Samuel L Jackson will teach you to swear in 15 languages if you vote
Samuel L Jackson
Hollywood star turns US voter-registration campaigner, using his special skill with curses More
Subterms
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in US PoliticsSamuel L Jackson
Hollywood star turns US voter-registration campaigner, using his special skill with curses More
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in US PoliticsAs the US election draws closer, the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington hears from civil leaders on their fears for the integrity of the process and the future of their democracy
How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know
This episode first aired on Today in Focus, the Guardian’s global daily news podcast. When Barack Obama spoke at the Democratic national convention recently he had as his backdrop a facsimile of the US constitution. He spoke pointedly about the importance of that document and criticised Donald Trump for damaging the reputation of the United States, with “our democratic institutions threatened like never before”. It is a concern shared by many across the US and the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington tells Anushka Asthana that he was alarmed by what he heard in interviews with some of the most prominent figures in civil rights, the law and academia on the state of democracy in America. He spoke to Michael Waldman, the head of the Brennan Center for Justice; Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP; Deirdre Schifeling, the campaign director of Democracy For All 2021; Sabeel Rahman, the head of Demos, and Vanita Gupta, the president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. All told him versions of the same story: democracy in America is in peril like never before. More
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in US PoliticsReligious right and social conservative groups are training thousands of volunteers in key 2020 battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin to watch for alleged fraud with the expansion of mail-in ballots, plus filing lawsuits to block more voting by mail, which they claim with scant evidence will lead to sizable election fraud.Texas-based True the Vote, a central player in the right’s anti-vote-by-mail drives, has trained about 10,000 volunteers in areas including handwriting analysis who are expected to volunteer in key counties such as Allegheny in Pennsylvania and Las Vegas in Nevada to detect voting fraud by mail and at the polls, said True the Vote’s founder, Catherine Engelbrecht.True the Vote, which has Tea Party roots, has done training sessions with several national religious and social conservative groups such as Intercessors for America, the Thomas More Law Center and Eagle Forum, as well as a few dozen smaller local groups nationwide, said Engelbrecht.“I’m particularly concerned about mail-in voting fraud,” Engelbrecht said, though there has been little evidence produced that mail-in voting fraud has ever been a significant problem in American elections.For Engelbrecht, however, the mission to police the 2020 electoral process is almost a religious one. That message was palpable on a 1 May monthly prayer call hosted by Intercessors, when Engelbrecht called the fight to curb mail-in voting a “spiritual battle” for “control of the free world”, according to Right Wing Watch, which tracks conservative groups for the liberal People for the American Way.Dave Kubal, the Intercessors president who participated in the prayer call, reportedly said that Engelbrecht had been “anointed” by God for her current work, and hailed her as a “warrior for liberty”.As part of its 2020 battle plan to monitor both mail-in voting and the polls for fraud, Engelbrecht said that True the Vote is recruiting thousands of military veterans including from the American Legion and the Seal community, to join its “Continue to Serve” program. “We’re reaching out to veterans groups and first responders.”True the Vote says it is promoting “free and fair elections” but independent election law experts say that historically the group has backed measures to curb minority voting – including voter-ID laws and voter-roll purges – and organized election observers who have been charged with intimidation.“True the Vote is a misnomer,” said Gerry Hebert, a leading voting rights lawyer who worked on the issues for 21 years at the justice department. “They should be called Suppress the Vote.”While True the Vote’s volunteer training this year has been heavily focused on the risks of mail-in voting fraud, Engelbrecht noted that since NBA teams have opted to deploy some arenas for in-person voting, True the Vote has begun volunteer training plans to monitor these large voting sites.Engelbrecht said that the majority of True the Vote’s election training was being done with small local groups in a few dozen counties in swing states nationwide, but she declined to name any of the local groups.To help coordinate its training with local groups and some national ones, True the Vote intends to launch a “command center” later this month to advise and respond to questions from people interested in working in different counties.