11/08/22 11/08/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democry now! >> whawe know islaa is not drinking water. we don't know where he is. we what british authorities to get is proof that alaa is a lie. i cannot get anyone. amy: the family of the imprisoned egyptian dissident alaa abd el-fattah says they no

longer know if he is dead alive more than 50 hours aft he stopped drinking water in an intensification of a six-mon hunger strike. we will hear alaa's sister sanaa se speak at e u.n. clima summit today in sharm el-sheikh, egypt. we also look at what today's midterm elections mean for how -- for climate crisis. into arizona where publicans are attempng to suppress voting on native american reservations. >> tes have changed. our ancestors had bows and arrows. we have democracy. together a sereign nions, we have a powerful voice go vote and make a difference. amy: did election protection. >> i am here to warn you of

another effect of these lies, the rapid deterioration of our democracy and unprecedented threats of violence and intimidation against election officials, black communities, and other communities of color all around this country. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. it is election day in the united states. the pivotal midterm elections will determine who controls the house and senate as well as many state houses. a record 43 million people cast their ballots early. the pennsylvania senate race between democrat john fetterman and the trump-beck amid oz is one of today's most closely watched contests. on monday, fetterman filed a federal lawsuit in an effort to have mail-in ballots be counted even if they are not dated or improperly dated. meanwhile, republicans have sued to disqualify thousands of mail-in ballots in key swing

states, including pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin. on monday, president biden warned the future of democracy is at risk. pres. biden: today we face an inflection point, one of those moments that comes down every three or four generations. we know in our bones democracy is at risk and we know this is your moment to defend it, preserve or protect. amy: tune in tonight when democracy now! will be airing our three-hour election night special beginning at 9:00 p.m. eastern. in news from the climate summit in sharm el-sheikh egypt, several leaders of the african union said today there countries cannot afford the cost of adapting to the impacts of the climate crisis. in the remarks at cop 27, they urged richer nations fulfill the promise of paying climate reparations for disproportionately fueling the climate catastrophe cost of this comes as a new report finds the united states is falling far short of contributing its fair

share to u.n.-backed climate-finance goals. the analysis by the u.k.-based climate news source carbon brief found the u.s. should be paying nearly $40 billionnnually towards the u.n.'s $100 billion climate-finance target. instead, the u.s. has paid less than $8 billion. meanwhil another major report published monday once global warming has pushed the planets stores of ice to a widespread collapse that was unthinkable a decade ago, with some level of arctic sea ice certain to vanish in a summer months before the year 2050, even as countries drastically reduce their fossil fuel emissions. climate scientists say the only way to avoid further catastrophe is to take urgent steps now. if fossil fuel pollution is allowed to continue to grow, the arctic could lose most of its cis by 2030. in more news from egypt, fear over the deteriorating health of british-egyptian human rights tivist andolitical prisoner

alaa abd el-fattah is mounting his family says they don't know if he is alive or dead. on monday, his mother waited for outside the gates of the desert 10 hours prison where her son is being held hoping to receive his weekly letter that never arrived. his family believes prison authorities are force-feeding alaa abd el-fattah. they're now demanding proof of life as alaa abd el-fattah tensified his six-month hunger strike by giving up water altogether over 50 hours ago, on sunday, the opening day of the u.n. climate summit, cop27 in sharm el-sheikh. this is his sister sanaa seif speaking from sharm el-sheikh monday. >> i am really scared. it has now been over 24 hours where he stopped water. i read online what happens to the body. for normal body, can endure maximum a week. alaa's body is very frail. i don't know if we are talking

