All language subtitles for Rigged.the.Voter.Suppression.Playbook.2019.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG.eng

[tense music]

[indistinct chatter]

[Karen]

My grandma raised me up
and my sister up to vote.

You know, when we turned 18,
that was our right.

-[Karen chuckling]
-How are you?

Please take it easy. Bye-bye.

[overlapping dialogue]

[Karen]

'cause I got to re-register

'cause I'm... I'm nowhere
in the system.

They're not making it
easy at all.

It's... It's tiresome. Yeah.

[Michael]

It's about time we turned
the lights on in the kitchen,

and started cleaning
the cockroaches out of here.

When I found out, um,
that I was purged off the rolls,

I was highly upset about it.

'Cause I, like I said, I mean,
I grew up seeing my family vote,

I know it's my God-given right
today to vote,

and I wanna vote.

The challenge we have

with the average
voter suppression issue

is that it's happening to people

we don't pay attention to
every day.

And for the average citizen,
it's not top of mind

because it isn't as sexy,
it isn't as violent,

it isn't as present,

but it can be the most insidious
danger to our democracy.

The Board found probable cause
to go forward

on a total of 3,564
voter registration challenges.

All of which were submitted
by Mr. Michael Hyers.

"Yariza Vergos, Robin Brunns,

Christopher Carmichael,
Tina Carmichael,

Justin Christopher Carter."

[overlapping dialogue]

[NC BOE Chair]
Again, that's 3,564

of those challenges

the Board found probable cause
on to go forward.

This is a big, you know,
big win really,

as far as the numbers go.

I mean, good golly.

-This meeting is adjourned.
-[clanks]

[upbeat music]

[Jeffrey] I'm Jeffrey Wright.

My grandfather, born in 1904,

was an oysterman
on Virginia's Chesapeake Bay.

And he instilled in every one
of his children

and his grandchildren
the importance of the vote.

Yes, I'm an actor.

But also, more importantly,
an American,

a citizen, a voter.

And I'm about to tell you
a scary story

about how the core tenet
of our democracy,

one person, one vote,

is under attack.

[Jeffrey]
Today, American citizens

are being wrongly purged
from voter rolls.

Others, intimidated not to vote.

Meanwhile, state after state

has passed new voter
restriction laws

making it harder
for all of us to vote.

How did this happen?

And what's the justification
for this takedown

of America's democracy?

Well, this scary story
starts in Chicago

-on a mild November night.
-[sirens blare]

[Jeffrey] The year is 2008.

All right. Let's do this thing.

Everybody ready?

[announcer]Ladies and gentlemen.

The next first family
of the United States of America.

[crowd cheering]

[Barack] We have never been
a collection

of red states and blue states.

We are, and always will be,
the United States of America.

[crowd cheering]

The election of Barack Obama

most certainly can't be left out
of this story.

That absolutely
was a turning point.

[Barack]
If there is anyone out there,

who still questions the power
of our democracy,

tonight is your answer.

[Mark] That election
was such a big moment,

it seemed there was
this demographic tide,

and destiny had kind of
taken over for Democrats.

And that,

you know, we were gonna see
Democratic majorities

and presidents
into the foreseeable future.

Because of what we did
on this day,

in this election,

change has come to America.

[crowd cheering]

Barack Obama, he said,

"I'm gonna turn
red states blue."

He said, "I will compete
in Florida.

I'm gonna compete here
in the South,

Virginia and North Carolina.

I will have the audacity

to challenge
the Republican foundation

in Ohio and Indiana.

And guess what?
The Latino population

is growing out here,

it is the future
of the Democratic Party.

I will not only contest for it,
I will win it."

Whites in this country
have voted Republican

in every election since 1968.

And for the,
at least since 2000,

all of the major
minority groups,

Blacks, Hispanics, Asians,
have voted Democratic.

[Steve] The day is very,
very clear here.

If you are losing
the vast majority

of Hispanic voters,

and if Hispanic voters
are the fastest-growing

demographic in your country,

and you can't appeal to them,

you lose.

This is... This is very simple.

You lose.

The 2008 election
was the first election

in which people of color
were over a quarter

of the eligible electorate.

[Dale] African Americans
turned out at record numbers.

[John]
This is a historic election.

And I recognize
the special significance it has

for African Americans,

and for the special pride
that must be theirs tonight.

[Myrna] We did start seeing
some major backlashes

against, um, the expansion
of the rights to vote

after, um, President Obama
came into power.

Um, I think it has to do
with the...

with changing demographics

with people having anxiety
over the browning of America.

'08 was the beginning
of the whole demographic tide.

The first election
where we could see

the demographics impacting.

[Chris] And if we continue
to underperform

in this multi-racial world
that is going to be America,

the white voters are going
to be a clear minority.

The Republican Party
will cease to exist.

The future looked
pretty daunting

for Republicans at that time.

And so, there were those like me
who said, you know,

we just have to a better job

of being
compassionate conservatives,

of expanding our ranks.

[Mark] But there were others
that took a route

where we kinda go down
the road of figuring out

how you turn out more
of your people

and less of the other guys.

The road many
Republican leaders chose

amounts to what we'll call

"The Voter Suppression
Playbook."

Since 2010,

they've created a number
of plays or strategies

to counter the rising
demographic tide

of non-white voters

and to discourage
younger voters.

[Jeffrey] The first play
was codenamed,

Project RedMap.

The concept was to leverage
true national dollars

from national donors
on the Republican side,

and invest them in state races,

state legislative races,

in a way that had
never been done before.

[Jeffrey] In 2010,

RedMap sought to change
almost 20 legislative bodies

to Republican control.

To fund that, Chris Jankowski

and the Republican State
Leadership Committee

recruited the Kochs,
the billionaire brothers,

with their own
political action group,

Americans for Prosperity.

