STACEY ABRAMS Fighting for a Fair America THE RIGHT TO VOTE
DAN PFEIFFER: In [her new] book, Stacey chronicles how the is a central tenet of democracy, right to vote and the principle but that right has been abridged of democracy as we know it has in increasingly brazen ways. been and continues to be under Georgia politician and activist attack, even now in 2020— Stacey Abrams explains her maybe especially now in 2020. efforts to protect and expand This a very interesting time in voting rights. From the June 22, American history. . . . I want to start by reading to you an official 2020, online Inforum program statement from the president “Stacey Abrams: Our Time Is of the United States: “Because Now.” of mail-in ballots, 2020 will STACEY ABRAMS, Founder, Fair be the most rigged election in Fight Action and Fair Fight 2020; our nation’s history—unless Author, Our Time Is Now: Power, this stupidity is ended. We Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair voted during World War One America and World War Two with no problem, but now they are using In Conversation with DAN COVID in order to cheat by PFEIFFER, Co Host, “Pod Save America” using mail-ins!” This is part of a larger effort by the president to cast doubt on the elections. I wanted to ask you why he’s wrong about mail-in ballots, and why you’re such a big supporter of making them part of our plan. ABRAMS: Okay. Number one, every state in the country has some form of mail-in balloting. There are five states that do universal mail-in balloting— universal vote by mail. There are 34 states that have no excuses [required to vote by mail], including that five. There 16 states that do mail-in balloting, but they require an excuse—usually age, infirmity, permanent disability, or you’re not going to be at home. It varies; there are four that are hyper-restrictive. But every state in the country does this. What is different is that we have a disease that is communicable through contact, through [short] distance. So unlike World War I, World War II, we’re much more in the Spanish flu epidemic stage, and vote by mail is one of the few ways that you can preclude the likelihood of contracting a disease while participating in democracy. So we want vote by mail because vote by mail allows as many people as possible to not be in line, to send in their ballots, to participate in democracy, democracy
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