about hours or days. i am really, really scared. we will hear sanaa seif*'s full address of the u.n. climate summit after the headlines. in the netherlands, dutch border guards arrested more than 100 climate activists on saturday after over 500 demonstrators spread out across amsterdam's main airport and blocked private jets from taking off. the protesters are demanding a ban on unnecessary short-haul flights and the widespread use of highly polluting private aircraft by wealthy elites. they also want authorities to cancel a planned expansion of amsterdam's airport. in ukraine, russian-appointed officials say they've completed a mass evacuation of kherson ahead of an anticipated ukrainian assault to recapture the city. ukraine has called the evacuation a forced deportation and a war crime and accused russian forces of looting abandoned homes and quartering soldiers inside. meanwhile, russia has blamed ukraine for destroying power lines to kherson, leading to

widespread blackouts and the loss of tap water beginning on sunday. meanwhile, the russian defense ministry on monday sought to dampen growing anger inside russia over recent battlefield losses in ukraine's eastern donetsk region. on monday, ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy said hundreds of russian troops, many them recent conscripts, were being killed there each day. >> the donetsk region remains the epicenter of the greatest madness of occupiers. hundreds die daily. littered with bodies of the occupiers. amy: the u.s. air force has carried out joint air drills with south korea that included a flyover by a pair of supersonic, nuclear-capable b-1b bombers. the weekend military exercises came as the u.s. and south korea aged to extend war games involving hundreds of war planes and thousands of troops. the drills came as north korea

test-fired more than 30 missiles over the past week, including an intercontinental ballistic missile on thursday that triggered evacuation alerts in japan. in italy, at least 89 asylum seekers on board a german humanitarian aid rescue ship were allowed to disembark in the coastal city of reggio calabria early on tuesday after days of being stranded in the mediterranean sea. another norwegian-run rescue ship, with some 250 asylum seekers, is still stranded near the sicilian coast as italian officials have for days refused to block its passengers from disembarking. three people jumped off the boat in desperation as they attempt ed to reach safety, while others screamed from help. back in the united states, supreme court justice amy coney barrett has rejected another challenge to the biden administration's student debt relief plan. the education department has approved 16 million borrowers

for up to $20,000 of relief but it's uncleawhen they will actually see their loans canceled or reduced thanks to a republican-led lawsuit which is -- which has put biden's plan on hold while an appeals court weighs its merits. a federal judge in washington, d.c., has temporarily suspended a four-month prison sentence and $6500 fine for white house chief strategist stephen bannon, pending an appeal. bannon was sentence for criminal contempt of congress last month after he refused to comply with a subpoena issued by the house january 6 committee. the judge who suspended bannon's sentence, u.s. district judge carl nichols, was nominated to the federal bench in 2019 by then-president donald trump. and twitter's new billionaire owner is using the social media platform to call on u.s. voters to elect republicans to congress. musk's endorsement to his 115 million twitter followers came a day ahead of u.s. midterm

elections, the same day the league of women voters of california said twitter unexpectedly suspended the account of its executive director. the league's san francisco chapter tweeted -- "no warning. no explanation. no way to appeal. what is next?" the executive director's account came back online overnight. she said twitter informed her it had mistakenly taken her offline along with a batch of spam accounts. in an email to volunteers, doute -- she wrote -- "we should all be concerned. not for me, but for how this impedes access to democracy and silences a source of trustworthy election information." and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by democracy now! co-host juan gonzález in new brunswick, new jersey. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. we begin today's show in egypt at the u.n. climate summit where

climate justice activists are calling on the egyptian government to free alaa abd el-fattah, one of egypt's best-knownoliticalrisoners has been hunger strike for six months, stopped drinking water on sunday as the u.n. climate summit began in egypt. he has now gone over 50 hours without water. his family says they no longer know if he is still alive or if he is being force-fed most of the family is appealing to the british government for help since alaa has british citizenship as well as his egyptian should assume ship. -- egyptian citizenship. his sister spoke inside the u.n. climate summit. >> thank you very much for the global campaign and for hosting me. my family and i have been so moved to see the huge support that alaa has had from