[Jane] There are about 400

very wealthy individuals now

who are allied with Charles
and David Koch

in a kind of a rich people's
political movement.

They looked at the 2008 election
as a catastrophe.

[Jeffrey]
With some $30 million
in funding,

RedMap launched a blitzkrieg
of attack ads

targeting Democrats
running for state legislatures.

[reporter 1]Americans for Prosperity

is responsible for the content
of this advertising.

And the 2010 elections
really showed that

uh, you couldn't compete
with all this outside money

flooding into these races,

uh, that could carry the day,
and in some of these races,

it was over $200,000
in attack ad money

that just flooded into a race

that before had never seen
more than $50,000 per candidate.

[Kromm] And Operation RedMap
was looking at,

what are the states that we need
to win the state legislatures,

and take control
of state politics,

North Carolina was
at the top of the list.

North Carolina
is the true battleground.

Democrats have the edge
in terms of voter registration,

followed by Republicans,

and then Independents

are the fastest-growing group
of the electorate.

[indistinct chatter]

[Margaret]
In the summer of 1999,

my children are almost
out of the house,

and I had always been
in politics,

in other people's campaigns.

My grandfather
was Speaker of the House

many, many years ago here
in North Carolina.

And I thought,

"That's what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna run for the House,"

and I did, and I was elected.

[Margaret]
In these tough times,

my priority is doing what I can

to help families deal
with rising costs.

[presenter] Margaret Dickson.Fighting for our priorities.

[Jeffrey] In 2010,

North Carolina's
Margaret Dickson

sought re-election
as a state senator.

She ended up caught
in RedMap's crosshairs.

[Margaret] I had not heard
of the RedMap plan at the time.

I did not see it coming,

and I don't think any
of my former colleagues

saw it coming either.

[female voice]
Incumbent Senator
Margaret Dickson.

Who does she really care about?

Using her public office
to help companies she owned.

Special deals, insider trading,
no bid state contracts,

all for her own gain.

The hooker ad portrayed me

as a prostitute.

[Margaret]
So that was pretty shocking.

When the ads came out,

I had women come to me crying

at the portrayal of a woman
candidate in that light.

[Chris]
We took some artistic license.

You can take a set of facts,

and then tell a story
that fits your...

your narrative.

[Jeffrey] And the RedMapnarrative worked amazingly well.

Democrats across the nation
took a big hit

in yesterday's
midterm elections,

and the same thing is being felt
right here in Indiana.

The state Republicans
overtook the statehouse,

and the state senate.

There is a complete swing

from a Democratic
to a Republican majority.

We set a record

for any political party
in American history

in the gain
of state legislative seats.

[Chris] We gained over 700 seats
in one election.

[Margaret]
And the North Carolina Senate

on Election Day,

the senate was composed
of 30 Democrats

and 20 Republicans.

The next day,

it was 31 Republicans
and 19 Democrats.

The only word you can use
for that is just "tsunami."

We did what we needed to do
in 2010,

which was take
dominant Republican control

at the state level.

[Jeffrey] RedMap focused
on the 2010 elections

because in 2011,

many state legislators
would redraw

their voting districts based
on the 2010 census.

Something that happens
every ten years.

So partisan redistricting,

also called gerrymandering,
became the next play.

And whoever gerrymanders
usually wins.

[upbeat music]

Gerrymandering involves
primarily two different methods

of, uh, dealing with voters
of the opposite party.

[Gerald] You can pack voters
into districts,

or you can crack them
into districts

to make them ineffective.

[Matt] Texas is as good
an example

of packing and cracking
as anywhere in the country,

particularly
the Dallas-Fort Worth area,

if you look at the map
that was originally drawn

and approved
by the Republicans in 2011.

Why would this district
from the North

that's controlled by Anglos
up here in the suburban country,

why would it come in
to Tarrant County like this?

Well, it's because they came in

and they picked up
Latino voters.

And you see that
they just very carefully pick up

this big group of Latino voters

then come back
and pick up another group

of Hispanic voters like that.

This is a classic cracking
of Latino voters.

"Cracking" is taking
the people of color

and cracking them into
as many districts as possible

where their vote
won't make a difference.

"Packing" is putting
as many African Americans

or Hispanics into
as fewer districts as possible.

This shows district uh, 30,

which is this packed district.

Well, to get a sense
of how packed that district is,

we're going to shade both

African Americans
and Hispanics together.

So the black
plus Hispanic population,

then in purple, you start to see
what's going on.

You've got a district here

that virtually doesn't have
anything in it except purple.

A classic way of undermining
minority voting strength.

If you favor one side
over the other,

you can clearly take
a right turn on Maple Street

and a left turn
on Mulberry Street

and have a partisan impact.

This is also an opportunity
for the maximum mischief

in the, uh, line drawing.

The Republicans,
they were able to draw

unbelievably precise districts
that maximize partisan advantage

where you can have a state

where the state
is relatively even

between the Democrats
and the Republicans,

and yet the Republicans may win
two-thirds or three quarters

of the congressional districts.

[Ron]
And that's what we're seeing

as a result of the redistricting
in many states in 2010.

The party in power
really decides

who's going to stay in power.

And that's not real democracy,

and that's what we have
in way too many states

in our country right now.

People feel that
their vote doesn't count,

and gerrymandering makes sure

that they feel like
their vote doesn't count.

'Cause what happens is,

you get pushed into a district

that is completely safe
for one party or the other,

and if it's completely safe,
why vote?

[Jeffrey]Now with their majorities

secured by gerrymandering.

Many RedMap
Republican legislators

executed the next power play.

Passing harsh,
new voter restriction laws.

What you see is a outcropping

across the country of bills
in state legislatures

that are dominated
by Republicans.

Bills that require
new kinds of hurdles

that voters have to leap over
in order to be able to vote.

