of rain in other areas of central america. it is the 28th named storm of the 2020 atlantic hurricane season, which is on pace to break all records.

and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and cash the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman in new york joined by my co-host juan gonzález in new brunswick, new jersey. hi, juan. juan: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. can people are voting across the united states for an election which is on pace to have the highest turnout rate and perhaps 150 years percentagewise. nearly 100 million people have voted early. that is nearly three quarters of the total 2016 vote count. but campaigns are still scrambli to get out the vote in key battleground states. on monday, president trump campaigned in north carolina, wisconsin, michigan, and pennsylvania. meanwhile, democratic

presidential nominee former vice president joe biden campaigned in pennsylvania and ohio. on this final day of the 2020 campaign, we look at how latinx voters could play a key role in deciding the presidency and who controls the senate. many battleground states, including florida, texas, arizona, have large latinx communities. many polls show biden is not doing as well among latinx voters as hillary clinton did in 2016. one recent poll in florida showed a majority of latinx voters supported trump over biden. we are joined now by two guests. chuck rocha was a campaign advisor to bernie sanders. he now runs the pro-biden nuestro pac to mobilize the latino voters. he is author of "tío bernie: the inside story of hobernie sanders brought latinos into the political revolution." and we are joined by maria hinojosa. she is an award-winning

journalist and author of the new memoir "once i was you." a memoir of love and hate in a torn america. she is founder of futuro media, host of latino usa, and co-host of the podcast in the thick. chuck rocha, you are a numbers guy. looking across the country, there was a bloomberg green that came out this weekend saying like and latinx voters are not coming out in the numbers that democratic party hoped for. can you talk specifically about vote? in pennsylvania come in for to come in texas where you are in arizona? >> thank you. latino vote will be the single most imptant factor in the selection. there is some truth on both sides and all of the noisier hearing. there is one thing for sure. no matter where you are in america that more latinos will vote in this election than any time in history of america. already with early voting,

chinle latinos vote in texas, 350,000 in arizona, 1.4. these numbers into drum together. i'm not going to allow and the latino community is not going to allow either party to say we are underperforming. as i've been watching this election for almost two years working for bernie, creating the pac listening to amazing journalists like maria and others during work in our community, i'm sickness and rest. donald is becoming the best get out the vote operation the democrats have ever run. by the democrats to get great job? they're doing an ok job. so many people voting are latino who have no voting history. in texas alone, almost half a million latinos who have no voting history are showing up. that is not because of some astronomical program the democrats are running, that is because they're sick and tired of seeing what this president is doing to our community. whether it is around

coronavirus, jobs and the economy, it is all of those things wrapped together in a cabal of unrest and easiness in a community where we feel like nobody is really speaking for us and we are yearning for somebody to have that conversation. debate the issues and show up with her hat in their hand and ask for our vote. juan: chuck, i'm wondering if you could talk about arizona. i think arizona is more reflective with enormous change in the latino vote, especially givethe fact that arizona only a few years ago was the center of so much anti-immigrant reaction, the heyday of joe arpaio, the show your papers law, and reall the latinx vote is probably going to be most decisive in moving that state into the democratic column. can you talk about what is happened there? >> your seeing an evolution in arizona. for all of you folks at home

that may not live this life every day arizona's very different. mexican-american. there has been the second and third generation of latinos who come of age in arizona under a racist joe arpaio, under a racist law by the governor said you have to show me your papers no matter who you are, even if you are a u.s. citizen just because you may look around. these are the attacks that our community has lived through. these young brown kids are now coming-of-age. they have self organized without help from any democrats or republicans. organized family-run the dreamer movement, immigration movement, the bernie sanders movement, the social justice movement. you are seeing the fruits of those laborers. i plan to my firm has been working year in and year out in the state of arizona. they don't just pop up three months before the election. they are there throughout the year registering voters, helping

people get access to health care and fill out immigration papers. they are a part of the fabric of community. i have been preaching this since i was a little boy. if you show up in the community and show the community respect, you start building the infrastructure of power and that is what you're starting to see now because of the demographic growth in arizona with these kids coming-of-age. that is why you see a transformation in arizona. juan: i want to ask you about pennsylvania. everyone agrees pennsylvania is probably the most critical and decisive state in this race, but there little attention being paid to the latino vote in pennsylvania. these are the latest figures 2019 estimate., not philadelphia, but all of the small cities outside of philadelphia and central pennsylvania.

