i will be at your side. and we will work and celebrate on to the white house. thank you for everything you do and we'll see you as we go. i never thought in elementary school growing up learning about elections in america that one day i would be talking about the world's greatest democracy, vietnam. >> vietnam has the best voter turnout. they put us to shame. >> vietnam, dominica, uruguay, malta, seychelles, ecuador, turkey, then on page, basically at the end, it's the united states. >> keep going. keep turning the page. >> the united states is between -- >> boss bosnia, herzegovina, and singapore. >> bottom line, is we have some problems. ♪

>> america is the most renowned democracy on the planet. a government that is supposed to be for and by the people. and, yet, so many of us take a pass on exercising our most fundamental right of all, voting. a little more than half of the people in this country who can vote bother to show up at the polls, even when the stakes are highest, in a presidential election. in nonpresidential years, turnout is much worse. >> so what's wrong with our democracy? as we head into the 2020 elections, that question couldn't be more urgent. voter turnout as well as trust in the election system itself could play a huge role in deciding who becomes our next president. >> drain the swamp. >> with our most basic

democratic process in crisis, katy and i are wading back into the swamp to see just how deep it goes. from allegations of a rigged system, to alleged election fraud -- >> if you're confident that you won, don't you want to call for another election? >> sir, why won't you answer any questions? >> to the folks who think the swamp in washington, d.c., runs so deep their both just doesn't matter anyway. we're starting in new york city, outside the united nations to try to find out what we're doing wrong. excuse me. are you a delegate? what country are you from? year uruguay. you're the third highest voter turnout in the world. 97%. >> 97%. >> why? >> australia also has compulsory voting. how does it feel to have better voter turnout than the greatest democracy in the world?

>> well, i think a lot of people look at the u.s. and wonder why you have that system. >> where are you from? >> denmark. oh, please, talk to us. >> oh, my. >> such an honor. >> you do a great job. >> are you from sierra leone? you're 18th place in the world. you know what our turnout is? >> no. >> 122nd place in the world. >> whoa. >> why? >> we all learn, even in kindergarten, to try to learn children in making decisions. >> there you go. >> yeah, because our elections are on tuesday. >> yes. >> what days are your elections? >> on saturday. >> go figure. >> if you were to give us advice, what would it be? >> start from the young ones. >> so start with this guy? >> start, yes. >> are we a democracy? >> i'm not so sure. >> wow. wow. >> andy! >> hi. >> u.n. elections consultant andrew reynolds helped organize elections in countries around the world.

according to reynolds, america's voting problems aren't exactly a secret. when you're overseas helping set up democracies, say this is the way they do things in america, using america as examples, are you met with pushback, why should we listen to what happens in america? >> many times. and people are sort of angers that the u.s. would come and tell them what to do. >> are we just giant hypocrites when it comes to democracy that we're able to go around the world and set up democracies, yet ours is sort of in shambles at home? >> the real challenge of all the expertise in the u.s. is to take it to other places and to offer in a humble, engaging way choices and options and don't do some of the things we do but copy some of the good things. >> would it help if more of us turned out to vote? >> absolutely. but people turn out when they feel invested in the process, they think it makes a difference. and they have access to voting. >> with another election around the corner, the questions about our electoral system are more critical than ever. >> the majority of people in this country abide by the rules

of this democracy, they pay taxes, but they don't participate. they don't have a say and they choose not to have a say. >> well, that is the question. do they choose not to have a say? i think most people feel like their votes don't matter but what does that mean? does it mean they don't have faith in the elected leaders that come here to washington, d.c.? so much alike in the republican, democratic party, their lives never change no matter who's representing them? or people have gripes? >> voter suppression. >> they don't believe the electoral college, think russia interfered in the question. >> so the biggest question is how does it get better? >> if i knew, we'd have 100% voter participation by now. >> let's figure it out. >> in raleigh, north carolina, people have a good reason to think their votes don't matter. that's because even though there was an election for congress last fall, the results are still up in the air. >> it's a rigged system, folks. it's a rigged system. it's a rigged system. it's a rigged election. >> since the 2016 campaign, donald trump has been promising