[light music]

[Jeffrey] In 2011,

Wisconsin, a RedMap state,

debated a new voter ID law.

The law mandated that those
without an acceptable ID,

like a state driver's license,

would need a birth certificate
or passport,

Social Security number,

and proof of state residency
to vote or register to vote.

In short, more hurdles,
more bureaucracy,

make it harder to vote.

[state legislator]
The clerk will read the bill.

"Senate Bill 7 relating to
requiring certain identification

in order to vote
at a polling place

or obtain in absentee ballot
verification

of the address of the electors,

absentee voting procedure
in certain residential care

apartment complexes,
and adult family homes,

identification cards issued

by the Department
of Transportation..."

[Todd] I got involved
when I was very young.

My granddad was a Republican,

so I was like,
"I'll be a Republican."

And you felt it was
kind of like this family.

So for me, I think it was
a sense of belonging,

a sense of, "Hey,
I'm working for something."

[Jeffrey]
In 2011, Todd Allbaugh
was a Republican staffer.

He had a front row seat

on the passage
of Wisconsin's voter ID law.

The chair of the Senate
Election Committee at the time,

stood up and kind of hit
her finger on the...

on the counter, and she said,

"Look! We gotta start thinking
about what this is gonna mean

if this passes to neighborhoods
around Milwaukee

and the college campuses!"

What Senator Lazich
was referring is,

"Hey, if we can suppress
the college vote,

and if we can suppress
the minority vote in Milwaukee,

this is a pretty good leg up
on any future elections."

[Lena Taylor] Today,
this is not a voter ID bill.

This is voter suppression,

it's voter disenfranchisement,

this is voter confusion,

this is voter restriction.

This is a voter
discouragement bill.

The term "voter suppression"
was never used in the room,

but everybody got the idea
of what was being said.

[Todd] Just so you could see it
on some of these senators,

uh, the light in their eye,
they got it.

Because there are only
so many white,

straight, old men left.

So the only way to win is
to scare the shit out of people,

and to suppress the vote.

And I saw it firsthand.

I think the vast majority
of our citizens wanna make sure

that their vote is a legal vote,

and that all the votes out there
are legal votes,

because one fraudulent vote
cancels out a legal vote.

And so I went to Facebook
and said,

this is why I left
the Republican Party.

So there are all kinds
of forms of ID

that were permissible
prior to these voter ID laws.

Now these voter ID laws
are premised on the idea

of creating a form
of identification

that is going to require voters

to go through hoops
in order to get it.

Now what kind of voters
am I talking about?

[Sherrilyn] The average
middle class voter will say,

"I have a driver's license"

or "I have a passport."

As many as 90 percent
of registered voters

have one of those forms of ID.
It's in their pocket.

And they think,
"What's the big deal?"

[Dale] But, here's the thing,

90 percent of people have it,

that means that 10 percent
of people don't.

[Sherrilyn]
If you live in rural places,

and you have to drive,

and these motor vehicle offices
are few and far between.

And they're not open
on the weekend,

and they're not open
in the evenings,

and when you get there,

then you've got to have
the underlying identification

that would allow them
to give you

the ID that you need to vote.

For example, that you have
to have a birth certificate.

Well, some of us have
our birth certificate,

and some of us don't.

Some of us wouldn't know
how to get it.

So it may cost you $15
to get the birth certificate.

So you have to now add
the travel cost,

the time off work, the $15,

all to get the voter ID.

So that you can exercise
this right

that the Supreme Court
in 1886 said

was preservative of all rights,
the right to vote.

The Supreme Court in 1966 said

that a poll tax of $1.50
is unconstitutional,

and if that's the case,

then our view is no one
should have to pay 10, 20,

or 40 dollars to get a card,
so that they can vote.

If we could put ID easily
into the hands of every voter

in our country,

then I wouldn't have
a problem with it.

But the reality is,

that getting access
to government issued ID today

requires jumping through
a lot of hoops and hurdles.

And there's one thing
that I think

is really worth pointing out

and that's having an ID,

and having an ID to vote
in Wisconsin,

are very different things.

[tranquil music]

My name's Molly,
if you haven't met me.

What I can do
is get you everything

that you need to vote.

Vote Riders is a nonprofit,
nonpartisan organization,

and really focused primarily
on voter ID.

[Molly] We're going to make sure
everybody can vote.

...so we can get you an ID
from Wisconsin, too,

'cause you need one of those
when you go and vote.

[Molly] I grew up in a household

where we're encouraged to be
civically active and to vote.

And if somebody needs help

exercising their
fundamental right to vote,

we should all be stopping
what we're doing,

and figuring out what we can do

as a society
to make that better.

Because this is about you,
you know?

This is about the voters,
you know?

And the people who are impacted,
I can vote,

but, you know, you can't.

And then, um,
I also wanted to talk about

when you wanted
to go back to the DMV.

Oh, now that
they wanna give the ID now.

Zack is one of the voters
that I actually met here,

at First United
Methodist Church,

doing regular
community outreach.

[Zack] I didn't think
it would take all this

to get, uh, ID to vote.

When President Obama
got elected, I voted then,

so ever since then,

I've been trying to vote
in every election.

[Molly] Zack had a paystub,

he had his Social Security card,

but he didn't have
a birth certificate.

I want you to hold on
to these again.

-Okay, hang on.
-Okay.

[Zack] And we went to the DMV,

and they still told me I needed
my birth certificate.

I felt like I had all
the right information.

They were trying to just

have me go around the ringer,
just for a birth certificate.

Voter ID laws impact
certain demographics.

They impact low-income voters,
they impact voters of color.

They impact first-time voters,
and voters new to Wisconsin.

They impact students,
they impact older voters,

who no longer have
a driver's license.

[Molly] Here, they make it
very difficult to vote.

