S07 E10: Protecting the Vote, Preserving Democracy

Episode Transcript

Kanya Bennett
Welcome to Pod For The Cause, the official podcast of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the Leadership Conference Education Fund where we take on the critical civil and human rights issues of our day. I’m your host, Kanya Bennett, coming to you from our nation’s capital, Washington, D. C. With the historic and high stakes 2024 presidential election upon us, today’s episode considers how we advance and protect the right to vote. We will dis-cuss modern day voter suppression in all its various forms, from voter roll purges, to voter ID laws, and from polling place closures to mis and disinformation. We will explore how these measures disproportionately impact our nation’s people of color, and people with disabilities, the elderly and students. But we will also ensure that our listeners, our voters, have the infor-mation needed to be an informed and engaged electorate. As we have been discussing all season on Pod For The Cause, our democracy is on the ballot this November. So we, the majority, must be serious about turning out to vote and vigilant in protecting that vote. Today, we will do a deep dive into how we prepare ourselves to cast that ballot. We will explore voter suppression tactics, and we will educate listeners on how to recognize voter suppression campaigns. We will equip everyone with what they need to know to vote, have that vote count, and protect our de-mocracy this election cycle. Joining us for this conversation today are three coalition partners who are on the front lines of voter protection. We are going to talk to each of them one- on- one to make sure our listeners get the voting and election- related information they need. First, let me welcome Marcia Johnson, Co-Director of the Voting Rights Project at the Layers Commit-tee for Civil Rights Under Law. Welcome Marcia.

Marcia Johnson
Thank you so much for having me and sharing this important information.

Kanya Bennett
Let’s dig into the work that the Lawyers’ Committee is doing year- round, and certainly, at the height of election season as the hub of election protection, a national nonpartisan coalition ef-fort to ensure that all voters have an equal opportunity to vote and have that vote count. Marcia, can you give us a brief overview of election protection?

Marcia Johnson
So Election Protection is the nation’s largest nonpartisan voter protection coalition, and the Lawyers’ Committee co- convenes the coalition and works with over 300 national, state and lo-cal organizations to provide resources and support to voters when they cast a ballot. And those resources come in the form of a suite, of voter protection hotlines that offer support in English, Spanish, Asian languages and Arabic. And we also have field programs that provide poll moni-tors during early voting and during generally election day in 39 states.

Kanya Bennett
That’s amazing. Marcia, what are the most concerning voter suppression tactics you are observ-ing this election cycle?

Marcia Johnson
What we are seeing this cycle is a continuation of the voter suppression that we saw coming out of the 2020 election. And I always want to go to the 2020 election as reference for what we are seeing today because during the 2020 election, there were increased opportunities to access the ballot. So in addition to being able to vote by polls, people also had access to absentee ballots, so you could vote by mail. There was also access to drop boxes. As you would recall, Kanya, this was during the pandemic, and so election officials opened up opportunities so people can be able to vote safely during a pandemic. And there we saw about 100 million people voting with these increased opportunities before election day. And we also had one of the most secure elec-tions in our history. And then we saw states like Georgia, Florida, Texas start to, following the 2020 election, enact suppressive laws that really targeted those opportunities and those opportu-nities that particularly voters of color used to be able to vote in 2020, to make it harder for them to be able to vote this election. And so that means making it harder to vote by mail, making it harder to access drop boxes, making it easier to challenge voter eligibility. And now what we are seeing is the fruit of that suppressive legislation, where there’re increased challenges to vot-ers’ eligibility. And those increased challenges are tied to this false narrative that people who are not eligible voted in 2020, which is not true, and that are voting now. And so they’re using this narrative that has been throughout the election cycle to challenge voter eligibility. So we have mis and disinformation that’s creating a narrative that’s false, and then we see that those on the side of voter suppression are challenging eligible voters. And then we are also seeing elec-tion deniers who are now in the seats of election officials putting in rules to make it harder to certify elections. So it’s this cumulative effect of the suppressive legislation, making it easier to challenge voters and having election deniers in place who are teeing up mechanisms to make it harder to certify the election.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you, Marcia, for breaking that down. You mentioned Georgia and a few other states. Can you talk about particular regions or communities that are most vulnerable to voter suppression practices this year? And talk a little bit more about some of the main barriers they’re facing.