reading, pennsylvania, 66% hispanic. allentown, pennsylvania, 52% hispanic. lebanon, 44%. lancasr, 38%. bethlehem, 28%. there is a -- it is called the 222 latino corridor, all of the cities up and down the state that are along route 22 that have had enormous growth in the latino population over the last 15, 20 years. i'm wondering your sense of the impact of that vote which is largely puerto rican, dominican, and mexican, will have on the results in pennsylvania? >> oh, my brother come as we say in texas i'm picking up what you're putting down. i lived in pennsylvania for 11 years. my son this morning text me a picture of him and my twin four-year-old grand boys in butler, pennsylvania, going to vote. in 1990 starting with the discover thisi

huge neighborhood and all of the radio stations -- i have been one of the first people out there jumping up and down on the soapbox screaming about this. what happened in at the last four or five years to exacerbate this even more is what you saw on the island of rico. with people fleeing puerto rico, people think they all moved to orlando. with200,000 moved in family members in that corridor you're describing in eastern pennsylvania. because me and our pack have seen no real investment and its community early, my pac spent over $1 million starting in july talking to latinos. many times we were the only ones there with some great organizations on the ground like a handful of others that have been doing the work. we have been diligently communicating in spanish and english with this community because they have one thing in mind -- this is something you talk about all the time, the difference between a cuban voter and drinking voter coming even

though there both caribbean latinos. puerto ricans are more likely to like donald trump. you need to have a conversation -- we did the bernie sanders big multilevel communication but we were one of the only ones to do it. imagine if they would have spent the amount of money they did in philadelphia talking to white voters, which at my last check was over $50 billion compared to my little $1 million talking to latinos. this is an overarching thing we will talk about after the election but you need to treat latinos like white persuadable voters. invest the same amount of money and we will no longer have to accept the bare minimum when it comes to latino turnout and their persuasion percentages. amy: we are talking to chuck rocha. when we come back, we will also be joined by the award-winning journalist maria hinojosa.

petrone media of and has a new book out called "once i was you." stay with us. ♪ [music break]

this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. by juan gonzalez. let's turn to two florida voters discussing the puerto rican vote. we will hear from maria hinojosa organizeran community in central florida. trumpst, latinos for board member. a lot of the puerto ricans from new york, mostly had signed up as democratic because that is where they came from. you will find a lot of the puerto ricans here that might

have signed up to be democrats might vote republican. close to reagan's -- you cannot put them in the same basket as cuban-americans. puerto ricans are progressive. they believe in systems of befare, believe they should health care for all. does notand scare puerto ricans. when they come from the island, they don't belong to republican or democratic party. amy: two puerto rican voices from florida. we're joined by maria hinojosa, renowned journalist come award-winning journalist and author of the new memoir "once i was you," as well as chuck rocha , preeminent voting expert particularly in the latino community, president of

solidarity strategies and founder of nuestro pac. as you listen to those was is in florida, are spending your life right now, your podcast, your broadcasts talking about this election. let's look at florida right now. >> ok. specifically, want me to talk about what i am seeing in florida? amy: related to these voices we just heard. one for trump, one for biden. speaking to the woman for years ago, allegedly on the fence about trump and now she is subtly in trump lane. the trump administration later the campaign has been playing what they always play. they should not be a surprise for the biden campaign. this notion about the fear of

socialism, were conservative, --ngelical, antiabortion this thing that nobody really knows about unless you are from this conversation about religious liberty. latinoue for evangelicals. what is been happening with the trump folks is they have been ining those connections those communities for a while. when she makes those statements, it is true and they're familiar with the trump rhetoric, they respond to it because they respond to bully speak and to the fear. on the other hand -- and this is where i got it wrong four years ago. i did think the drink vote in central florida is what was going to swing the entire state and i failed to see the antiabortion, latino evangelical side of the puerto rican vote,