[Vote-by-mail supporters] want to cause chaos, and they’re going to spread it across the country like a virusCatherine EngelbrechtThe religious right’s battle to thwart mail-in voting overlaps larger poll monitoring and legal drives by the Republican National Committee and Donald Trump’s campaign, which have spread unfounded claims about the risks of mail-in voting and the need to monitor polls for fraud. The RNC has said it planned to recruit 50,000 poll watchers and was budgeting $20m for election legal fights.Trump himself has made numerous specious claims that large expansions of mail-in voting will lead to massive fraud, and attacked Democrats for seeking to boost mail-in voting in light of Covid-19. In June, Trump tweeted without evidence that “millions of mail-in ballots will be printed by foreign countries and others,” creating the “scandal of our times”.And at a North Carolina rally this month, Trump even urged his followers illegally to vote twice – by mail and at the polls – to test the system for fraud.The specter of mail-in voting fraud is fueling other religious conservative projects.True the Vote joined a coalition in late August that is backing the Amistad Project of the Thomas More Center in lawsuits accusing Michigan’s governor and secretary of state of endangering the integrity of the election and silencing political speech through emergency orders and actions spurred by pandemic health concerns.One Amistad lawsuit filed in a MIchigan claims court challenges the secretary of state’s moves to expand access to mail-in and absentee voting, which the lawsuit claims endangers election integrity. The Amistad Project is run by the ex-Kansas attorney general Phill Kline, whose law license was suspended indefinitely several years ago after a Kansas agency found he committed 11 ethical violations in investigations of abortion providers.This week, True the Vote also sued Montana’s governors for offering counties the option to conduct universal mail-in voting in this year’s elections.Election law experts warn that True the Vote and its allies’ drives, coupled with Trump’s blistering attacks against expanding mail-in voting, will fuel voter suppression.“True the Vote is not interested in preventing fraud,” said election lawyer Hebert. “They’re interested in perpetrating it, by denying and obstructing the rights of minority voters to cast their ballots.”But Engelbrecht seems to see her battle against mail-in voting in apocalyptic terms to judge by her 1 May prayer call with Intercessors, according to Right Wing Watch.Vote-by-mail supporters “want to cause chaos, and they’re going to spread it across the country like a virus,” Engelbrecht said. “We know that this is from Satan.” More
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in US PoliticsAs the US election draws closer, the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington hears from civil leaders on their fears for the integrity of the process and the future of their democracy
How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know
When Barack Obama spoke at the Democratic national convention recently he had as his backdrop a facsimile of the US constitution. He spoke pointedly about the importance of that document and criticised Donald Trump, a reality TV star who had damaged the reputation of the United States with “our democratic institutions threatened like never before”. It is a concern shared by many across the US and the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington tells Anushka Asthana that he was alarmed by what he heard in interviews with some of the most prominent figures in civil rights, the law and academia on the state of democracy in America. He spoke to Michael Waldman, the head of the Brennan Center for Justice; Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP; Deirdre Schifeling, the campaign director of Democracy For All 2021; K. Sabeel Rahman, the head of Demos, and Vanita Gupta, the president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. All told him versions of the same story: democracy in America is in peril like never before. More
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in US PoliticsPlay Video
5:32
Americans are increasingly encountering barriers to exercising their most fundamental of democratic rights during this 2020 presidential election – the right to vote.
The Guardian’s Sam Levine looks at how voter suppression has been unfolding across the US, four key tactics being used in attempts to block votes, and how president Donald Trump is trying delegitimize November’s election
Which US states make it hardest to vote?
Is America a democracy? If so, why does it deny millions the vote?
Topics
Donald Trump
The fight to vote
US voting rights
Joe Biden
US Postal Service
Coronavirus outbreak
US politics More
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in US PoliticsTexas
The state is crucial for Republicans if they want to retain the presidency. Their opponents are hoping the young and people of color can help them to victory More
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in ElectionsThe fight to vote
US education
Between targeted voting restrictions and coronavirus, young voters in college are facing unprecedented challenges More
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in US PoliticsUS voter suppression
US elections 2020
Trump v American democracy: the real battle on the ballot this November
The president has claimed the only way he can lose is if the vote is rigged – setting the stage for bitter conflict after election day More
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