Marcia Johnson
And I definitely want to link these communities to the fact that we have a weakened Voting Rights Act because the Supreme Court has weakened the Voting Rights Act. We have states like Georgia, like Texas, like Florida, like North Carolina that have passed laws, as I mentioned, to make it harder for people to vote, particularly people of color. And we’re seeing, again, the results of that where in Georgia, in counties like Gwinnett County and Cobb County, there are mass challenges now because those states have passed legislation to make it easier to challenge voters. And so these challenges are coming without any real weight behind them just because it’s easier to challenge voters. And we’re seeing, for example, even in Virginia where the gover-nor has issued an executive order saying that voting records should be matched with the De-partment of Motor Vehicles where people may have a license before they become citizens, but are now citizens, and they may be false matches if you’re just looking at the motor vehicle rec-ords, which were not meant to support citizenship eligibility records when looking at voting. And so we are just seeing in states that were formerly covered by the Protections of the Voting Rights Act, those are the states that we’re seeing real efforts, making it harder for people to be able to vote. So I definitely wanted to make that linkage between a weakened Voting Rights Act and the regions that are making it harder for voters.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you, Marcia, for doing that, for lifting the Voting Rights Act, and that has me thinking about federal intervention. Certainly, we know we are not going to move forward voting rights legislation in the month we have before this election, but where should the federal government be intervening? What does the Department of Justice, for example, need to do to make sure that there is a federal presence, that there is a federal effort to protect voting rights this election cy-cle?

Marcia Johnson
The federal government, I know, has an elections threats task force where they’re put in place to support election officials because I did want to lift that up, that election officials have also be-come under threat. And we have two types of elections officials. We have the hardworking elec-tion officials that are doing what they need to do to ensure that all voters have access to the bal-lot, and then we have the election deniers who are also part of the election administration pro-cess. But for those who are doing the right thing, the federal government does have an elections threats task force. DOJ has also issued guidances, because I think it’s really important in this climate of mis and disinformation for voters to get the information they need and to feel secure in their ability to be able to go and vote. So DOJ has issued guidances that talk about what is voter intimidation and how voters can address and report mis and disinformation, which I think is really important. And they also send monitors to regions around the country where there’s threat of voter intimidation or voter suppression or where there’s a lot of mis and disinformation happening. So the federal government is doing all of those things to contribute to an atmosphere where voters feel that they have the information that they need, and that they’re lifting up the voting process. And then also how to address the backlash to voters that we are seeing in the form of unfounded challenges and intimidation as well.

Kanya Bennett
I want to ask you about mis and disinformation. Can you talk a little bit about what that looks like today? What does mis and disinformation look like this election cycle?

Marcia Johnson
It takes several forms. Unfortunately, we are seeing, with mis and disinformation, that social media is playing a great part in that. When I first started out in the Election Protection, it was flyers in the neighborhood, so that was a contained mis and disinformation. Now with social media, it can be widespread. And so we are really looking at and monitoring what’s going on on social media to address mis and disinformation. And one of the things that comes with that is also knowing how to limit its spread because we don’t want to amplify by saying, ” Look at this awful thing that’s being said here.” So we want to make sure that we contain it. We also are looking at challenges with artificial intelligence, with AI, because now the mis and disinfor-mation can be even more sophisticated with deep fakes, with images to make things look offi-cial. We are also monitoring that piece. And then we are also looking at robocalls, because ro-bocalls are a tried and true form of mis and disinformation. We just saw in 2020, we received calls into the Election Protection 866- OUR- VOTE hotline where there were robocalls target-ing the African- American community, and we were able to bring litigation against those ro-bocalls, and we were also able to get a fine against them from the FTC, the Fair Trade Commis-sion. So we are looking at social media, we are looking at robocalls, and in some cases, we still have the old- fashioned flyers in communities. One of the things that is really important is that we don’t repeat and amplify the mis and disinformation, but yeah, we report it and we make at-tempts to contain it. And we rebut it with the true information while not repeating the false in-formation.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you, Marcia, for fleshing that out. So let’s talk about how the Election Protection Pro-gram is ensuring real- time responses to voting issues on election day or throughout this voting season.