which is just enough to be able to swing it is more conservative. this time around it is not clear. even though the trump administration has been making a lot of inroads in the campaign with latino evangelicals, also what i was hearing in terms of my reporting is many latinos and the statementke come up to -- be on our forehead, we cannot take this anymore. what i am focusing on in central florida, which i think chuck is ugly also speaking out about -- is also speaking out about, is the youth vote. it is the same thing in florida. their parents may be voting for trump will they? so that is where i am thinking about florida. could followif i up on that. one of the points i've tried to make now for several months is there are more than 2 million latinos who turned 18 just since

the last presidential election. on -- in termsis of especially trying to get a sense of where theoung votis going and clearly all of the polling has shown that especially when it comes to young people of all races and nationalities, there is a marked -- biden anduy-in the democrats versus trump and the republicans. could you talk about what you found as you been talking to young people around the country, young latinos especially? >> it is different than four years ago in the sense that i andk you remember, juan amy, at the democratic national convention, the anti-hillary essentially bernie ng of the party was so upset and many latinos and latinas, my students were very much involved with bernie, were very upset to the

point where many said, we're not going to be able to do this. i remember hearing them say, we're not going to go. it was like, but yes, are throwing away a vote. i think that is different this time. that is one element. i think we don't have the polling. i'm going to talk about my own family right here in my home. my daughter who is 22, four years ago voted like, yes, i like hillary, she is fine but donald trump is not going to win -- she was wrong. i knew he had a very strong possibility of winning as did probably you. is time around, she has been phone banking almost every weekend. she is the one who organized the family vote plan. on sunday night, she walked up to me and said, "mom, texas is blue." a sundayt is 10:00 on night and you're telling me texas is blue? i said, no, it is not. as said, i am repeating that

my mantra to make it come true. this is my new york city raise dominican mexican harlemite daughter talking this way. she is not the only one. latinos who i know who are working at the polls. this is part of the electorate i don't think is being pulled. to connectnew how with them and he is right. if you connect with the latino --ers, they will respond and you're really going to tell us again, with all due respect to the bloomberg reporters, that we are not turning out? i am not buying at this time around. maybe i will have to e-krona. maybe i will have to eat crow but i do think this generation of latinas who have felt these -- with our skin. they're the one thing i am absolutely voting. i am voting as if my life

depended on it. you, chuck, i want to ask the latino decisions which does allow the calling for the national association of -- they have been doing a tracking poll for a couple of months. they are tracking poll shows among around the country and shows the number one issue for latino voters is the coronavirus and the country's respse to the coronavirus. numb two is health ce. number thr is jobs. then comes fouh or fifth place, immigtion. your sense of what these issues -- how they can be read in terms of how latino voters will break today and have been breaking in the selection? >> the polling is correct.

i have been doing focus groups and that polling is spot on. i would push back a little and say you can have all the polling under the world and you can be huge plus to meeting you can figure out all the matrix and analytics to talk abo all these policy nuances but if you don't actually step to the community and have a conversation -- ne of the policy polling's really matter. there are a lot of people showing up that are new voters who have never voted before. as a practitioner, and one of the very few senior brown people where majoreetgs decisions are made. if you have no voting history, no matter the color of your skin, no campaign is targeting you to get you out vote. there are hundreds of thousands of young latinos that nobody is talking to who are showing up because they are mad about their president trying to define this country as an angry nasty place. the decisions you're talking about, the latino decision polling, is what you see older

latinos reacting when they are called and asked. but in the early part of the summer when we were doing focus groups, we were talking to latino infrequent voters. they were saying, we don't like donald trump. but tell me something about joe biden. our issues are corona, health care, jobs. what is he going to do to fix that? they have not as of june, july, august, september, heard from many campaigns to say tell us why we should vote for you -- which is the larger problem that we are not going to fix today but we're looking to fix as we go. i have been chipping away at this for bernie and others to fix this as a totality. our problem is not specifically around one issue. , you have hinojosa just come out with the book "once i was you." it is a heartrending book, beautiful story i'm not only your life -- and it is a memoir -- but through you, the issue of