organizations across the world. i hope one day we can repay you. it is heartwarming. at this conference, the most vulnerable are supposed to negotiate with the most powerful. i want to say whatever chance my brother has a surviving will come from the people who are vulnerable, those who are paying the price, for those locked into a system they did not choose. although this has been the most difficult time i family has ever faced, whatever happens, i feel like alaa has won. the symbolic battle has been won by your show of support. i just hope he is not sacrificed. he is done in prison for what they charged him with, he is in prison because he is someone who makes the world believe the

world can be a better place, tries to make the world a better place. if he could see what everyone had -- what so many people have done for him, he would be very happy. we have not yet been defeated. but now all we know is alaa stopped drinking water 50 hours ago. we don't know where he is. we do not know if he is alive. my mother waited outside the prison gates for 10 hours yesterday for a letter most of they did not give her one. i urge the british authorities to give us proof that alaa is alive. here the egyptian foreign minister was also the cup president has been giving interview saying there's nothing to worry about most of the

president gave me -- the statements really worried me. are they force-feeding my brother right now? is he handcuffed in a bed against his will? this is what it sounds like to me when they do not acknowledge the hunger strike. for the entire time alaa has been on hunger strike, the prison has refused to allow him an independent medical examination. they forged one in -- saying has -- [indiernible] i don't trust them. my brother does not trust them. [indiscernible] this is a man who has denied himself food for seven months

because he wants to meet -- it is a very simple ask, let the embassy access . that he could be handcuffed to a bed being force-fed, the system resolution is grotesque. if that is the case, then he has been plunged into an even worse nightmare that he was already in. the only thing they care about is that he does not die while the world is watching. the world is watching in not only the egyptian authorities, watching other governments, including the u.k. government and other western governments. everyone always talks about how strong the u.k. and egypt's relationship is. charging the citizen part of that -- is torturing a citizen

part of that strong relationship? let the british embassy visit him or get him out today -- alaa should not be forced anything against his will. i would also like to remind that my family's ordeal is an extreme example but it is not the only example. there are tens of thousands of political prisoners in egypt. there are more around the world. climate activists get arrested, kidnapped in latin america. we see the same kind of oppression. i am really, really thankful for your solidarity. amy: tt is sanaa seif speaking insi the u.n. climate summit

in sharm el-sheikh, egypt, about her imprisoned brother alaa abd el-fattah who i40 years old. moments ter, an egtian memb of parliament attempted is disrupt the press conference. misty international secretary general -- amnesty international secretary general said the attempt to derl the press conference gives a small since averaging of the fears and silencing in the country right now. earlier in the news conference, the british, activist spoke on the need for international solidarity for alaa abd el-fattah. >> here at cop 27, civil society constituencies representing thousands of organizations and hundreds of millions of people from around the world from environmental, trade union, women, and indigenous groups are stding in support and with alaa. as we have done with all those who have been murdered for fighting and dreaming for a better world.

honduras, nigeria, cambodia. so on behalf of you, leave a message to the u.k. government and to the prime minister most of while the egyptian authorities may have put alaa into a prison cell, the key to his release rests in your hands. this is a matter of life and death, of justice, of human rights. we will not accept any government, including the u.k. government, prioritizing trade deals over the lives of our people. amy: that is a british climate activist at the u.n. climate summit known as cop 27, which is currently taking place in sharm el-sheikh, egypt. scientists are warninghe world is heading toward climate disaster without deeper cuts and planet heating emissions. they're making the same demands and more here in the united states and at the 20 midterm elections taking place today.

the outcome of the elections will be key in either advancing or torpedoing climate initiatives here and could undermine president bynes efforts to portray the u.s. as a climate leader. for more we're joined by varshini prakash, cofounder and executive director of the sunrise movement. which is that helping to get out the vote. welcome back to democracy now! we have a lot to take on here. your organization is sunrise movement has always been a climate justice movement, combining the issue of climate crisis with human rights. at the u.n. climate summit, we just for the sister of alaa abd el-fattah demanding his release from prison, a political prisoner. and at the same time, she and other climate activis are talking about the critical importance of being furious

about dealing with the climate. can you put it altogether for people here in the united states and especially on this election day what these elections mean, not only for the united states, but for the world? >> absolutely. thank you again for having me here. as you mentioned, we are up against a ticking time bomb of an unrelenting climate crisis. an economic crisis that is bearing down on working people and already hurting so many. this is not a domestic issue, this is a global issue. we have seen climate disasters like the hurricanes in puerto rico and florida, the record heat waves all across europe. pakistan completely submerged, and entire country submerged in the billions of flint refugees that are emerging from all of those collective crisis.