And based on the legislatures,
own admission and testimony

in federal court that
doesn't seem to be a mistake.

The court heard evidence
and concluded

that there were 300,000
registered voters

in the state of Wisconsin

who lacked
one of the forms of ID

that is acceptable
under the law.

[Zack] They're trying
to make it where only

the rich vote for the rich.

I thought it was going
to be simple, but it wasn't.

The studies are very,
very consistent.

That, um, barriers

that you put in front
of the ballot box

are going to stop some people
from voting.

[Jeffrey] The true objectiveof voter ID laws in Wisconsin

and other states
was clear to the politicians

passing these laws.

[Jim]It's something we're working on

all over the country

because in the states

where they do have
voter ID laws,

you've seen actually elections

begin to change towards

more conservative candidates.

Voter ID, which is going
to allow Governor Romney

to win the state
of Pennsylvania, done.

Republicans since 1984

in the presidential races
have not been able

to win in Wisconsin.

-Why would it be any different?
-And now we have photo ID.

And I think photo ID is gonna

make a little bit
of difference as well.

The law is going to kick
the Democrats in the butt.

If it hurts a bunch
of college kids

that's too lazy to get up off
their bohunkus and,

and go get a photo ID,

-so be it.
-Right, right.

If it hurts
a bunch of lazy blacks

that want the government to give
them everything, so be it.

And it just so happens
that a lot of those people...

vote Democrat.

Gee.

It's astonishing, actually,
you know,

50 years plus after
the Voting Rights Act was passed

that we still have to do

voting rights enforcement
and protection.

I speak tonight
for the dignity of man,

and the destiny of democracy.

I will send to Congress
a law designed

to eliminate illegal barriers
to the right to vote.

[crowd applauding]

[Waldman] You know, the Voting
Rights Act shook up politics.

Within weeks of the Voting
Rights Act becoming law,

black voters were being
registered by the thousands

in the South.

And within a few years,

their voter participation rates

were nearly the same
as white voters.

[light music]

[Jeffrey] After 2010,

many RedMap states
enacted Voter Restriction laws.

However,
the 1965 Voting Rights Act

prevented most southern states
from following suit.

The act required
that those states

seek approval or pre-clearance,

from the US
Department of Justice

in order to change
their voting laws.

Well, this was a problem

since the South is key
to Republican success.

So, some of the same
conservative groups

that fueled RedMap now funded
a Supreme Court Challenge

to the Voting Rights Act.

The goal? Do away with
the pre-clearance requirement.

The case was called,
Shelby Country versus Holder.

[upbeat music]

[reporter 2] First though,
a landmark day

for the Supreme Court
as it struck down a key section

of the landmark
Voting Rights Act,

that was created
to prevent discrimination

at polling places.

[Sherrilyn]
This is a critical day

for Democratic participation
in America.

This decision by the court
is a game changer

and leaves virtually
unprotected minority voters

in communities
all over this country.

When we think something
like voting rights

is something everybody believes,

and that progress only goes
in one direction.

We've seen sudden reverses,

we've seen that history can go
in the wrong direction.

I mean, the ink wasn't even dry
on the opinion,

and the next thing you know,

the states raced
to the clerk's offices

with legislation that would do
harm to peoples' right to vote.

[Gerald] Soon as the
Shelby decision was announced,

North Carolina
legislative leaders said,

"Now we can go
for the full bill."

And the full bill

was the monster
vote suppression bill.

So what do we have?

We have 53 pages.

[Ellie] Fifty-three pages,

about reducing access
and subtracting options,

making it harder
for people to vote.

There's a care
that's exercised, right?

Around the creation
of these laws.

And in North Carolina,

the Republicans ask
for information.

[Sherrilyn] They identified
those ways of voting

that were more likely
to be accessed

by the African American
community,

and those were the ones
that they outlawed

in that omnibus law.

Legislators asked
for the demographics.

And when the Republican Party
received the information

that the highest percentage,

something like 70 percent
of African Americans

used the first week
of early voting

that's what they cut.

Every decision they made,

they made it after they knew
the impact it would have

on African Americans, Latinos,

uh, people of color,
and poor people.

Some Republicans
have admitted that.

That this was a way to make it
a little bit tougher

on, um, Democratic voters.

[gospel music playing]

[William] For a moment,
I wanna have

a grown-up conversation
about racism.

You see, racism
is not just about

somebody calling you the n-word.

[indistinct chatter]

[William]
Most modern-day racists

are too smart for that anyhow.

Racism is about policy.

[crowd murmuring]

[William]
Racism is about the ability

to take your prejudice
and implement policy.

[crowd cheering and applauding]

[William] Since 2008,
we've seen an all-out effort...

[crowd murmuring]

...by extremists,

in suits and ties,

who sit in political seats,

working to abridge

and deny the right to vote.

[crowd cheering and applauding]

[William]
I have 500 years of ministry

in my family
on my father's side.

So when I decided
to go to college,

I picked the school
that had no courses in religion.

'Cause I didn't want
to go in the ministry.

I wanted to go to law school,
and that was my intention.

But I had a very spiritual
experience in 1984.

I, um, accepted the call
to ministry.

But it's always been
from the beginning,

I don't know any way
to be Christian

without being involved
in Justice.

[Gerald] What Reverend Barber
and other leaders

in North Carolina did,

following the enactment
of these vote suppression laws,

um, I think had a big impact
in a positive way.

They do not want
the people to vote.

Reverend Barber was really

at a time where I think
many people were demoralized,

really being
a strong voice saying,

"These are fundamental issues
that we're going to fight for."

[crowd cheering]

And when you had waves
and waves of people

at the legislature every week...

[indistinct chatter]

...willing to be arrested.