, among other things, immigration starting with your own family story. you grew up on the south side of chicago. but you talk about almost having been separated from your mother when your family migrated from mexico in the 1960's. can you talk about what happened and this whole issue of child separation and how it plays out in the election? not only for the latinx population, because you say it is not only immigration the latinx publishing cares about, but across this country? amy, i did not fully understand my own story because this is what trauma looks like. you think you knoa story. i knew something had happened at the airport. what i did not know was the level to which it had escalated.

essentially, my dad, may he rest in peace, was recruited by the university of chicago. he helped create the cochlear implant. that is how we end up in chicago. he goes first in a few months later my mom and the four of us kids come by plane, so we have privilege. we came by plane from mexico city to dallas to chicago. we had our green cards. i was a baby in my mother's arms. what we thought was -- what i had thought was some kindf communication that happened actually in the moment when we allived through the babies and children that we heard screaming, the toddlers in those cages, we heard those voices in 2018, that is when my mother called me. my mother already in her 80's -- [speakingng

spanish] i'm like, mom, what are you talking about? that was almost you. they almost did that to you. i'm like, what? there are these policies, amy, that is what i write about on the books under the state of texas 11 immigration agents to search our bodies to see if we work clean enough to come into the united states. sounds familiar. body cavity searches that were happening. potentially at the airport. that is why i was mistaken. the immigration agents had your daughter has a rash and so we are going to put her into quarantine. you can go under chicago. my mother has a mental breakdown right there and then, freaks out, calls on her privilege and starts screaming at the immigration agent. that is why i am in this country. so she lost it. in that phone call, my mother said, i wasn't just a big mouth, i went into a state of trauma. that is why i started screaming at him.

imagine my surprise that i have a relationship -- now i understand why i do the work that i do in the way that i do "thank you for saying my book was magnificent. is it istrying to say not only mstory, it is the policy. it is historical policy. the narrative is we love immigrants. the policies are coming not so much. how does that of this moment? as i said, chuck is exactly right. there's this entire generation, let's say in arizona where i was exactly 10 years ago. those are the young people who were activists who are now running for office and inspiring other latinos to go to the polls. i'm not surprise the issue of immigration is not number one. that is my job as a journalist to be pushing that policy all the time. immigrants who are suffering from that actually cannot vote.

it is the ones who vote who are thinking about these other issues. that is my responsibility. on the issue of immigration, we do not have a so-called immigration issue in this country. there is zero net immigration, refugees are down to 10,000, 15,000? it is basically at zero. what this country has, and we shall see whether or not joe biden and kamala harris responded is, is an international human rights crisis. we have women whose uterus is have been taken and the children have been taken from them. this is not a one-time thing, it is been happening since they took indigenous children away, since they took the children of enslaved africans away, since they took the children of japanese americans during the internment. this is part of our history. and only we possibly this politician if he wins can change that. speaking of this

whole issue of tearing families apart. the latest report that e numbers of children held in detention, not just by the trump administration but also the obama administration, was much greater then had been officially recognized until this point. your you talk about how reporting, your decision to get into journalism and the path you took to get into journalism to report these untold stories? >> first of all, thank you, juan , i have been shouting you out on every single interview. aerybody needs to read juan ndjoe torres's book. -- i amt of our good part of frederick douglass. he is the man helped me to understand why am doing what i'm doing. you helped me to understand that. so the issue of immigration, you

know, why is it that this country on the one hand this and it appreciates immigrants and on the other hand shows total indifference. one of the hardest -- not hard because i'm a journalist, not a member of the party, don't really care about party politics. adapt to pull out the research and just be like, whoa, last president -- yes, ronald reagan, for the last number who increased numbers was george h.w. bush, former head of the cia, increased immigration numbers, increased tps, increased refugees. so bill clinton was t one who created the wall. he started the wall. he ran on an anti-immigrant platform. on both of their houses. this is ere he gs trickyn termof this ment, i tms of this election. i think for many latinos and latis, thefeel ibecae it

isheir parents w cannot te. so that is something that is motivang the tget to the lls a speakut. don'see thatenerion being rectly iacted b these human rits violatis and migratio picie sitng downnd sitti onheir han. you're rightjuan, i did intohe dention camps i2011 and poind the fier at barack obama. whilwe all lt back obama, is, amazingthe truth this is his achilles' heel. it will follow him and joe biden forever until they fully apologize for what they have done and say, "and we're going to do better." it is not that hard when you look at the level of dehumanization that we are all living with -- babies and children right now are being held in cages in the united states. they are not being fed.