to drain the swamp of what he claims is rampant voter fraud on the part of the democrats. but here in north carolina, it's the republicans who are accused of election fraud. >> mr. elias. >> how are you, sir? how are you feeling? >> on the morning we arrived, poll workers were getting ready to testify at a new hearing to see if a new congressional election should be called. >> was this a fraudulent election? >> we'll have to see, won't we? >> what do you think? >> there's new political drama in north carolina tonight. >> back in november of 2018, gop house candidate mark harris beat his democratic rival dan mccready by a razor-thin margin. but right away, allegations of ballot tampering emerged. so basically, this whole thing is about whether or not this election was decided fraudulently. like a 900-vote margin in the campaign. the harris campaign accused of illegally going door to door to collect mail-in ballots and

altering them to help the republican ticket. and until it's sorted out, the congressional seat is empty. >> we're sitting here -- >> there's no representative. is there any evidence that harris knew about this? >> well, that's what they're trying to find out. mr. harris -- >> while jacob and i were talking, harris and his team took a break from the hearing. >> let's go that way. >> we wanted to get some answers straight from the source. >> mr. harris, what do you have to say about the illegal ballot harvesting by people associated with your campaign? >> did you know about it, mr. harris? >> did you know about the illegal ballot harvesting? >> if you're confident that you won, don't you want to call for another election? >> sir, why don't you answer any questions? >> harris declined to comment, but we did speak to the executive director of the north carolina republican party, and even though he counted 22 cases of ballot tampering to favor republicans, he said mark harris was still in the lead. >> so you still say -- >> so you still say harris is -- >> dallas, if this was happening on the other side -- >> exactly. >> it's interesting that you say that.

>> we constantly are hearing republicans say that democrats are engaged in voter fraud. there's almost never any evidence of that and right here, you're holding a board that has at least 22 cases of voter fraud in the state of north carolina. >> in one district. >> executed by republicans in one district. >> in one congressional district. in one election. >> so 22 cases of voter fraud by a republican. where are the democratic cases of voter fraud? >> well, i'm not keeping score of that because i'm interested in mark harris' lead. here's what i would tell you. if people did illegal things, and i think there are people that the testimony shows, they should be prosecuted. >> mark harris maintained he did not know anything about improper collection of ballots. but on the next day of the hearing, harris' son, john, a federal prosecutor, took the stand and revealed that his dad not only knew about the plan but that he warned his dad that it was against the law. >> i told him that collecting ballots was a felony. >> it was a stunning admission that by the end of his son's

testimony had the congressman-elect in tears. the following day when mark harris took the stand, he agreed the election results should be thrown out. >> through the testimony i listened to over the past three days, i believe a new election should be called. >> shortly after the hearing, a harris campaign worker named leslie mccray dallas jr. was charged with multiple crimes including perjury, obstruction of justice and illegal possession of absentee ballots. he has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. a new election will take place this september, but until then, the seat will remain empty. >> this small district might be an extreme example of electoral dysfunction, but it makes you wonder if this is why so many of us don't think our votes matter. hey, how are you guys doing? do you guys vote? >> no. >> you don't? how come?

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drain the swamp! drain the swamp! >> if we measure the health of a democracy by how many people vote, then america is in serious trouble. houston is the biggest city in texas, but here in the suburb of bel-air, only about one in four people is likely to vote. this has some of the lowest voter participation in all the city like around 27% of people showed up here in the midterm election when they had a record turnout. hey, guys. can i ask you a quick question? can i ask you a question? hi. are you a voter? do you vote? >> no, i've never been. >> never in your life? do you guys vote? >> no. >> you don't? how come? >> politics is a deep thing, i don't want to get into it. >> in this area, not many people vote and i'm trying to understand why. >> it's going to be only one vote, your vote. i don't know. >> you don't feel like it makes a difference. >> exactly. >> just didn't get a chance because i got a restaurant business and i -- stuck in there all the time. >> you have a restaurant business and you're stuck in the