Marcia Johnson
Election Protection is a 365- day operation. So even as we speak, the 866-OUR- VOTE Hotline, and the other hotlines that are affiliated with Election Protection. And just to share a bit, in ad-dition to the 866- OUR- VOTE English language hotline, there’s the 888-VE-Y-VOTA Spanish language hotline. There’s the 888-API- VOTE hotline, and there’s the 844- YALLA- US Arabic language hotline. All of those hotlines have trained volunteers where voters can call for infor-mation and to report problems. So am I registered to vote? Where do I go vote? What documen-tation do I need to vote? If you have any questions at all, please call the hotline because we want to make sure that there isn’t any opportunity to challenge your vote because you were un-aware of where you needed to go to vote, or you didn’t update your voter registration, or you didn’t have the documents you needed and you voted provisional ballot, which is legitimate and allowed, but others are trying to twist those laws to pass suspicion on ballots. So we just want to make sure that voters have everything they need in order to be able to vote. And as I mentioned, our hotlines are not just providing information, but following up with election officials to ad-dress problems that come up. And when necessary, we will file litigation to address the threats to the vote. So from now through election day, and after election day, the Election Protection Program will be available to help voters.

Kanya Bennett
That is great, Marcia. We are so happy to have the Lawyers’ Committee and other election pro-tection partners on the ground being responsive to those voting needs. So Marcia, how can peo-ple plug into Election Protection to provide or seek assistance? You shared the 1- 800 numbers or 1866 numbers. How else can people plug into your work? How can they sign up and volun-teer or how can they seek assistance?

Marcia Johnson
So in addition to calling the 866-OUR- VOTE hotline, which your Lawyers’ Committee admin-isters, you can also text MyVote to receive assistance. You could also receive assistance through Messenger on Facebook and WhatsApp, and you could also reach the hotline through the website. So however you communicate, there are means to reach the hotline. So again, I would ask those who are listening to share this information widely about the availability of the resources. And also, we have partners in 39 states who are organizing field programs that wel-come volunteers to be at the polls to provide information to assist voters, and we also have part-ners who are working to monitor social media and need volunteers there. So if you have any questions about how to volunteer, I urge folks to go to the Election Protection website, 866ourvote. org.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you so much, Marcia.

Marcia Johnson
Thank you so much for having me with you today and I just want to reiterate as I sign off, please make a plan to vote so that we can be sure that your vote will be counted.

Kanya Bennett
Marcia, thank you so much for joining Pod For The Cause today. Next, let me say hello to Izzy Bronstein, the National Campaigns Director at Common Cause. Hi, Izzy. Thank you for joining Pod For The Cause today.

Izzy Bronstein
Hi. Thank you so much for having me. Excited to be here.

Kanya Bennett
Tell us how Common Cause is identifying and addressing the most significant threats to voter rights and election integrity in the current political climate, from polling closures to mis and disinformation. How is Common Cause showing up?