they are being psychologically tortured. there is torture occurring today, right now, on the backs of women, children, men, adolescents simply because, like me, we were not born in this country. and it needs to stop. amy: maria hinojosa, thank you for being with us, award-winning journalist, author of the new memoir "once i was you." she is founder of futuro media, host of latino usa and co-host of the podcast in the thick. and thank you to chuck rocha, the president of solidarity strategies and the founder of nuestro pac, the largest latino-focused partisan super pac in the country. author of "tío bernie: the inside story of how bernie sanders brought latinos into the political revolution." he was a senior adviser to senator bernie sanders' presidential campaign. he will be joining us again tonight for our three hour

special election coverage. we will be broadcasting tonight beginning at 9:00 p.m. eastern time. you can go to democracynow.org or you can see if your local tv or radio station is broadcasting democracy now! as scores of stations are across the country. coming up, we will look at how racial justice, reproductive rights, immigrant rights, ranked choice voting -- just some of the ballot initiatives been voted on across the country, in addition to president and vice president and senators and congresspeople. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "you aint seen nothing yet" by bachman turner overdrive. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. and zealous. today is election day. all eyes are on the battle

between president trump and joe biden as people head to the polls across the country, but not for the first time. this is the final day of voting. people, over 100 million , three quarters of the total vote of 2016, have already voted. but down-ballot races and state ballot measures are also having major consequences for racial justice, immigration, reproductive rights, ranked choice voting. for more, we go to washington, d.c., where we're joined by ronald newman, the national political director for the american civil liberties union. welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. on the issues are balance across the country. maybe not as much as in the past because of the pandemic and what it takes to get a ballot initiative on the ballot, but if you can talk about the

significance of these and start over the issue of racial justice, what you are following. >> absolutely. thankou f having me this morning. we say all the time the civil rights and civil liberties are determined up and down the ballot. while there will inevitably be outside tension -- attention on the presidential race, the issues and policies that affect people day in and day out are often determined at the bottom of the ballot. sometimes on the back of the ballot. we as an institution are very much engaged in those races, in those ballot measures. for instance, 805 in oklahoma will determine thousands of people, including lots of people of color will be set free. oklahoma has had among the highest incarceration rate in the nation for years, and this

ballot measure will go a long way toward pullingack on extreme sentencing. in addition, you think about prop 16 in california, we are trying to restore affirmative action in the context of education, harry, public minority-ledo businesses and women led businesses have an opportunity to make progress and move forward. those issues come up all the time, not only in ballot measures, but down ballot candidate races, district attorney races, sheriff races. these are the elections that have a real tangible effect on the lived experience of people across the country. juan: ron, could you talk about for 28, why vote that is an issue of racial justice as well? >> in nebraska, we will

hopefully be able to celebrate a victory this evening and put an end to predatory payday lending. sadly, payday loans have been issued in nebraska for years most of the interest rates on these loans average upwards of 400%. so our ballot measure would put a cap on the apr associated with loans at 36%. what is this matter? it matters because when you look at the numbers, you find these types of predatory abusive loans are disproportionately issued to people of color. she research has reported $28 million in fines and fees are pulled out of the pockets of nebraskans. not nebraskans overall, because most do not use payday loans, but we're talking about the most vulnerable nebraskans, including disproportionately people of

color. these payday lending shops set themselves up in communities of at outside rates, even when you adjust for income. as a matter of racial justice, fende fighting hard to these abuses of predatorloans. juan: you put t spotlight on sevel share phrases in the endh, again, hping to policies that especially target undocumented or immigrant workers in places like charlston and in several counties in georgia. could you talk about those? >> this work started a few years back. of the trumpements administration's anti-immigrant agenda has been pulling local police and local sheriff's deputies into their work. they have effectively been