restaurant all the time. do you feel like the politics that goes on day to day, the things that we vote for, affect your life? >> yes. eventually, it will, but, like, things take a lot of time. >> trying to convince people that voting is worth the time and effort is a challenge. and that's at least in part because so many potential voters feel disconnected from the process, especially when it comes to the unique way we choose our president. >> we are the popular vote! >> because of our electoral college system, we don't vote directly for the candidate. instead, each state is assigned a number of electoral votes based on its population. the candidate that gets 270 electoral votes wins. but is this really the best way to elect a president? >> hello. hello. are you open for business? >> for you, we're never closed. >> oh. i'm hoping that election night

guru, steve kornacki, might have some answers. what's the point of electoral college? >> that goes all the way back to the founding of the country, right? this idea that the interest of each state would be represented in an electoral college. >> we saw for the second time in recent history in 20 16, the person who won the electoral college was not the person who won the popular vote. why? >> well, i mean, take a look at this map right here. right, for 2016. what you got, you got areas with large populations, rural populations, tend to be blue collar white voters. this is a group you saw donald trump, he inspired huge turnout. so it allowed clinton to win the popular vote nationally but for trump to pick off a pennsylvania, a michigan, a wisconsin. >> and you need those states along with florida. >> you can lose the national popular vote in trump's case by upward of 3 million votes but because you had such a concentration of your type of voter in those places, that's electoral vote rich.

that's 46. that's -- that's what made him president. >> an nbc news/"the wall street journal" poll shows 53% of americans want to elect our president with a popular vote. before he won the presidency, donald trump was one of those people. he called the electoral college a disaster, but after his victory? >> the electoral college is genius. it's genius. i'm telling you, it's genius. >> not surprisingly, several of the 2020 democratic presidential candidates would like to see the electoral college abolished. >> if we got rid of the electoral college, we'd get a little bit closer to one person, one vote. >> if democrats think getting rid of the electoral college will give them an advantage in 2020 and beyond, steve warns they should think again. >> it feels like it's this permanent thing that only helps republicans. in 2012, the talk was it might help democrats. i'm not at all convinced there's a permanent long-term republican advantage there. >> i wonder if our system works, though. we were talking with some folks at the u.n. from various

countries and when we asked them about our politics, a lot of them expressed total shock that we could have a candidate who wins the popular vote but doesn't win the election. >> yeah. oh. welcome to u.s. politics. >> democracy shouldn't be this complicated, right? and if we want more people to participate, shouldn't we make it easier to vote? we're heading to washington, d.c., to ask a seemingly simple question and it turns out even that is complicated, too. full disclosure. before i was a journalist, i was an election reform advocate. the question i always liked to ask first was, why do we vote on tuesday? quick question for you, congressman. >> do you know why elections are held on tuesdays? >> i really don't. >> as a former political scientist, i should know the answer. >> i don't have a clue. >> you can call my office. >> about why we vote on tuesday? congressman nunes. >> i'm not sure.

>> why are you looking at me? >> katy -- >> well, jacob knows. jacob is the expert on this. >> jacob, tell us. >> because in 1845, we were a e anegarian society. it took a day or longer to get to the county seat to vote, a day to get back and you can't travel on sabbath, so tuesday was the only day. still today we vote on the tuesday after the first monday in november. but not in the constitution. >> do you have any more obscure knowledge? >> that's not obscure. >> if i was elected on tuesday, keep it on tuesday. >> that's the problem. members in congress don't want to change the way they were elected. >> maybe congressman king is kidding but every joke contains some truth. those in power aren't too invested making it any easier for americans to vote. in some places, that can take an ugly turn. to get that story, we're headed to one of the biggest political battlegrounds past and present. >> they were pulling people over, they were stopping folks. it appeared to be a tactic to

discourage folks and to particularly focus on the african-american community. foc african-american community anyt. even a "three-ring fender bender." (clown 1) sorry about that... (clown 2) apologies. (clown 1) ...didn't mean it. (clown 3) whoops. (stilts) sorry! (clowns) we're sorry! (scary) hey, we're sorry! [man screams] [scary screams] (burke) quite the circus. but we covered it. at farmers, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ (vo) ♪ sleep this amazing? that's a zzzquil pure zzzs sleep. our liquid has a unique botanical blend, while an optimal melatonin level means no next day grogginess. zzzquil pure zzzs. naturally superior sleep.