♪ I shall not ♪

♪ I shall not be moved ♪

♪ Like a tree ♪

♪ Standing by the water ♪

♪ I shall not be moved ♪

[Kromm] That was a real sign

that they weren't gonna let
voting rights

be given up without a fight.

[William] Nearly 1,200 peoplewent to jail.

I was arrested here
about six times.

And I like to connect it,

because voting rights
is not just a black issue.

Black and white,
Republicans and Democrats

joined us in getting arrested.

♪ Oh, come on, come on ♪

♪ Don't you wanna go? ♪

[crowd applauding]

"I am Rosanell Eaton,

92 years old."

[crowd cheering]

"I am before you today

to speak on voting rights.

I am fed up!

And fired up!"

-I said fed up!
-[crowd] Fed up!

-Fired up!
-[crowd] Fired up!

-Fed up!
-[crowd] Fed up!

-Fired up!
-[crowd] Fired up!

[Rosanell]
Thank you so very much.

[crowd cheering]

[William]
And so we had this ritual

that at the end of the rally,

everybody that was going in
to be arrested would line up.

So I saw Ms. Eaton
going in the line.

With her walker.

I was raised in the South,

so I'm taught respect my elders
and care for them.

I said, "Ms. Rosanell,
you don't have to do this.

You can sit this one out,
we got it."

She said, "You back up,
I got this."

And she led about 150 people

who all got arrested that day.

[crowd applauding]

[William] Rosanell walkedwith Dr. King.

Dr. King encouraged her
and inspired her.

She's registered thousands
of people to vote in her life.

She's faced the Klan.

She wasn't always non-violent,
because she had seen the Klan

burn crosses
in front of her yard.

[Armenta] I remember her
standing at the...

kitchen counter one day,

and all of a sudden,
I heard her say,

"I didn't ever think

I would have to go
through this again,

before I got in the grave."

And I knew she was dead serious.

Because she thought certain
battles were already fought.

[indistinct chatter]

To justify new
voter restriction laws

like North Carolina's HB 589,

politicians needed a cover,
a compelling reason

to fix an election system
that wasn't broken.

This helped give rise
to the so-called

Voter Integrity Movement,

which took off
after Obama's 2008 election.

[upbeat music]

If you care about
voter fraud, gentlemen,

we're fighting it.
We could use your help.

-[man 1] Thanks.
-If you care about voter fraud,

we're fighting it.
We could use your help.

If you care about
voter fraud, gentlemen,

we could use your help.

-[man 2] Thanks.
-Thank you.

[woman 2] I know a girl
who votes eight times

and has a million dollars
in the bank

and, uh...

is on food stamps
and gets everything for free,

-including college.
-[sighs]

How do you know
she votes eight times?

Because we know her.

She does.

Would you call me later?

-[woman 2] Yes.
-After the election?

[Jay] Before I launchedthe Voter Integrity Project,

I was a military officer,

a retired lieutenant colonel
in the Air Force.

I became worried that

this is a fragile system
that depends on people.

People being fair and honest.

If you're worried
about voter fraud,

here's how
we're fighting it tomorrow.

We could use your help.

[Jay] They're hiding something,

and we're on to them.

And that's, uh...

The only question
is not how many... It's...

You know,
we know they're doing it.

The question is,
how big a deal is it?

Are they really trying
to steal an entire nation?

Are they really trying
to rig elections

in so many states

that they can determine
the outcome of the presidency.

And a lot of people are going
through life with blinders on,

or like I used to tell people,

it's called the toilet paper
tube syndrome.

You got toilet paper tubes
in front of your eyes,

and all you see
is that little bit of world

right out in front of you
through the toilet paper tubes.

You don't see
what else's going on out here.

So if you're looking right here

and you're not looking
for voter fraud,

you won't see voter fraud.

Republicans saw an opportunity,

saw an opportunity where

they could go into states,

and build this notion
of voter fraud,

get people scared about it,

scared enough that
they would create new laws

that would heighten
the threshold to qualify to vote

and make that qualification
so difficult

that it would suppress voters,

and not coincidentally people
who would vote against them.

[Mark] It's just
a very well-organized,

well-staffed,
well-resourced operation,

that once they get an idea,

they can spread it
like a dandelion.

All we're trying to do
is protect voter integrity.

We ought to protect
election integrity.

-Voter integrity...
-...is at stake.

How can you be
against election integrity?

There's, uh, a lot of people
around the country

that use the slogan...

We need to make it easy to vote
and hard to cheat.

We want to make it
easy to vote...

It's very easy to vote,

-and we also...
-We also believe

it should be hard to cheat.

We try to make it easy to vote
and hard to cheat.

Because every time
a non-citizen votes,

it cancels out the vote
of a US citizen.

Every non-citizen who votes...

...cancels out
a legally cast ballot.

"Every time voter fraud occurs,

it cancels out the vote
of a lawful citizen

and undermines democracy."

We can't let that happen.

You didn't have all this talk
about fraud

until all of a sudden,
African Americans

and Latinos began to vote
in record numbers.

[Richard]
I've called some of the people

who advanced these arguments
without good evidence.

Members of the fraudulent
fraud squad,

and they go around making claims
that voter fraud is rampant,

without good evidence
to support it.

[stutters]
So, and what's the end game?

The end game is passing
new restrictive voting laws.

I'm Kris Kobach.

In order for we, the people,
to take our country back,

we need to have fair elections.

I will stop voter fraud
in Kansas.

[Kris] We need to requirephoto ID when people vote.

[ad narrator]Every state needs a Kris Kobach.

You know, our campaign
had an undeniable,

unmistakable message,

"Stop voter fraud!"

[interviewer] Could youplease define voter fraud?

[Kris]
When people say voter fraud,

it's really... it encompasses

a large number
of potential crimes.

You might be a person who's not
a US citizen registering.