as you mentioned, the absolute paltry amounts that historical polluters like united states have contributed to countries to support the reparations and the repairs that we need to be done from these major disasters. we passed earlier this year one of the largest pieces of climate legislation ever passed by single country and we saw how difficult it was to pass that climate legislation with a democratic majority holding the house and senate and presidency. the fact that it has to go through essentially a colbert and in joe manchin. -- coal baron in joe manchin. if either the house or the senate goes to republicans, essentially we have not even a greater shot at federal legislation.

we are saying republicans running who have said before climate change is -- whom mandela barnes is running against. they don't believe in climate action. that is why the selection is so critical because what is on the ballot is not democrat versus republicans, it is a chance at grter action to save --or willful denial after decades of science that will lead to o collective annihilation. that is what is on the ballot today. juan: if that is true, why do you think that the climate crisis has registered so low in terms of all pulling of americans as they head to the polls today, whether it is the

republicans, their main concerns are inflation, crime, immigration on the demratic side, the preservation of democracy and abortion. but very littlealk of the continuing and escalating catastrophe on the climate. why is that registering still so low among the american public? >> yeah, i mean, there's a lot going on and at the world and in our country right now and we have seen an effort on the part of republicans to actively create disinformation and to revoke se of our most essential rights as humans, as americans in the last couple of years. but i think something that brings me hope in the selection, and i work with a lot of young people, already we are seeing more young people registered to vote then we get even in 2018 and we are for another

record-breaking cycle for youth voter turnout. i think a lot of that is because our generation is mobilized by things like seeking action on climate change in student loan debt cancellation. it is essential that our government invests in our generation and in everyday people and that young people actually respond well to that federal investment in them. we have seen that in the polling as well. [no audio]

from the concerns they hold in their everyday lives to the policies that are being passed and the political terrain that can be one if they engage in people -- in these elections. juan: can he talk about how both democrats and republicans are dealing with what seems to be a revival of the fossil fuel industry largely as a result of

the war in ukraine? you have the fracking industry and it united states now rushing to provide more gas to europe as europe searches for more sources of energy to replace its russian supply. how are both democrats and republicans dealing with this issue of how to fight climate change at the same time while allowing new roles in the fossil fuel industry? >> yeah, frankly, it is the same refrain we have been hearing for 40, 50 years. it is the same playbook of the richest industry in the history of the world that is attempting to protect and usi its -- using every tool in its toolbox and its dying years in order to do so. so i think, frankly, what we saw with the war in ukraine was the fossil fuel industry using that

moment to say this is our opportunity to drill and frack and increase our reliance on oil , and we cannot afford to do so. we are seeing everybody -- everybody is seeing with your own eyes the impacts this crisis is having on them. it is only going to get worse from here. this is just the beginning. so we cannot afford to have this moment increasing our dependency on our addiction to oil and gas. we need to use this moment and push people like joe biden to declare a climate emergency, to utilize things like the defense production act to ramp up the production of renewable energy and see it as, frankly, the largest national security threat that is posing us in america as well as our global economy.