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>> the debate over election reform is nothing new. and throughout our history, the struggle for voting rights has exposed disturbing truths about one of the most complicated issues in america. race. >> we will dramatize this whole situation and seek to arouse the conscience of the federal government by marching by the thousands on places of registration all over. >> in the 1960s civil rights icon martin luther king jr. led marches, including the end of legalized discrimination at the polls. latasha brown, co-founder of black voters matter, says it's a fight that continues today. >> you know, while i wasn't quite born during the civil rights movement, a lot of my work was really around continuation of that work. and what's really awkward and crazy to me is many of the

stories that i heard that happened in the 6'60s, i'm dealing with that now. so our work with black voters matter is to engage black voters who we feel have, particularly in the south, but throughout this country, you know, have been marginalized and there's all of these layers of voter suppression that we see ongoing. >> hello. >> hello, how are you? >> commissioner. >> latasha is introducing me to a colleague who says he personally experienced a harr harrowing episode of voter intimidation in southern georgia. in 2018, he borrowed a limousine from a funeral home to drive people to vote. let me just stop you there. that's pretty creative, info investigative. you went to the funeral home, you borrowed their limousines from the funeral home to take people in style to the polls. does it work? do people show up and get in those limousines? >> it worked. it worked. we was very successful. >> while he was driving people to the polls, roy said he had a

run-in with state troopers. >> is it unusual to see state troopers in city center of cordell? >> most definitely. most definitely. >> right as the election is coming in. so they're present. they were pulling people over. they were stopping folks, asking for their driver's license. and so it appeared to be a tactic to really discourage folks and particularly to focus on the african-american community. >> royce was part on the wrong side of the road when a state trooper approached him. >> the state trooper, he pulled up behind the car. i looked at him and said, you know what, i'm sorry for being parked on the side of the road, if you give me a moment, i'll move the car. and he yelled at me. he said, no, you're not going to move anything, you're going to stand right there. he hit the radio and called backup and probably seven, eight, close to nine troopers showed up. >> a woman shot this cell phone video from down the street. >> two police and the rest of them state patrol. that's a crying shame, on one little person. >> if there was, like, a bank robbery in progress -- >> exactly. >> and then what? >> the commander instructed the

guy that if he was going to give me a ticket to give me a ticket. if he wasn't, let's go. >> and? >> they give me a ticket and left. >> did you ever say, hey, look, i'm just trying to drive people to the polls today. >> they was aware of what i was doing. i pulled up aside people and said, let's go and vote today. no, i don't want to have to deal with the police. >> that's crazy, i'm sorry to interrupt you, but that's crazy to me, that maybe it shouldn't be in the united states of america the first reaction to some folks before they go and vote is i hope i don't have to deal with the police. the georgia state patrol office said the trooper who gave the citation followed proper procedure and we requested backup because there was so many bystanders on the street. >> we have to protect our democracy. this is a people issue. it's a citizenship issue. >> stacey abrams ran for governor of georgia that same year and lost by less than 5 5,000 votes. she believes that voter suppression and other tactics were at least partially to blame.

>> do you think the vote was stolen from you, the election was stolen from you? >> i think the vote was stolen from the people of georgia. i don't know if empirically i would have won. but if you add together the thousands of people that faced extraordinarily long lines, who faced hurdles that should not happen in a democracy, the votes that we know were not counted, the secretary of state who was also my opponent in the race purged more than 1.4 million voters over basically an eight-year period. >> the opponent abrams is referring to is gop governor brian kemp. purging voters from the rolls is not illegal. in fact, the law that allowed kemp to do it was passed years ago by democrats as a way to remove people who had moved out of the state or died. but abrams says kemp's office purged voters in a way that d disproportionately impacted african-americans. isn't there a law that defines how you get purged? >> but the aggressiveness and the fault in the database. people were purged who had not