Then there's crimes
on election day,

which include things like
double voting,

voting in more than one state.

Voting under
someone else's name.

Voting a fictitious identity.

The fictitious identity problem,
you know,

is significant in some states.

Actually, voter fraud
is substantial in Kansas.

[stuttering]
But here... So that...

The, um, the cases
we've prosecuted

are just in the last two years,

using a very small legal staff.

We haven't prosecuted
all the cases that we could have

if we had more attorneys,

and we haven't prosecuted
all of the many cases

that we will never discover.

There is no belief
in actual voter fraud.

What there is, is an attempt
to restrict voter access

that is using the specter
of voter fraud,

which is hard to prove
because it doesn't exist,

so you can pretend
that the reason no one knows

about this is because
it's been so effective.

[Stacey] So you create
this boogie man

that can only be disapproved
by another boogie man.

So I looked into how fraud
of various kinds occurs,

and in particular, I focused in
on one kind of voter fraud,

pretending to be somebody else

when you walk
into a polling place.

I started the study in 2000,

went through 2014.

[Justin]
Out of a billion ballots cast,

I found, at the time,
31 incidents.

Credible, raising a hand,
somebody has pretended

to be somebody else
at the polling place.

When you dig in,

when you actually look
incident by incident,

a lot of the allegations vanish.

Another analysis found that
out of 197 million votes cast

for federal elections
between 2002 and 2005,

only 40 voters,
out of 197 million,

were indicted for fraud.

As a percentage,

that is 0.00002%.

That's not a lot.

[crowd laughing]

Most voter fraud allegations
are driven by,

what some might term, untruths.

Others, less generously,
call them

"the big lie."

President Trump again,
this week,

suggested in a meeting
with senators

that thousands of illegal voters

were bussed from Massachusetts
to New Hampshire.

I can tell you that this issue

of bussing voters into
New Hampshire is widely known.

It's very real,
it's very serious.

This morning, on this show,
is not the venue for me

to lay out all the evidence.

Joining me now, is someone
who knows New Hampshire politics

very, very well, a Republican
who ran the state's party

over the last decade,
Fergus Cullen.

You, sir, on Twitter,
are offering $1,000

to anyone who can prove

what Stephen Miller
was claiming,

do you have any takers?

Uh, so far, shockingly,

no one has been able to come up
with any evidence,

no pictures of one
of these magic buses,

delivering hundreds,
if not thousands,

of people from Massachusetts
to New Hampshire.

No one has any evidence at all.

[Jay] You know the busses
are red meat to some activists.

I got a call
from somebody going,

"Hey, there's buses!"

They urged me and begged me
to get over here

as fast as I could
to check it out.

But, I don't see any buses.

And in New Hampshire,
I've seen it.

-I've seen busloads of people--
-Again, I mean, this is...

This is what
we keep coming back to.

Yeah, based on what I've seen

with my own eyes,
busloads of people coming in,

whether they're illegal,

meaning they came
into the country illegally,

-or they're illegal voters.
-Voting double.

-You saw that?
-Well, I know Josh has seen it.

-Yeah, and I've seen it too.
-Josh, did you see busloads

and busloads of people coming in

-from somewhere else?
-I wouldn't characterize it

as busloads and busloads.

[reporter 3] Even though,
are you sticking with your...

that you've seen busloads,
or no?

I... I have seen busloads.

I... I, yeah, I guess
I can't cite the... the busloads

that I've seen and where
I've seen them and stuff,

on television, I've seen it.

Something significant shifted
in America

over the last decade or so.

[Mark] And it's pretty simple.

It shifted from people thinking
there was opportunity

to thinking that opportunity
was being taken away from them.

That "others,"

you define that
however you want,

are coming across the borders
or from wherever,

and they are changing
our way of life.

In one place, I can lay
that blame is to say

people are stealing elections,

those other people,
that other party,

those people that are trying
to take stuff away from me

are doing it illegally.

'Cause people don't wanna say
it's, you know...

People don't wanna admit
that life changes.

[crowd] Trump! Trump! Trump!

[Trump] What a great place,
thank you very much.

So we have thousands
of people outside

trying to get in,
but we should start.

-Do we agree?
-[crowd cheers]

[Jay] We're fighting vote fraud
if you are interested in that.

Of course, we are worried
about vote fraud.

-[Jay] Yeah, I am too.
-We're worried about vote fraud

-in North Carolina.
-Read that.

But people will.

They'll vote many times.

Somebody coming up
and voting 15 times for Hillary.

[crowd clamoring]

[woman 3]
I think he's gonna win.

Unless, the only way
she's gonna win

-is if she steals the election.
-That's what I'm afraid of too.

Which is why you need
to read that,

and decide
if you wanna fight vote fraud,

if you care about it.

And I will not tell you

-to vote 15 times.
-[crowd cheering]

You won't vote 15 times.

[Jeffrey]In 2016, for the first time,

a major party
presidential candidate,

Donald Trump,
and his vice-presidential

running mate, Mike Pence,

were preaching the gospel
of voter fraud

and rigged elections.

Do you agree
with your running mate,

Donald Trump,
that, um, polling places

in this country
are going to be rigged?

In recent years
we've had instances,

proven instances of voter fraud,
and that's why I say...

The 2016 election offered
a perfect opportunity

to see how
the Voter Suppression Playbook

was working in real time.

The first stop, North Carolina.

[upbeat music]

[Michael] My name is,
uh, Michael Evan Hyers,

I'm a 100 percent
disabled veteran,

I'm not married,
I have the time,

I have the skills,

and have a desire to make sure

that every American vote
is legally cast.

[Kromm] The Voting Integrity
Project is interesting.

They've always had
a bit of a gadfly, renegade,

vigilante voter fraud,
you know, crusaders.

They claim that thousands
of non-citizens

were voting in the state

where they would
challenge voters

at county boards of elections.