amy: varshini prakash, thank you for being with us co-founder and , executive director of the sunrise movement, speaking to us from boston, massachusetts. next week democracy now! we'll be broadcasting throughout the week from egypt from the u.n. climate summit in sharm el-sheikh. today we are going to be doing a live three-hour broadcast tonight beginning at 9:00 eastern time on the midterm elections. check it out at democracynow.org . next up, we go to arizona where republicans are temping to suppress voting on native american reservations and the election protection on this midterm election day. we will speak with the head of the lawyers committee for civil rights under law. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "way out in the rain" by sweeps. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we look now at how indigenous voters played a key role in joe

biden's victory in 2020 when they helped him win arizona but now face a sweeping roll back of their voting rights. this comes as the top republican candidates in close races in arizona are 2020 election denis, inclung gubertorial ndidate ri lake and the candidate for u.s. senate blake masters. last year, a supreme court ruling in the case brnovich v. democratic national committee, which came out of arizona, allowed the state to ban ballot collection from outside set precincts, which is a method that is widely used by native voters in the state. the move is expected to suppress their vote. for more, we are joined by new yorker staff writer sue halpern, who spoke to voters on arizona's navajo, apache, and hopi reservations for the new yorker,

in a new piece headlined "the political attack on the native american vote." she is also a scholar-in-residence at middlebury college and is joining us from exeter, new hampshire, where there is a key senate contest going on between maggie hassan and general bulldog. also with us in fort apache, arizona, is lydia dosela, the matriarch coordinator for the white mountain apache tribe and the northeast arizona native democrats. lydia's effort to get out the vote was featured in the new yorker article. welcome you both to democracy now! sue halpern, give us the broad picture on what is happening in the reservations across this country when it comes to today's vote. i was very struck by one of the native american leaders you quoted who said we should talk about why participate in the colonizers elections who then changed his mind dramatically. cooks what happened was in 2020,

native voters understood the election of donald trump was an existential problem for them most of trump was talking about opening up uranium mining again. he was talking about coal mining again. he was talking about taking sacred lands and turning them over to private industry. and so we saw this remarkable increase in native voting, even though in the past it was seen as a kind of attempt to co-opt native voters and native people on sovereign lands. juan: sue halpern, how does the voting process work on the native reservations? there is supposedly a sovereignty that exists, certain limited sovereigy among the native people in terms of their own laws and regulations within their territories, so how does that work in terms of voter

participation? >> native americans are citizens of the united states. they have every right afforded to the united statesitizens, which they are. the problem is that the government has been. lacks in making it easier and effect just easy for native americans to vote so things like post offices, which many of us take for granted, joan exist for many, many people -- do not exist for many, many people. a loof people have to use post boxes, which can cost money, which they don't have. so when you vote on the reservation come ideally what you would be doing is giving more ballot to someone, a friend, neighbor, family member who can go to a dropbox, can go to a polling place and drop off your ballot. but the brnovich decision made

that illegal and that will impact native american voters this time around. amy: lydia dosela, you are the matriarch coordinator for the white mountain apache tribe and the northeast arizona native democrats. featured in sue halpern's piece. explain the issues you face on the reservations and what these changing laws have meant. many say it is the native vote in 2020 that took biden over the top in arizona. >> the native americans, particularly the apache tribe, we have made our powerful matriarc and basically address some of the issues such as the one sue halpern mentioned earlier. began to have discussions and it was a how can we overcome that?

our people are known to look for solutions versus dwelling on problems. the solution they came up with this, open, instead having to go -- using the ballot box, we will now make every aempt to to early voting or voting on election day. because a lot of the issues that are facing our native american reservation are the same thing as our neighboring towns and cities within the state. no different with our tribal elections. we have prty much the same type of election process as the state and federal processes. so understanding that, we began to form a society of swords which is actlly the matriarch. because they understand the role as matriarchs, they e very powerful women and educators. they take it upon themselves to

start talking to mily members, recruiting family members that have not yet registered to vote to start registering to vote. and also making it understood that they are expected to vote, to turn their whole process back around to where all native american voices are heard loud and clear most of the comes more stronger as more votes are cast. juan: lydia dosela, your was a devotee elderly services. what are the issues that you are hearing in terms of your particular people, the white mountain apache tribe, one of the main isss fair concerned about in this election? >> the mai concern, reiterated as i talked to from people of all walks of life come education. education for the children and

also the unborn and also soci security and health care and also the rising crime is a concern of what they feeshould be done to get with the state and federal programs to bring that back down most of it goes back to the community. the community becomes more active within the trouble homelands -- together we can build a strong farm to where we can say,k, we have h enough of these issues. let's do something about the crime rate. perhaps we need to go back to our tribal teaching and also instill in the young people why it is so important to go back to who they are, the identity as native america and understanding our relationship to other people and then have a respect for land and everything that god has created.