Izzy Bronstein
Common Cause is addressing the full spectrum of what the voting experience looks like for vot-ers. From the time that we are thinking about registration, trying to get folks excited about the process of voting, to all of the variety of barriers that voters may face along the way. In every state, we are doing different programs, working with volunteers across the country to really meet the needs of individual voters in that state. So in some states, that means working with poll workers in advance to make sure we’re watching new machines get tested, making sure we’re monitoring that process, making sure that every voter knows how to vote in new voting proce-dures. Voting laws have changed across the country since 2020, and making sure voters under-stand the process of how to cast their ballots in amazing new expanded ways, we want to make sure that every voter knows how to cast their ballot. We also are doing work to make sure that every voter has the ability to connect with a volunteer with skills on election day. While they’re voting during early vote, any part of that process. We want to make sure that voters understand their rights and any of the problems they may be facing. We’ll have volunteers placed across the country to help voters cast their ballot, to make sure that if they have any problems, they run into any constraints, that they’re asked to vote in any sort of different way, that there’s some-body to be their advocate with them on the ground. We’ll also be monitoring the post- election count canvas certification to make sure that process goes really smoothly and well, and every-body’s vote is counted. As I said, basically that looks like no matter what the state is, no matter what the needs that voters are having, we’re trying to be there at every part of the process to make sure that voters really understand their rights and have their vote count.

Kanya Bennett
That is great, Izzy. Thank you so much for that important work. Can you flesh out some exam-ples of the most effective strategies your election protection efforts have used to combat voter suppression and ensure fair access to the ballot box? What are some of the things that your field team is seeing on the ground this election cycle?

Izzy Bronstein
It’s very dependent on the state as we all know. In many states, we have folks who are roving volunteers, who are looking at different polling sites as they open to make sure that process is going really well. And if there are any barriers, if there’s a delay to a polling place opening. Un-fortunately, every election cycle we see polling place challenges where, for whatever reason, that polling place can’t open on time. Then we’re making sure that we’re filing to make sure that those hours are extended and communicating with voters at that precinct so that every voter can have their vote counted. And make sure that if there is a delay in the morning, that they get ex-tended time in the evening. There are other constraints that we see. Our poll monitors who are actually placed at individual poll sites, we place those poll monitors at poll sites where we know there will be different concerns, where we’ve seen a history of different suppression tactics, dif-ferent constraints, and really making sure that there’s somebody to be a voter’s advocate at that polling place on the ground. So if a voter comes out and says, ” I was asked to show ID,” when the state does not require voter ID, that we have somebody who can go into the polling place with them and say, ” That is not the procedure in the state.” And then if we need to escalate it, we will. But really most of the time, it’s just making sure that if there are any questions, if there are any concerns, that that problem is addressed quickly and doesn’t result in any systemic im-pacts.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you, Izzy. So talk about the partnerships that you have on the ground. How are other or-ganizations, local communities plugging in to help partner around and amplify this important work that is happening during this election cycle?

Izzy Bronstein
Across the country, election protection is run by thousands of organizations from local commu-nity groups to national groups like Common Cause and the League of Women Voters. We are all plugging in at different parts of that process to make sure that our best strengths are being utilized in collaboration for that. We could not do this work without our community partners. As we all know, most of the suppression tactics happen in Black and Brown communities. Hav-ing community groups that are actively involved in those communities already, who are con-nected with those voters, are the best people to be able to help in that space. We rely on local churches, on local community groups to really be the people who are actually being the hands- on connection to some of those voting experiences. The groups range, as I said, but they are massive and amazing, and we are incredibly grateful for their partnership.

Kanya Bennett
We are too, Izzy. You mentioned some of the roles that people can take on to protect the right to vote. You’ve talked about poll monitors and poll rovers. There are members of an anti- disin-formation team-

Izzy Bronstein
Yes, there is.

Kanya Bennett
…to help counter social media misinformation with trusted reliable sources. Talk to us about some of those roles. Where do you still need people to plug in? And I do want to spend a little bit of time on how we’re countering mis and disinformation. There’s a lot of talk about that form of voter suppression this election cycle, and want to make sure that folks understand what that looks like.