And then they couldn't prove

that really any of those
were true.

Is there anyone
in the audience today

who received a notice

that if they wish their name
not to be removed

from the voter rolls,
they should be present?

[NC BOE Chair] Stand up then,

and give us your name,
please, ma'am?

Randy Burkhead.

Okay. Okay, you, sir?

John McKeaton.

North Carolina has a provision

where a citizen
can challenge the right

of another citizen to vote.
It's been on the books forever.

[Jay] Who else is gonna know
who is registered to vote,

unless another citizen does it?

Some of the laws that wind up
being discriminatory today,

had discriminatory intent

when they were first written
in early 1900s

as part of the Jim Crow laws.

[Michael] For example,
voter purging laws

to cleanse the rolls.

[Kromm]
And this was typically used

in the Jim Crow era by whites
who were trying to prevent

newly enfranchised
African Americans

from having access
to the ballot box.

Michael's methodology involves
finding voters

that the state identified
as inactive.

[Michael] These people havemissed two federal elections,

so they were listed as inactive.

And I started sending letters
to these inactive voters

on the Cumberland County
voter rolls.

[Jay] The ones that came back
marked by the post office

as undeliverable
are considered evidence

that the voter no longer resides
at that address.

And Mike challenged
those voters.

[Jeffrey] Voter challengeenvelopes were marked,

"Do not forward."

If a resident moves
in the district,

even across the street,

he or she will not receive
the notice their registration

is being challenged,

or even know to come to
the Board of Elections hearing

to contest the challenge.

Now let's move on
to Mr. John Lamon McKeaton Jr.

[Michael] Some people
have the knack

of spotting anomalies.

It's kinda like seeing
a lump of coal

in a bale of cotton.

It... It'll just pop
right out at you.

Let me just ask you what
do you want

this board to know concerning
your place of residence.

Uh, I do live, have lived,
at 7790 Stone Court Road.

-You said, "7790."
-[John] Mm-hm.

[NC BOE Chair]
This says, "7770."

[Michael] Is there a possibility
that people got struck

from the rolls mistakenly

because the post office did not
appropriately deliver the mail?

There's still...
There is a small,

small possibility on that.

[NC BOE Chair]
Do you solemnly swear

that the testimony
you are about to give

concerning this matter
shall be the truth,

the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth,

-so help you God?
-[Janice] I do.

All the evidence shows

that when someone is purged
from the rolls,

it's extremely unlikely that
they're going to re-register.

It's hard to get them
to re-register.

And I worry
that it will diminish

the will to participate
in the political process.

And the danger is,

if states use
unreliable information

to take voters off the rolls.

[Dale] And if they do not give
voters adequate notice

and an opportunity
to contest their removal,

then we could have
a situation where hundreds

or ever thousands
of legitimate voters

are being taken off of the rolls
without their knowledge.

[tense music]

[Jeffrey]
To reverse Mike Hyers'
and Jay Delancy's voter purge,

as well as purges in
other North Carolina counties,

Reverend Barber and the NAACP

asked the federal court
to intervene.

[William] Good morning.

Persons were engaging
in an attempt

to get voters purged,
especially African Americans.

We are fighting this,
we believe,

and we hope the courts
will agree with us,

and we will have an immediate
temporary restraining order.

Reverend Barber, huh.

That guy's made
a name for himself.

[laughs]

I congratulate him
on a well-funded...

Uh, he has a lot of,

a lot of out of state
funding money.

And, um, he knows
how to play that race card

better than anybody
I've seen in,

really since the heyday of
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton,

he has played
that race card so well.

The NAACP filed
a voter suppression lawsuit

against the North Carolina
Board of Elections,

and today, they won that case

with a federal judge declaring
that all the voters purged

from the voting rolls
must be reinstated.

The NAACP in North Carolina,

they filed a lawsuit
in federal court,

uh, and actually,
they went judge shopping.

They found a...

Uh, they found
a black female judge

that they can influence,
uh, emotionally

in my... in my opinion,

and not so humble opinion
at that.

[William] Those of us
who are the descendants

of people who had
their cars blown up

outside of churches right here
in North Carolina,

when they were inside the church
organizing for voting rights.

When you come
from that kind of lineage,

you're not gonna allow
some loudmouthed bigot...

to intimidate you.

[Jay] The courts have said,
you know,

you can't do any of this kind
of stuff in the last 90 days.

They're gonna put all
these names back on the roll.

We had a guy who worked
for two years

and got over 6,000 names removed
in Cumberland County.

And they claimed that
we were targeting blacks.

I would be glad to get drug
into federal court.

'Cause that would give me
the opportunity to expose

the problems that we have
in this state.

I get three hots and a cot
and full medical care

if I go to jail.

Except how are you gonna
put me in jail

for following the law?

The next stop,
Rock Springs, Texas.

Here, a local sheriff seemed
to be practicing

an old-fashioned, but effective
voter suppression technique,

voter intimidation.

[upbeat music]

The whole idea
is to make voting seem

like a dangerous proposition.

[Matt] That it's something
that might get you in trouble.

And again, what that does
is over a period of time,

it insulates Republicans
against the effect

of African-American
and Hispanic population growth.

[chickens clucking]

[Gerald]
In Edwards County Texas,

we had received reports

that the local sheriff
who's connected

to the militia movement

and who prides herself
on being, you know,

this tough cowgirl sheriff,

she had actually
engaged personally

in efforts to intimidate voters.

[Pam] The issue of voter fraud
has been very prevalent

since I've been here.

They're tired of,
"You see it, you know it,

everybody around you knows it,

why isn't someone doing
something about it?"

-[Pam] Who's 814?
-Frank Conservio.

[Pam] 814, how long
has he been here?

[man 3] He's been here
since the first of the month.