from that understanding, i began to talk more about ok, social security, what is it that they have heard in the news that the republicans have thought about ok, perhaps we need to get that invested in wall street and see if they can gain revenue on its own terms. they didn't like that because they work very hard at depoting the retirement funds into social security. they also talked abo the health system. health care. what happened with the pandemic is where the native americans have thought. deep and hard about hlth insurance. what needs to be done. and the other one is education. in order for our children to have the same opportunity as those off reservations, they begato understand education is very important. they want at the same typef education that is offered elsewhere in the state on the

reservation. we have shortages of teachers. we have substitute teachers well into the school year. the children to come home and explain we had a substitute teacher that was different from last week and next week we have another one that is probably gointo be different. there's no continuity in their teaching. the children are not learning or being taught as their counterparts. that is where the grandparents and the parents and other members of the community have all said, ok, what do we need to do? within matriarchs, we have begun to understand why it is so very important we need to come together. when we cast our vote, it becomes loud and clear these are some of the issues that people are elected that will be in these offices will no longer ignore us but yet they will

remember how loud and strong we came out by election results, how many votes were cast on native american reservations. time and time again, the elders have said time for change. we also need to educate ourselves to meet the changes of a new world. people always say we are not living -- we have houses here. we also have a housing shortage. but all of that is no different from the rest of the world. we also need to meet the demands of unemployment, health care and education, and ev a need for other programs. also vy important in talking to these elders, the preservation of our civil rights. which is voting. having that understood a lot

about elders have matriarchs -- this reminds me of my particular case, having made every effort to get the family members that are not registered, to have them register. where able to get voter registration applications to them. we also helped them melt back and also some cases have driven the back to the county office in hobart. amy: lydia dosela, thank you for being with us, matriarch coordinator for the white mountain apache tribe and the northeast arizona nati democrats. featured in sue halpern's new yorker article "the political attack on the native american vote." sue, we would like you to stay with us. the guardian newspaper reported last week a new hampshire school has rebuked republican u.s. senate candidate don for clinic schoolchildren were identified

as phrase and fuzzy's in classrooms, using litter trays and looking themselves and each other and the audio he said, guess what? we have furry's and fuzzy's in classrooms. they lick themselves, their cats. when they don't like something, they his. they jumped out and they're putting litter boxes -- the same people concerned about spreading germs yet they lick themselves and touch anything. and they're starting to let each other. i mean, it is astounding. it is a refrain being used by republican candidates around the country. get litter boxes out of school. though they are not in schools. at this general also fiercely anti-choice trump ally is an extremely close race with the democratic incumbent senator maggie hassan. what have you been finding there? >> it is really interesting. i went to general bolduc's last

town hall meeting, which was last night. it was very well attended. i expected a kind of rabble-rouser kind of just something guy. in fact, he came across as being very reasonable, moderated tone, friendly. he said nothing about furry's. he said ve little about abortion. he said almost nothing that was off the general republican playbook. it was quite interesting. obviously, he really has not walked back a lot of the things he said in the press but he did not mention any of them last night in his attempt, i think, to kind of calm the independent spirit of republican voters here in new hampshire who may not be sort of all in for trump but are all in for the republican

agenda. juan: and your sense of what would signal if maggie hassan loses this race tonight, or what it might signal for the overall democratic hopes of retaining the senate and the house? >> yeah, if maggie hassan loses, the democrats might well lose the senate. i think bolduc has run a very vigorous campaign. he has been campaigning for two years. he has gone to every single town and city in this state. he knows a lot of people. i think that people want to feel like they are being heard. there he is. he is there and listening. it is a very swing a state, hamsher, they like to break the mold and this might be one of the ways that they do it. they also have a very, very

