We are simultaneously faced with a global pandemic, climate change, systemic racism/inequality, and a lack of competent leadership in the White House. My campaign manager called and he said, "If you're in fleece and jeans," which is what I was in, "You need to put something nicer on because you're about to go on TV, and you're going to be the next justice on the Wisconsin state Supreme Court.". Actually, in my district, it is not a partisan issue. Well, I cant do an interview right now because Ive got another one Ive got to go to. John Lewis spoke with such passion about voter ID laws not just because he thought they were wrong, but because his life's work was under attack. Democrats tend to live in urban areas whereas Republicans live in suburban areas. And we're seeing those things collide. With reporters from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and USA Today, we examined the voting, especially the absentee ballots, how they were used and counted, and the political and legal fights around them. Now That Barrett Is on the Supreme Court, Should Women Start Panicking? Hank Sanders represented the defendants in one such case brought by the U.S. attorney in Alabama at the time, Jeff Sessions. Throughout U.S. history, many have fought to extend the right to vote to all adults. But when I was at the Justice Department, I worked in the Civil Rights Division, and my job there was enforcing federal voting rights laws, including the Voting Rights Act. October 20, 2020 Other states would follow Wisconsin with their own voter ID laws And then came efforts to dismantle the fundamental provisions of the Voting Rights Act. When you don't want somebody to vote, you create various kinds of things. The right to vote is at the foundation of America's democracy. It required them to get federal approval for any voting law changes. Oops. They Faced a Chaotic Primary. Some of the rejected ballots were from one neighborhood: Metcalfe Park. JUSTIN CLARK, Dep. Gov. Messi v. Mbapp: Is Comparison Killing the Great Soccer Players? In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Shelby County. And then it finally came down to five voting centers for in-person voting on Election Day. Especially when it comes to such a hot-button topic. Remove these ten wordsfrom your vocabulary| Transform your life INSTANTLY, Whose Vote Counts Explained, Whose Vote Counts Explained, Whose Vote Counts Explained, Whose Vote Counts Explained, Whose Vote Counts Explained, Whose Vote Counts Explained, Whose Vote Counts Explained, Whose Vote Counts Explained, Whose Vote Counts Explained, Whose Vote Counts Explained, Whose Vote Counts Explained, Whose Vote Counts Explained. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation. Kathy Bernier was elected to the State Assembly the year Gov. What I'm saying is that's a made-up term, OK? Good morning, folks, and thanks for joining us on this Monday, April 6. I started focussing on the state because of its pivotal and deeply partisan natureits split down the middle between Republicans and Democrats, and it gave Donald Trump the presidency in 2016 by the exceedingly thin margin of 22,000 votes. The Netflix documentary series titled Whose Vote Counts, Explained, features Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio along with singer-songwriters John Legend and Selena Gomez as narrators.The election-themed limited series will be screened tonight at GAAMC. We find them through newspaper accounts of people getting convicted. He said that he felt like his vote didn't matter. That decision to me felt like voter suppression. You can watch all three episodes over on Netflix, launching on Monday, September 28. One series that caught my eye was . These modes of suppression arent used by accident, its because people in power dont want citizens to vote against them, as they state in the episodes. Voting by mail is wrought with fraud and abuse and people don't get their ballots. early on. Neil Albrecht took us to the room where theyre kept. Ive had conversations with peers where they explained why they wont vote because of the electoral college, and how it gives certain states an unfair amount of power. BRYAN STEVENSON, Exec. The Shelby decision did send a powerful signal, and soon changes to voting laws began taking place all over the countryin Southern states and beyond. Now theyre fighting for their vote to count in the presidential election. So there we go. WHOSE VOTE COUNTS, EXPLAINED explores different aspects of the United States's national elections. How does the system work, and can it be fixed? She's one of the fanciest ladies in the neighborhood and all of this. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Park Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen. Why is the right to vote in America still a fight? Why is it a scam all of a sudden if several states have used mail-in voting before? When marginalized people show up at polling places, the status quo changes. By 1968, 385 Black people had been elected to office across the South. The topics of these episodes have been coming to a head in recent years. I do believe that there is an attack on our democracy right now. Areas like Milwaukee, where we'd been talking to anxious voters. And then that's what's required for the ballot to be counted on Election Day. Well, voter suppression is a made-up term that's used by those who oppose very common sense measures to make sure that, one, everybody who's eligible is able to vote. States across the country have postponed their primary elections because of the coronavirus pandemic, but not Wisconsin. Many of the experts we spoke to were hopeful that we may be at an inflection point heightened awareness and renewed will might have the power to bring about significant reform. ANDREW HITT, Chmn., Republican Party of WI: We believed that with the right amount of preparation, we could hold a safe election. We dont need to be trying to have an election in the middle of a pandemic. Americans vote at much. Browse more videos. In eight states, ballots are mailed to every registered voter. Transcript Whose Vote Counts View film JELANI COBB, Correspondent: I'm a journalist and historian. In the electoral college system, the candidate with a majority of votes in a state will receive all of the states electoral votes. Trump and Others Disagree. We continued to invest 14-, 16-, 18-hour workdays, all with the hope that that election ultimately would be postponed. There are cases of voter fraud here and there, but it doesn't happen in the numbers necessary to show that there's some sort of great conspiracy out there to steal elections through voter fraud. States that were notorious for voter suppression now had to get federal approval if they wanted to change any laws regarding voting. In Whose Vote Counts, Explainedseries, fears about the voting process being rigged by powerful donors and corporations, gerrymandering, the Electoral College, voter suppression, fraud at. Those are real hurdles for people, particularly in a pandemic. It premiered in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election and is a three-episode spin-off of Explained, a documentary series produced by Vox.The first