deputizing local police officers who are supposed to be protecting and serving their communities. they deputize those police officers to be immigration agents. often in cases where the populations in these towns and cities and counties don't know about it and would not approve of it. back in 2018, we engaged in handful of share phrases in north carolina and the voters chose challengers to those who into the agreement with the federal government with immigrations and custom enforcement. we are again engaged in those battles this year. three to watch in particular are gwinnett county, georgia, charleston, south carolina. each and every one of those cases, there is a challenger to the incumbent who has pledged explicitly, committed explicitly to end those agreements sunday

one so people within those communities can live in peace and security knowing the police officers who are supposed to be protecting and serving them are not in effect working as immigration agents trying to tear families apart. amy: i also want to ask about rank choice voting. massachusetts and alaska both have ballot initiatives about adopting ranked choice voting. this would allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference rather than casting a vote for a single candidate. the state of maine has made history this year by becoming the first state to use rank choice voting in a national election and it could decide who wins the senate race. republican senator susan collins is in a tight race with democrat sara gideon. green party candidate lisa savage is polling third. under ranked choice voting, supporters of the green candidate could pick the democrat as their second option

, giving the democrat a potential boost in the second round of vote counting. if you could talk about the significance of that and then montana and alaska, what they're doing. >> right choice voting has been an issue we have tracked for a few years. the voters in maine passed a ballot measure back in 2016 that established ranked choice voting within the state. then we spent the past three years fighting back and forth over whether those new roles would take effect. in 2018 will republicans in the state sought to repeal that new voting regime. rank choice voting holds a significant degree of promise for making our democracy work better. at the heart of that reform is to ensure reside -- election results reflect the will of the voters. maine has struggled through

several elections in which the secured less races than 50% of the vote. in many cases, less than 40% of the vote. in circumstances where it was clear most people preferred not to have that person take elected office. so ranked choice voting helps to protect against that. in addition, it helps to protect against what you might call the spoiler effect. i think we've all been part of conversations were people of worried about the third party candidate come in the green party candidate siphoning votes toy from another candidate rank choice voting, you can protect against that occurrence because the second choice vote ends up getting reallocated if no candidate gets over 50% of the vote. the last and final piece is the effect it might have on

electoral discourse. if you are engaged in an election in which the second choice vote really matters, you might be less inclined to engage in negative campaigning and to make negative attacks against your competitors because there voters are also important to you. that range of benefits is what the state of maine is after. it could affect the senate race and other states like as a tree since and alaska are also considering taking that step and following states like california and minnesota that have adopted right choice voting in various places over the years. amy: we want to thank you, ron newman, for joining us, the national political director for the american civil liberties union. we will be following all of these ballot initiatives on our special election show tonight beginning at 9:00 eastern time

and also in the coming days as this information comes out, as well as, of course, just doing our full election special tonight at 9:00 eastern time. we end the show with acclaimed poet and activist nikki giovanni. she's out with a new collection of poems called "make me rain," and in her poem "vote," giovanni offers her thoughts on importance of voting. this was filmed by the meteor, a feminist collective of activists, journalists, and creators for a daily instagram series focusing on voting rights. it not a h normuscle -- mistloe at chstmas it not a cored eggt easter or bunny hping across e meadow it's aote, saying yoare a citize it is sometim chocola or sotimes valla. it can be male of male it cane right left

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but it ihe ici that iso eet od for t folks, goodor us my country tis of thee. reading heriovanni poem "vote" in her new collection "make me rain." willinder, democracy now! air a three hour election night special tonight from 9:00 p.m. to midnight. i will be cohosting with juan gonzalez and nermeen shaikh. you can watch it live at our website democracynow.org. we will be covering the results from the presidential election to congressional and state races, as well as college initiatives across -- college initiatives across the country. it will feature interviews perspectives you won't hear

anywhere else, including the voices of activists, analysts, grassroots leaders discussing how the movements on the ground will go forward following this historic election starting at 9:00 p.m. through midnight eastern time. you can check your local

history, walk around town and see the current face of okinawa.