vigorous young congressional candidate named caroline levitt who is also very popular. she worked for trump. she's much more of a trump cheerleader i think than bolduc, who is not endorsed by trump but clearly subscribes to the trump sensibility. america less than a minute, but you just finished a piece on election software, particularly in georgia. what did you find? >> there's a county in georgia which is deeply republican county but sidney powell, trump's lawyer, paid a forensic company to go in and copy all of the election software in the county. but it turns out georgia uses the same voting machines and software on all of its voting equipment. that attempt -- a very

successful attempt to copy all of the software and all of the data was then given to some election deniers who we have seen active in other states. so we don't really know what they might do or have done with that software. hopefully, the kinds of protections that are in place will make that very hard to use. but we just don't know. amy: sue halpern, thank you for being with us staff writer at , the new yorker. her latest piece is headlined, "the political attack on the native american vote." scholar in residence at middlebury college. were we will be going tonight in our three-hour election night special. we will be broadcasting, speaking with people from all over the country as this pivotal election takes place. when we come back, we look at election protection. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we are continuing our midterm election coverage. tune in tonight at 9:00 p.m. for a three-hour election special democracynow.org. we end today's show looking at election protection efforts in the 2022 midterm election. in georgia, the aclu and the southern poverty law center won a victory late monday after suing cobb county, which includes atlanta, for accepting voters' applications for absentee ballots and then failing to mail those ballots to hundreds of absentee voters. the aclu asked a judge to require the county to send ballots by overnight mail and extend the state's deadline to return them. georgia has two of the most closely watched races in the

country, democratic senator raphael warnock versus the trump backed herschel walker in the gubernatorial race between georgia governor brian kemp and democratic voting rights activist stacy abrams. election workers have also faced threats around the country. reuters documented more than 100 violent threats faced by election workers in arizona's maricopa county in the run-up to today's election, including "menacing emails and social media posts, threats to circulate personal information online and photographing employees arriving at work." meanwhile, republicans at the national and state levels are also trying to disqualify thousands of absentee and mail-in ballots in an effort to swing close races in battleground states like pennlvania and wisconsin. for more, we are joined in washington, d.c., by damon hewitt, president and executive director of the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law, which coordinates a national nonpartisan election protection coalition. ey have an election protection

hotline at 866-our-vote. damon hewitt, welcome to democracy now! talk about what election protection means, including the emergency litigation you have just filed in texas challenging voter intimidation practices at historically black pulling site in beaumont. >> thank you for your coverage. election protection coalition came together after the debacle of the 20 20 election, number of elections came together to develop the program, and attire cohesive approach to how we can stand the breach to protect voters. we have the hotline 866-our-vote , which is active right now, three under 65 days here that voters can call. -- 300 65 days a year that voters can call. we can deploy lawyers to act. sadly this is necessary because as you see in georgia and arizona, whether it is problems in the fundamental apparatus of

simply getting out mail-in ballots or whether people with weapons menacing people at the polls, these things require action. just last night in beaumont, texas, linda followed lawsuit in federal district court just to address the fact in a particular polling place white poll workers work menacing, harassing, turning away improperly black voters. we had people submit affidavits indicating they had poll workers standing over them as they were completing their ballots so they can see exactly how they were voting step some people were turned away improperly. it was so bad, amy, black poll workers at the same site had to summit affidavits complaining about the white poll workers. it just shows the casualness racism is weaponized in the electoral process come that leads to voter suppression if we don't stand out. juan: in terms of the unprecedented situation here in