matched any of the criteria for being removed from the rolls. >> the voting rights act of 1965 is supposed to guard against racial discrimination at the polls, but in 2013 the supreme court decision in shelby county versus holder erased a key provision in the act and weakened those protections. shelby versus holder, do you think 20134 would have been different? >> 2018 would have been different. 2016 would have been different. >> why? >> the evisceration of the voting rights act in shelby v. holder. georgia passed many laws. we saw poll closures and purging that were to longer governed and regulated because there was no oversight. >> abrams accused the georgia election board of racially motivated voter suppression tactics and took the fight to court. >> in the coming days we will be filing a major federal lawsuit against the state of georgia for the gross mismanagement of this election and to protect future elections from unconstitutional action. >> is there going to be a point

in our history where we can say, we've moved past those times? if it's 50 years later, are we not there yet? >> african-americans were denied humanity for the better part of 200 years and were denied agency for the long history of america except for the last 50 years. we cannot undo centuries of oppression and centuries of bad action with good intention and good will without actually putting in place laws to force our better angels. >> abrams' lawsuit is still ongoing. while the georgia board of elections is fighting the allegations. >> while voting rights activists fight back against suppression tactics, it turns out there are all sorts of legal ways for lawmakers to pick and choose the voters they want to show up at the polls. to get that story, we need to get back to north carolina. >> we are walking up on the line, the gerrymandered district. >> in a second, we'll be in another district. >> actually, you're already in another district. >> oh. another district. >> oh.

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i'm dara brown with the hour's top stories. the new york city medical examiner says an autopsy was completed on jeffrey epstein today but an official cause of death was not released. the accused child sex trafficker was found dead after an apparent suicide. five young children, one as young as 8 months old, are killed in a fire at a daycare center in erie, pennsylvania. two teenagers escaped the blaze by climbing through a second-story window. the cause of the fire is still under investigation. now back to "american swamp." drain the swamp! drain the swamp! you might think a state with an equal number of registered voters for each party would have an equal number of officials representing them in congress, but that is often not the case at all. take north carolina. even though voters in the state are split almost 50/50 in terms of theiraffiliation, republicans hold 9 out of the 13 seats in congress.

>> to understand why, jacob and i met with student leaders at north carolina "a&t state university. they say their political power has been undercut by what's called gerrymandering. >> so we are walking up on the line, the gerrymandered district. >> so in a second we will be in another district. >> faactually, you're already i another district. >> so if i'm over here, i'm in district 13. >> wait a minute. hold on a second. >> hold on. >> so katy's in the 6th district. >> and me and you are chilling in the 13th. >> 13th. >> gerrymandering is tactic used by state politicians to draw up congressional districts to help one party win, and it's legal all across america. >> north carolina is one of the most gerrymandered states in the union. >> where is the actual dividing line? >> basically it's, like, where the sidewalk cracks.

>> i would say that. >> so there has to be a good reason that the school has been split in half. >> they believe that the republican party is better for north carolina than the democratic party. >> who is "they"? >> the folks who -- >> the state folks. >> the folks who did the drawing. the north carolina general assembly. >> before republicans redrew the map in 2016, the 10,000 students here were all in one voting district represented by a democrat. that meant students here at the nation's largest historically black college or university also known as an hbcu could have had the power to swing an election. >> so you think the legislature is purposefully dividing the largest hbcu in half in order to dilute the power of the student body? >> yes. >> what was the outcome of splitting the university in half? you got a republican and democrat now, who democrat -- >> two republicans. >> two republicans. >> yeah. we're represented by mark walkers and ted bud. >> jacob and i have been having this debate.