episode, narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, explains the history of the right to vote in the U.S..The second episode, narrated by Selena Gomez . is provided by the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation. The series does an okay job of explaining the voting system. I've been involved in recounts and contests, which all involve kicking open the hood of the American engine to look at what happens in polling places. She was drawing a line straight back to the post-Civil War era, when African Americans risked their lives for the right to vote. The 15th amendment, made following the Civil War, defends peoples right to vote from race-based discrimination but said nothing about education, economic status or criminal history. As Meade said, Vote like your life depends on it., Live Updates: USA Election, President-ELECT Joe Biden, Video | The Artist Evolves: All Leonardo DiCaprio Roles &, Hollywood Companies Make Election Day a Paid Holiday | Vote, Video: The People in USA Send Messages to Joe Biden and, Hollywoods Youngest Producers: Millie Bobby Brown and, The American Hero Stacey Abrams' 'And She Could Be Next':, Whose Vote Counts Explained Should Be Mandatory Viewing, The Series Promotes Voting, But Not For Any Specific Candidate or Party, First Presidential Debates 2020: Joe Biden VS Donald Trump VS Debates Vs Domestic Terrorism, Donald Trump Attacks Press Freedom, Cops Assault Journalists Bloody, The Power of Positivity: Ikorodu Bois + Chris Hemsworth + Russo Brothers + Sam Hargrave, Limited Time Offer FREE Subscription to. So I started calling different companies and asking them if they could supply me with a thousand masks or a thousand sets of gloves. With COVID-19 cases rising throughout Wisconsin, thats exactly what Melody McCurtis and her mother have been doing. MARC E. ELIAS, Attorney, Democratic Party: The DNC filed the initial lawsuit when it became clear that there were going to be serious problems with availability for voting. Earlier today, I signed Executive Order 74 to suspend in-person voting for the spring election until June 9. America is the world's oldest democracy, founded on the radical idea that governments "derive their just powers from the consent . He also enjoys writing about current events in the entertainment landscape, and is always looking for interesting topics to cover. We are marching today to dramatize to the nation and dramatize to the world that hundreds and thousands of Negro citizens are denied the right to vote. Elvis trades in his jumpsuit for a jetpack when he joins a secret government spy program to help battle the dark forces that threaten the country. Throughout that hundred-year history between the end of Reconstruction and the Civil Rights movement, the inability to vote is what shaped Black life. And then the witness signs, provides their address as well. It's a very bad system. A lot of Democrats believe you, too, should provide identification that you are who you say you are. Open that door! I've[laughs] I think that's not a fair statement. Related article:First Presidential Debates 2020: Joe Biden VS Donald Trump VS Debates Vs Domestic Terrorism, Related article:Donald Trump Attacks Press Freedom, Cops Assault Journalists Bloody, Eugene Kiely and Rem Reider from factcheck.org stated mail ballots will be sent automatically to eligible registered voters in only nine states and the District of Columbia. Pennsylvania gave Joe Biden the 20 Electoral College. For an attorney who despises losing to men and an A-list actor who distrusts women, love means nothing until they're forced to date each other. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); 2022 Hollywood Insider Corp. All rights reserved. With former Vice President Joe Biden leading Wisconsin by a narrow margin, the local election commission and others respond to the Trump campaign's call for a state recount. Elections arent just a measure of what parties and candidates people prefer; theyre a measure of who counts in a country. The pandemic has brought unprecedented strains on American voting systems, and new opportunities for unfair play. Dir., Equal Justice Initiative: The first lesson that Black people had to navigate in this country was that voting is dangerous. Along with colleagues at Columbia Journalism Investigations, we began doing remote interviews there when the pandemic was just taking hold. . I don't have the time, the resources to do any kind of comprehensive list. Every 10 years after the census data is collected, states redraw district lines to reflect changes in demographics. In Whose Vote Counts, Explained, fears about the voting process being rigged by powerful donors and corporations, gerrymandering, the . As America chooses its next president in the midst of a historic pandemic, FRONTLINE investigates whose vote counts and whose might not. We will continue reporting on this major issue with kindness and respect to all Black people, as each and every one of them are seen and heard. Up to that point, the Department of Justice, particularly the voting section of the Department of Justice, was focused on enforcing the Voting Rights Act. These are the ones that Trump has a problem with. We are simultaneously faced with a global pandemic, climate change, systemic racism/inequality, and a lack of competent leadership in the White House. I always thought that since the voting rights struggle came to a head in Alabama, in Selma, Alabama, that they wanted a case from Alabama for symbolic purposes, for symbolism, to gut the Voting Rights Act. How does the system work, and can it be fixed? The state of ex-felons voting rights, explained, Watch: The man who rigged Americas election maps, A Biden presidency: The Democratic nominees policy vision, explained, Yes, Russia is interfering in the 2020 election. PROF. BARRY C. BURDEN, Dir., Elections Research Ctr., UW-Madison: That law required a voter to have one of about six or seven forms of approved photo ID. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Learn more about our use of cookies and information. Only white men with money and land were allowed to vote back then. Limited Time Offer FREE Subscription toHollywood Insider Click here to read more onHollywood Insidersvision, values and mission statement here Media has the responsibility to better our world Hollywood Insiderfully focuses on substance and meaningful entertainment, against gossip and scandal, by combining entertainment, education, and philanthropy. This march will not continue. Issues voters are concerned about like gun control, education and student-debt forgiveness are not being solved because the party in power does not represent the majority of the population. Within months, it led to the signing of the Voting Rights Act. It happened in 2000 in the race between Al Gore and George W. Bush, and again in 2016 when President Trump lost the popular vote by roughly 3 million votes. When you vote folks in office, you have a say-so on what you want your community to be. It is not a comprehensive list. I thought a lot about this idea when I paid a visit to Black Lives Matter Plaza earlier this fall.

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