arizona and we may see and other places of people standing at drop boxes with guns as people are dropping off their ballots, what is your sense of how this can be prevented? because by the time the challenge goes into court, ours may have passed and already people may have been dissuaded from voting? >> the legal process last night worked for us because we did get a favorable court order in that county in texas. one will be removed and others have been banned from practice that have been found to screen a try. sometimes a legal process takes more time that we have on election day. that is why it is so important have both deterrent and prophylactic effects. part of the deterrent is our volunteers. we have over 11,000 volunteers just for this cycle, attorneys

trained to take these calls. we have partners on the ground in various community's come including lawyers ready to fan out as needed. it also the was department of just ascending monitors to different states. that is part of the prophylactic. at the end of the day, he the chief election officials at the state and local level, secretaries of state, county boards of election come to actuay do the right thing. we are in trouble. juan: it is not just what happens before or on election day, b then an accounting process as well, the tabulation of the votes. there are expectations that there will be much more controversy and legal battles during either challenging votes or process of counting votes. how are you preparing for that?

>> we are preparing for the way we did in 2020. we learned a lot of lessons. 2020 election day, we participated in 15 postelection lawsuits where there were people were trying to overturn the legitimate results of valid elections. we know this type of threat is persistent. we have been partnering with other legal organizations to get ready for that. it is a matter of understanding state law and all of the hot button high-impact states will your we think this activity is likely to happen. -- where we think this activity is likely to happen. we have heard fears and even plans from those who want to disrupt democracy to say we want to disrupt the vote count or they intend to challenge absentee or mail votes, then americans have to be prepared. elections can take time. you may not know the results in your jurisdiction tonight. you may not know the results

even for the federal balance of power in congress for a few days because some states the poll workers can't even start the canvassing process come the process of counting the mail, absentee, or provisional ballots until after election night is over, until the polls are closed. these things take time. there probably will be some litigation as well. amy: i wanted to ask you about the lawsuit that the senatorial candidate in pennsylvania john fetterman has just filed. on monday, he filed a federal lawsuit in an effort to have mail-in ballots be counted even if they are undated or improperly dated. republicans have sued to disqualify thousands of mail-in ballots, as you mentioned, in key swing states, including pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin. specifically in pennsylvania, we are talking about how you write --if you put the date on the

envelope that contains your ballot come if it is improperly dated, if it is there at all, and the republicans are temping to disqualify thousands of these -- attempting to disqualify thousands of these. >> basically very simple "rule" or these devious metho ds to make it difficult or impossible to vote. it is not just voter suppression before you get to the polling place, it is after you cast your ballot as well. they're trying to block off all of these. so hopefully the litigation to allow people's votes to be counted will be successful in a nonpartisan basis. these battles are always framed as democrats versus republicans, republicans versus democrats. but gets stuck in the middle are black voters coming young voters

who are first-time voters especially come in the elderly voters. those most likely to not fill out that one little piece of information, that date or thinking, oh, they want my date of birth, or be distracted by your kids and scribble scratch in a way that may not be legible. it really should not matter. the litigation designed to make sure the voters intent is honored, respected, and held high. juan: i am wondering your evaluation of the tactic of president trump, supporters in the maga movement, to have those who support their viewpoints vote in person on election day as opposed to voting by mail, which makes it possible through massive challenges of mail-in ballots, but also means there votes get counted first and then create a sort of perception of who is the actual winner.

the possibility that more and more of the countries developing that democrats mostly vote by mail and republicans vote in person? >> it is bizarro world because pre-pandemic, black voters, we serve throughout our career and organization over 60 years here, we know that black voters pre-pandemic tended to vote in person. early voting on sunday. the idea was that during the pandemic, there were more avenues open. so all of a sudden, when black and brown folks start voting by mail, all of a sudden becomes a problem for a political party or problem for those who want to suppress their vote. every pathway to voting should be open to everyone regardless of race, creed, or political party. that includes mail voting and absentee voting. the idea one could or should

discredit somehow a particular pathway to voting is absolutely ridiculous. it is almost as if they're trying to racial i somehow mail-in voting. amy: we have to leave it there. thank you for being with us damon hewitt, president and , executive director of the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law.