what stops people from voting? is it things like voter suppression, is it too hard to vote, or is it voter apathy? or are they one in the same in some respects? >> i would say both. >> what would this country look like in everyone, the vast majority of people, or even the majority, went out and voted? >> i think it would look like a democracy and what it is supposed to look like in theory, which in theory a democracy is a participatory process where everyone is encouraged to participate. and, like, participating is accessible. right now, that's not the case. >> we asked to speak with republican representative david lewis who led the redrawing process for the current district map. in an email statement, lewis said dividing the campus, "was not done intentionally and no one on the committee, either democrat or republican, realized that the campus was not split." it's not a coincidence that you see the greatest amount of extreme positions, inconsistent with what the people want, when you see the greatest amount of

gerrymandering. >> eric holder sees gerrymandering as a national emergency and a moral threat to our democracy. do you think gerrymandering is at the root of the problem for voting issues in this country? if gerrymandering was fixed, that we'd have fairer elections? >> if gerrymandering were fixed, we'd have fairer election. you'd also have policies put in place that were consistent with the desires of the people. you would have more say in gun laws, more say in efforts with regard to climate concerns. you'd have better approaches to dealing with reproductive rights. it's not a coincidence that you see the greatest amount of extreme positions inconsistent with what the people want where you see the greatest amount of gerrymandering. i'm here to end the practice of gerrymandering. >> shortly after the 2016 election, holder launched the national democratic redistricting committee which is working to ensure districts are drawn fairly. this isn't just about democrats

getting more power. you think this is going to be fairer for everybody. that's a hard argument to convince people of that are not democrats, that are happy republicans. >> so, yes, you have to have democratic participation. in the same way, i'd look at democratic-controlled states. what happened in maryland with the creation of the gerrymandered district that made americans superfluous. >> now holder's job is even tougher. in june, the supreme court ruled that partisan gerrymandering is legal and redistricting decisions should remain in the hands of state legislatures. >> we will be counted! >> and there's another battle threatening to impact every election in america from town council to the president of the united states. and this one has a twist straight out of the swamp. >> boom, suddenly we have kind of a smoking gun. ♪

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drain the swamp! drain the swamp! >> the way we vote for our representatives starts with a pretty simple question. how many people live in the united states? >> the census, which is taken every ten years, doesn't just count heads, it determines political power. if a state loses population, it loses seats in congress. and influence in the electoral college. a shift that could decide the next presidential election. there's a lot at stake as we gear up for 2020. and so far under the trump administration, the simple act of counting people hasn't been so simple. in fact, it is a swampy mess. >> i've come to the rio grande valley in south texas to find out why. >> this is -- >> okay. >> martha and maria are members of lupe, a non-profit community

organization which conducts outreach to encourage latinos to respond to the census. and so who else lives here? >> translator: well, many families. many families, yes. >> quontos familia? >> in total, it's about 79. >> the constitution says the census must count everyone so that means noncitizens, too. that's a challenge in parts of the country like this. where there's a fear of the government, a fear that only increased since president trump took office. >> what are the people so worried about? >> translator: because the families here are mixed. some of them may not have their documents. some were born here. so you're giving your addresses, you're giving your personal information, where you live. so i think that could be intimidating to the community. >> while it's always been hard to get an accurate census count here in south texas, activists like martha and maria say 2020 could have been devastating

that's because the trump administration wanted to add a question we have not asked since 1950. is this person a citizen of the united states? it's a question that career census officials have said could lead to a huge undercount in communities already living in fear of even the most routine contacts with the government, not to mention possible deportation. >> i know families every day, they give blessing to the family members because they really don't know if somebody's going to come back, they're going to be stopped by the constable, by the border patrol, by the police department. all these departments can stop a family for a blinking light, for a wrong turn and the family can end up being deported. >> and that's the reality of life here and the idea that the census bureau becomes another one of those agencies. u.s. commerce secretary wilbur

ross who oversees the census beard row says the question was requested by the justice department to help enforce the voting rights act of 1965. voting rights activists weren't buying that explanation. more than a dozen states filed lawsuits to block the question, saying it was a blatant attempt to give republicans an advantage by undercounting traditionally democratic communities. the case eventually made it all the way to the docket of the supreme court. around the same time, congressional democrats called a hearing to demand answers from ross. >> thank you very much. >> ross stuck to his story. >> doj sought census block level citizenship data for use in voting rights act enforcement. >> and supporters like republican representative james comer of kentucky argue the citizenship question is necessary. >> every working taxpaying citizen should want to know how many people are living in the united states. your tax dollars go to things to build infrastructure, to do