Izzy Bronstein
For mis and disinformation specifically, we have an amazing squad of volunteers who are doing really diligent work looking at the worst corners of the internet to understand what the threats of disinformation are. Unfortunately, when we talk about mis and disinformation, oftentimes what we’re talking about is that there’s a real problem, mostly small, mostly just a very technical ex-perience that a voter is having that maybe they don’t quite understand. And then unfortunately, that gets blown up and spread and goes viral, and that narrative becomes part of some other na-tional narrative that we’re seeing around some mis and disinformation threats that we have all seen time and time again. The most important part is countering it before it gets to that point. We cannot stop people from talking about their experiences and we don’t want to, but we do want to make sure that that is constrained. So a huge part of what we do is make sure that inocu-lation content is going out there, and making sure that our communities are posting and are get-ting out inoculation to counter those threats so that when people are saying that they had a vari-ous experience voting, that we are then saying that voting is a secure and safe process and we’re making sure that other people understand how the voting process works, understand why it’s safe and secure. Volunteers who are monitoring both the public spaces of social media, but even more importantly, your own private Facebook groups, the Nextdoors, the WhatsApp groups that you’re a part of, that’s really where we see mis and disinformation start and where we need to counter it. So our mis and disinformation squad is incredible at finding that, and then making sure we stop that in its tracks. The other roles, as you mentioned, we have folks who are doing early vote monitoring at drop boxes, supporting and cheering on voters while they cast their bal-lot at drop boxes. We have volunteers who are poll monitors, who are roving monitors. We have volunteers who are monitoring the post- selection couch or the canvas, or even the certification to make sure that process is going really smoothly, and making sure that we have eyes and ears to understand what is happening at those processes and in case there’s any concerns or things that may happen, that we’re able to provide support really quickly to the election administrators and the folks on the ground who are leading that work. If you sign up at protectthevote. net, no matter what state you’re in, protectthevote. net will be your home. You will be able to find the volunteer opportunities that are best for you based off where you live and where your reach is best utilized. So if you sign up protectthevote.net, a local state volunteer coordinator will be in touch with you shortly and you’ll get all the information you need on how to get involved in the right place for you.

Kanya Bennett
So Izzy, you mentioned protectthevote. net.

Izzy Bronstein
Mm-hmm.

Kanya Bennett
Is that how people can support or secure assistance from Common Cause this election cycle? Are there other ways that folks should be in touch?

Izzy Bronstein
Absolutely. If you want to volunteer, protectthevote. net is the home base for you. If you’re hav-ing a question or problem in your voting experience calling texting 866- OUR- VOTE, our part-ners at Lawyers’ Committee are the best people to handle those concerns you may have. Often-times, what that looks like is that the folks at Lawyers’ Committee and the incredible lawyers across the country get those calls and then they get in touch with our field programs to make sure we’re actually addressing that threat on the ground. So if you call, if you have any problem voting, if you have any concern, 866- OUR- VOTE is the home base for you.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you so much, Izzy, for being on Pod For The Cause today.

Izzy Bronstein
Thank you so much. Appreciate your time.

Kanya Bennett
And last but not least, we have Jeanette Senecal, the senior director of mission impact for the League of Women Voters. Appreciate you being with us, Jeanette.

Jeanette Senecal
It’s really wonderful to be here with you. I’m really looking forward to this conversation. Thanks for including us.

Kanya Bennett
Jeanette, you’ve heard Marcia and Izzy talk about how this work is done in coalition, and I want to turn to you now, the League of Women Voters is an important member of this coalition. I know the League has been empowering voters for decades around candidates campaigns and democracy. So Jeanette, talk to us about the work that the League of Women Voters is doing around election protection to ensure that voters are informed and empowered to participate in elections, especially in communities facing barriers to the ballot.

Jeanette Senecal
That’s a really great question, Kanya. Thank you for including us. Just to start off, because the League is organized in all 50 states in D. C., Including approximately 750 local affiliates across the country, the League is able to run community- specific activities. So much of our work real-ly focuses on new and first- time voters in communities that have historically been disenfran-chised. This includes high school students, vocational school students, community college stu-dents, new citizens, people with disabilities, indigenous peoples, women of color, and many, many more. Think of the voices that are often left out of our process. We’re trying to make sure that they have a home and a voice and are invited and encouraged to be part of our democracy with us, because we need everyone if we’re going to have a strong and effective democracy. We, like Common Cause and Lawyers’ Committee mentioned, we work in partnership with thousands of other organizations on the ground to share resources. And really, one of our tactics is to ensure that trusted messengers within the target communities have what they need to share the accurate information within their own networks. They’re already working with the commu-nity, they’re already building those relationships, but they might be working with them on hous-ing insecurity or food insecurity or environmental issues. They might not work with them on elections pieces, but those voices are really important too. So we want to make sure that our partners on the ground have what they need to engage and help their networks make their voices heard. And if anybody within their network runs into a problem, they have a resource and a partner like the League to go to help resolve that problem. I will say that a big part of our suc-cess is really being locally grounded and working year round every year to register, educate, mobilize, and protect voters. So we’re building those relationships with community partners, with our local elections officials, with our media, with other elected officials so that there’s a good network of people who can step in and help empower and inform people, and that we have the largest network possible to share the information. Our voter protection work specifically can really be whatever’s needed in that community. It spans from helping people know what their rights are, to advocating for their rights and legislatures, and working with local elections offi-cials to make sure that they have the polling place support that they need. They have the poll workers, they have the resources they need to run effective and safe and secure elections every cycle. We partner with groups like Common Cause and Lawyers’ Committee to support the Election Protection hotline. We’re observing the election process. Izzy was talking about this too. It’s not just election day, it’s what’s happening with machines before and after the elections. It’s how the central count areas are handling ballots. It’s how the certification process is happen-ing. It’s how recounts are happening. It’s how post- election audits are happening. There are so many different pieces and places where people can observe and make sure that the process is working the way it’s intended to work, and if not, how do we make sure we’re fixing it in the moment and long term? So we’re advocating for changes in the future, and we also spend a great deal of time defending voters rights in the courts. So we have many active lawsuits. Be-cause we are an organization that is based in the communities with volunteers who are doing this work and are voters themselves, they are actually some of the people that are harmed by bad laws and bad election administration. But the goal in all of our work is really to center vot-ers and their needs in all of our activities.

Kanya Bennett
That is great work, Jeanette. Thank you for lifting that. You talked a little bit about your reach within high schools and community colleges and naturalization ceremonies. And that’s really a reach that is targeting our nation’s underrepresented voters. Can you talk a little bit more about what that work looks like on the ground and how you’re ensuring that these constituencies are prepared to participate in this election cycle?