things like pay for education, pay for law enforcement. we need to know how many people are living here. >> people who work, career professionals, within the census bureau, have already said that during the last census in 2010, 1.5 million african-american and latino people were undercounted by the census and this will only increase that number. so why do you support it? >> i believe that every american is supposed to fill out the census. i believe that we should know if people that fill out the census are citizens are not. people ask me all the time, when you're talking about the wall, which is a huge subject. >> why are we -- i'm talking about the census, sir. >> listen. listen. when we're talking about the wall, people say, how many illegals are here? i don't know. nobody knows. we can take a census every decade and hopefully we can determine how many illegals are here. and the census isn't going to say go out and hunt out people that are here illegally or not. that's misinformation. the democrats are trying to use scare tactics and play the race card. and let me say this. it's not just minorities.

there are people in my district, they don't like filling out the census. they don't like the government knowing their business, but it's important to know how many people are living in the united states. >> as the debate in congress continued, a bombshell dropped shattering the trump administration's entire explanation for adding the citizenship question. >> after you. >> thank you. >> dahlia lithwick, senior editor and legal correspondent for "slate" has been following the census story from the start. when i sat in that house oversight committee hearing and listened to wilbur ross saying the reason they wanted to put the citizenship question on the census was because of the voting rights act, at the time it seemed very suspicious and it turned out that there was good reason for that. >> yeah. i mean, it was beyond suspicious. it was audacious because this is a trump administration that has not done anything in any other context to enforce the voting rights act. they treated it as though it's an inconvenience. the notion that suddenly there's this burning need to protect minority voting in america from this administration. it's not only short of

paradoxical in light of how they treated minority voting, it's also just a flat-out lie. >> that lie was exposed when tom halford died and his daughter discovered documents among his private possessions. >> his daughter finds these zip drive with information that shows he had engineered this as a plan explicitly to suppress minority votes. >> in the files, he indicated a citizenship question would help republicans in the redistricting process by discouraging hispanic communities from responding to the caucus. talk bing points to support his arguments, some of the same points were later used by the justice department in an official letter asserting why the citizenship question was needed. >> it's right there and quite literally they are scooping up language that he had used. so, boom, suddenly we have kind of a smoking gun.

>> with a looming july 1st deadline to print the census questionnaires, voter rights advocates presented the documents in a last-minute filing before the supreme court. >> they're getting ready to print this thing and then the supreme court weighs in. what happened? >> so there are four solid votes to say this is absolutely fine. wilbur ross did nothing wrong. john roberts who writes the majority opinion, he says, i don't believe him, he's lying. he doesn't use the word, "he's lying," but he essentially says i believe the reasons given are pretextu pretextual. i have no problem in principle with what he was trying to do. but the way it went down makes me meal kind of queasy, so he sides with the liberals. >> soon after, trump announced he was dropping the citizen question from the 2020 census. >> it's deeply regrettable, but it will not stop us from collecting the needed information, and i think even in greater detail and more accurately. >> while activists were

successful in getting the question blocked from the 2020 census, lithwick clawarns it mi not be a total victory. >> the sad part of the story is that if the point of this was to terrorize hispanic voters into not voting, the damage is done. whether or not that question appears on the census, what matters is you are in our sights and you should be afraid to participate in this democracy. >> we don't know yet how the fallout from the census fight will affect the 2020 election, but what if the government made it easier to vote? two civil rights leaders have a novel idea. to get more people to the polls. >> we call it the trump card. i handed it to him. >> you actually took his picture and you put it on there. u put i. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. nice. but, uh... what's up with your... partner? not again. limu that's your reflection. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪

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about former special counsel robert mueller's testimony to congress it's that our election system is vulnerable. >> in your investigation did you think this was a single attempt by the russians to get involved in our election or did you find evidence to suggest they'll try this again? >> they're doing this as we sit here. >> but congress hasn't done much to make our electoral process more secure, and that is in large part because senate majority leader mitch mcconnell won't bring the most recent election security bills to a vote. >> well, i'm not going to let democrats and their water carriers and the media use russia's attack on our democracy as a trojan horse for wish list items that will not actually make our elections any safer. >> even if we make our elections more secure the fact still remains, only about half of us will likely go to the polls. but as discouraging as that sounds, we were able to find some signs of hope.