Jeanette Senecal
Every constituency has different needs. If you’re a first- time voter, you might need to know more about the processes and the deadlines and where your polling place is and the specific me-chanics of what is going to happen. If you are somebody who has been a voter in the past, but for whatever reason, maybe you lost your voting rights or you moved around and you didn’t re- register, or they changed the laws and you missed the deadline, some people need to know more about the changes in the laws. And Izzy mentioned this earlier about the rules are different in 2024 than they were in 2020. Well, they’re also different than they were in 2016. We have the third presidential cycle in a row where the rules are different. So even if you’re a regular voter, meaning regular as in frequent, if you’re a frequent voter and you vote every election, you might not know what the rules are because they could be different from what you’ve ever faced in past cycles. So we spend a lot of time really customizing the message and making sure that, again, the people who are trusted messengers in the community, so lifting up high school students to be the leaders of the work. So we don’t run all the registration drives ourselves. We help young people learn what the rules are and empower them to empower their networks because they’re the trusted messenger. So we support them in their ability to do that type of work. We also run a website called vote411. org, which is really central to all of our work. It’s our one- stop shop for election information for voters anywhere in the country. It provides the current rules voters must follow to ensure their vote is counted and it’s available in English and Spanish. And so it has everything. It has the absentee ballot rules, it has the early voting rules, it has the mail- in ballot rules, has polling places, and one of the critical pieces of information that vote411 offers is what’s on your ballot? Who and what is on your ballot? People often say that they don’t go vote because they don’t know who is going to be on the ballot. They don’t know what a yes or no vote will mean for the ballot initiative. So what is that? If I vote yes, is that really what I in-tend for my life or not? And so making sure that we’re explaining ballot initiatives in simple language is really important so people know what their vote means and helping them know who the candidates are, where the candidates stand on the issue so that they can decide for them-selves who would best represent them. We want to make sure that all the candidates are partici-pating in these activities so that the voters, who are essentially hiring them for a job, have the ability to evaluate them to decide who would best represent them. And so vote411, as a trusted nonpartisan resource, is really central to the work that we’re doing. And it’s not only for the in-formation and the inoculation strategies that Izzy was lifting up, but it’s also about fact checking disinformation that people are seeing. People know that they can go to vote411. org and find the correct information. We have staff and community- based volunteers who worked tirelessly to ensure vote411 has the most accurate information. When a new state law goes into effect, vote411 is updated in English and Spanish. When we see disinformation campaigns spreading in specific states, we highlight, through an alert system, the correct information. One of the best ways to make sure that people do not fall victim to mis and disinformation and malinformation is to give them the right information. And if they don’t have the right information, making sure they know where they can go to find the right information. And that’s what vote411 is really for. We also lift up the different voter assistance hotlines that Izzy was mentioning before. There are hotlines that provide in- language support for voters so that people who need assistance outside of English can also get the assistance they need to answer their questions, especially voters with limited English proficiency. They are an historically disenfranchised group. They don’t get the information that they need. They often can spread disinformation in their community because there’s not as many people who can monitor it to make sure that the correct information is spreading when it’s in languages outside of English. So making sure that we’re recruiting volun-teers who can do that disinformation tracking in other languages is a really important part of the work that the community is doing around combating mis and disinformation too.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you, Jeanette. And I want to make sure our listeners know that Jeanette is the brilliant brain behind vote411. Jeanette talked about the various resources that are offered through vote411, so that should be on everyone’s go- to election protection voter rights resource list. So I want to talk a little bit about voter suppression tactics that you are seeing this election cycle, Jeanette. You talked a bit about this election being different from the 2020 presidential, being different from the 2016 presidential. So talk to us about what you’re seeing this go around in 2024, and how are these voter suppression threats different from previous election cycles?

Jeanette Senecal
I think that’s a really great question because in some ways, the difference I was originally lifting up is just informational. There can be an information gap. And as Izzy said, you might think something is going wrong because you don’t understand the rules, and then you create a narra-tive that is completely wrong and turns into a national disinformation campaign because you didn’t understand the rules. Again, having a resource like vote411 can be very helpful and com-bating that. But some of the more systemic voter suppression pieces we’re seeing is an increased attack on voter assistant groups and just against voter assistance in general, as well as an in-crease in mass voter challenges and challenges to the election certification process. And in rela-tion to the voter challenges, that is around usually your voter registration. And we just have started a campaign, every year now, where we encourage everyone to make sure that it’s just part of their annual practice, that they check their voter registration status and ensure it’s accu-rate each year before the voter registration deadline passes. It’s not just new voters who should be logging in and getting registered to vote. It’s all voters should just make this one of their hab-its. They check in, they check up. It’s their healthy checkup. You go to the dentist, you get your healthy checkup. You go to the doctor, you go to your voter registration record, and you check in to make sure it’s up- to- date. In relation to the challenges around the certification work and things like that, we are really increasing and expanding our election observation work to include many of the post- election activities. We’re anticipating that there will be recounts. Everyone is doing audits already, but is anybody observing how that process works? So that if anybody lifts up challenges, there’s other voices who say, ” Oh no. This is actually how it worked. This is re-ally what happened in that election audit and this is the challenge that may or may not have arisen,” et cetera, so that there are people who have the facts and can lift those up because those misinformation pieces are likely to show up at the certification meetings. And so we want to make sure that there are third parties and other voices present to make sure that the will of the voters is actually heard at the end of the day. And observing all portions of the election process is a key way of making that happen.

Kanya Bennett
So Jeannette, how can people support and secure resources from the League of Women Voters and vote411 this election cycle?

Jeanette Senecal
I love this question. How can people engage in the election process really because what the League is all about. So as I mentioned at the top, the League has local affiliates in about 750 communities in all 50 states in D. C. So I encourage people, you can visit LWV, League of Women Voters, lwv. org, and you can find the local league in your community and capture them. Find out when they’re doing registration. Are they hosting a debate? When is their train-ing for election observation? How can you help? Or if you’re just looking for some educational resources, what resources does that local League offer right now? A lot of leagues are doing simple educational forums even around the nuts and bolts of the election process, because an-other way to combat misinformation is to really help people understand what the process looks like in their community because it’s different than the community next door and definitely dif-ferent than the state next door. So making sure you know what should be happening in your community is a great way to help build that army of people who can combat misinformation. We’re also doing a lot of work. We encourage you to become a poll worker. The more you’re engaged in the election process, the more you understand all of the security measures that elec-tion officials put into place to make sure we have a secure and accurate and fair election every cycle. The more people who are aware of that, the better off we are because those people, again, become a good messenger within their own community. And when they see misinformation, they become a person who can respond to it because they have their own lived experience that tells them otherwise. We encourage people to use vote411. Make sure you are sharing that with your networks. Every single person listening to this podcast is a trusted messenger in more than one community and more than one network. So if it’s not vote411 and it’s some other resource, great. But we really encourage you to make sure you are sharing with your networks resources like voteforoneone. org, and help people think through making their voting plan. If you want your friends and family to turn out to vote, helping them walk through and think through, when am I going to vote? How am I going to vote? And how, I mean learn about the candidates, but how, I also mean am I going to vote early in person? Am I going to vote on election day? Am I going to vote by mail? The how, the method you’re going to use is really important. And when you think through each one of these steps, you are much more likely to actually turn out to vote and make sure your ballot is cast. The research tells us this. So the more everyone is helping their networks make their voting plan, the better off we’ll be. So there are resources that we have a make a voting plan card, that the League of Voters can have that you can take a picture of and share on your social. We encourage you to follow the League on all of the socials. We’ll be sharing a lot of information that you can lift up within your own networks. That’s another way to easily stay on top of the types of things that might be coming. I’ll also say that we are doing some work to track, at the state level, some of the disinformation spreaders to see what those specific narratives are that they are spreading so that we can combat them. And again, combating it is sharing the right information. And the more we have an organic network of peo-ple who are saying and spreading the right things, the more the misinformation becomes less. It’s just kind of noise. When you are seeing the right information across WhatsApp and Nextdoor and Twitter and Instagram and or X and all of the different places. If you’re seeing the right information, the misinformation becomes just noise in the background. And so being able to have people that we can engage to say, ” Hey, this is the message we need to be spreading right now.” And that’s the type of thing our local leagues are sharing through the messages they’re putting out on social. They’re not saying, ” Hey, share this,” but we’re seeing this mes-sage. So this is a message we’re going to share with the correct information. Following the League on socials is really a good way to help spread the right information as well.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you, Jeanette. And you heard Jeanette, listeners. Make a voting. So Jeanette, thank you so much for being on Pod For The Cause today.

Jeanette Senecal
My pleasure. Thanks so much for having me.

Kanya Bennett
Thank you for joining us today on Pod For The Cause, the official podcast of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the Leadership Conference Education Fund. For more information, please visit civilrights. org. And to connect with us, hit us up on Instagram and Twitter at civilrightsorg. You can text us, text civil rights, that’s two words, civil rights to 52199 to keep up with our latest updates. Be sure to subscribe to our show on your favorite pod-cast app and leave a five- star review. Thanks to our production team, Shalonda Hunter, Dina Craig, Taylor Nicholas, Oprah Cunningham, my colleague at the Leadership Conference, and shout out to Pod Bill Media, our external production crew. And that’s it from me, your host, Kanya Bennett. Until next time, let’s keep fighting for an America as good as its ideals.

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