>> texas historically has some of the worst voter participation in the country. but it turns out that's only part of the story. i'm meeting with rice universe political science professor mark jones who researches what drives voter turn out. we're in a neighborhood in houston where most people do vote. >> this is a very high turn out area, one of the highest turn out areas in the entire houston metro area. >> in this neighborhood three quarter of people voted. you got one of the biggest cities in the country, most diverse populations in america. where was everybody? >> well, i think there was a large portion of the population who didn't feel elections affect them and they feel alienated from the political system and they don't turn out to vote. you have other people simply too involved in life. they care about survival,

children being able to go to school in a safe way, effectively having enough to eat. if anything it drives them away from politics because it's so much noise and negativity it leaves many people to turn off. professor jones says it is possible, it just takes some work. and that is exactly the work voting rights advocates from the texas organizing project are doing. what is the texas organizing project in. >> at a large scale we run large scale voter registration programs. we found 3 million people of color who currently sit out elections who could be voting. in 2018 we turned out 270,000 unlikely voters. >> that's a big number. >> we run a highly intensive program. we do a minimum of three knocks on the door, usually three phone

calls. >> and during early vote and election day. >> if you've made a commitment to vote we will continue to call you and knock on your door until you vote. >> we inspire people to the polls. >> all joking aside, when it comes to getting out the vote inspiration and voter engagement are critical. but equally important we need to remove the barriers that keep so many voters away from the polls. >> back in new york city we met with civil rights activists. their fathers fought together to expand voting rights. >> dad used to say that a voteless people is a powerless people and the one of the most important steps we can take is that step to the ballot box. >> now the sons are continuing their legacy and are looking for a solution to one of the obstacles many voters face. on martin luther king day 2017, four days before donald trump's

inauguration, the president-elect invited king and walctel to trump for youer. >> president's cart, president clinton, president bush have all said it's a great idea, and you have the opportunity to prove you can be bipartisan. we call it the trump card. i handed it to him. >> this looks like a picture of a social security card with donald trump's picture on the back. >> 30 states require voters to show some form of idea at the polls and they are pitch is every voter had access to a free photo i.d., then more people would be able to vote. >> and you actually took his picture and put it on there. >> you've got to fill it with voters and you're a businessman so you understand the practical common sense solution to getting

people into voting booths and that is a photo i.d. >> so far president trump hasn't turned their ideas into action. >> look, the reality is no one is really interested in trying to make it more convenient for people to vote. >> to get more people to the polls we'll need to do more to restore faith in a system that has left so many disenfranchised and disillusioned. but sometimes before you can build a better future we need to look back at our past. have you ever seen this picture? >> you guys tell us about this picture. >> this is the group that went to the nobel peace prize in december 1964. and it's basically a starting line-up of the civil rights movement. >> do you feel looking back on this photo and all your parents were trying to do, that they would be happy with where we are today, disappointed, frustrated?

>> i think there are areas where you look and you see great things happening and i think my mom and dad would be happy. but i think everyone who takes a moment and looks at where we are and what is happening in our world should be very concerned at this particular moment and i believe mom and dad would be, but they'd be out there challenging us. >> for most of our history america has struggled to live up to the ideal of a government for and by the people. but we the people have to do our part, too. we need to stay informed, hold our elected officials accountable, and yes vote. that will at least give us a chance to strengthen our democracy and get out of the swamp. next time on american swamp, roads getting better or worse? >> i would say getting worse. >> the crumbling states of

america. >> politics and potholes. why washington loves a roadblock. >> so the gridlock is welcome thing for the wamp makers. >> for most people here absolutely. i go what are these things anyway? he says they're these little falcons. he goes they watch over the dead, jimmy, he goes they do. >> what if someone asked you to risk your life? >> what if i get shanked, what if i get killed. >> to go undercover into one of the country's most dangerous prisons. >> once they stepped out the door, i was on my own. >> to help catch a killer. >> she had such a zest for life. >> young girls were being murdered.