-Since the first of the month?
-[man 3] Yeah.

[Jon] The sheriff has alleged
people voting incorrectly,

that have not.

She has threatened
to investigate people

for illegal voting,
they have not.

She has someone in jail now.

I'm not guilty of nothing

'cause I did the right thing
as I went to go do it, I asked.

[Jon] The gentlemanis under arrest for voter fraud

and voter impersonation.

He's accused of impersonating
his grandfather.

There's no way a 40-year-old man
is going to be mistaken

for someone who's almost
100 years old.

[Pam] In the first case,

he went to prison for delivery
of a controlled substance.

But once he was on parole,

he pretty much knew
he wasn't supposed to vote.

It was just probably,
"Catch me if you can,"

or "Ha-ha-ha."

I don't really know
the motive behind it.

I guess maybe, one day,
he'll tell us.

But at this point,
he's just kind of

trying to play the victim.

I do feel that it was a mistake
that was done

by the ladies working the poll

in not actually comparing
the date of birth.

The date is clearly stated

on the registered list
as 8/9/1915.

Now Manuel was on parole,
he should not have voted.

[Jon] But the election officials
shouldn't have

allowed it either.

He asked if he could vote.

That tells me
that he didn't know

if he could or not.

[Mindy] The intimidation comes
in the arrest itself.

Him sitting in jail

would send a very strong message
to a lot of people,

and intimidate a lot of people

as to not to go out and vote.

[lock buzzes]

[leg cuffs rattling]

The sheriff, she has been
diligently trying

to root...
root out the corruption

ever since
she took office over here.

[Darrell] She already has.
We've had more arrests ever.

Perhaps this might
make some of the people

who are entertaining the idea
of voting illegally.

It may wake 'em up and say,

"Hey, they're not gonna
let me get away with it

if I get caught."

This county has the highest rate
of voter fraud allegations

with the Secretary of State

and the Attorney General's
office than any

of the other 254 counties
in the state.

[Jon] Houston's got
10 million people in it.

We've got 1,100.

And we have a higher rate
of voter fraud?

Please.

And there was one additional
stop before Election Day 2016.

Jefferson City, Missouri.

Where state legislators

were debating
a voter ID requirement

for the November ballot.

[upbeat music]

2006, there were only
two states in the country

that had what I'd call,

a strict voter identification
requirement.

And then all of a sudden,
after the 2008 election,

we have a wave of laws,

unheard of, virtually,

that make it harder
for people to participate,

and in almost every instance,
disproportionally hit precisely

these segments of the electorate
that are emerging.

So it's hard for someone like me

to look at that and think,
"This is just a coincidence."

[indistinct chatter]

[Alferman] House Bill 1631
has been from the very start

about integrity in our election
process here in Missouri.

Pure and simple.

House Bill 1631
is the implementation

of photo voter ID
in the state of Missouri.

Implementing procedures
to safeguard against fraud

helps ensures that qualified,
registered voters' votes

are not diluted
by unlawful activity.

-And what is that--
-[Alferman] That's what photo ID

-is trying to do.
-And what is it?

[Alferman] You think protecting
against fraud is a bad idea?

I'm not gonna go down
that rabbit hole, gentleman.

We have protections
against fraud right now.

[Colona] Stop trying
to confuse people

-and sensationalize an issue...
-[Alferman] Gentlemen.

...to back up
your point of view.

Be intellectually honest

-about what's going on.
-[Alferman] Where are you coming

-from on this case?
-What can you point to?

[Colona]
What voter identification fraud

can you point to that's happened
in the state of Missouri

that your bill would address?

[Alferman] How do you,

-without this implementation--
-[Colona] That's what we call

a non-responsive answer

because you did not respond.

That's okay, I understand.

[chuckling]
I would implore the body

to think real hard
about their vote on this,

and ask them to vote no.
Thank you.

[house speaker]
All those in favor, vote yes.

All those opposed, vote no.

Mr. Clerk, please ring the bell
and open the board.

[bell ringing]

[house speaker] Mr. Clerk,
please close the board

and tally the vote.

By your vote of 115 yes
and 41 no,

you have sustained
the gentleman's motion.

[indistinct chatter]

An so, in order to maintain
political control,

in order to maintain the systems
that we have

that benefit white people,

it means that we have to,
as a country and as a system,

be able to keep people of color
from voting,

and from their
full political power.

To say that our intent
is to try and disenfranchise

any individual
in the state of Missouri

is completely absurd.

That is a very serious
accusation

and... and a very, uh...

It's something
that I don't take lightly.

[Alferman]
Your vote is your own,

and it's extremely important
in a democracy.

I'm just trying
to put more integrity

into our voting process.

[foreboding music]

[woman 4]We're very honored to have

the Reverend Cassandra Gould
with us.

[applause]

[Gould] I wear this shirt,
my mom's name was Carrie.

My mom was... We...

I was born in the little town
in Alabama,

47 miles from Selma.

My mother was
a voter rights worker.

I really used to get sick
of my mom's stories

about what it meant to be
in Selma,

and how she marched,

and how she was there
before Dr. King.

"Mom, I don't wanna hear
about Selma anymore.

I mean, we, we,
we got it made now.

We can actually go and vote."

So I thought, so I thought.

Voter restriction laws

are designed to take us back

to the time that my mother
was fighting in Selma.

[Gould] It's dancing
on the grave

of civil rights workers

who gave their lives,
so that people could vote.

It is not just about photo ID,
that is code word

for let's cut out some citizens.

And who are the legislators
to get to decide

who gets to have a right
that they already have?

[applause]

Let's vote no on Amendment six.

So you... you voted yes
on Amendment six?

Oh, you voted no.
Okay, great. Yeah.

[Jeffrey]
In the summer of 2016,

while Missouri mulled the pros
and cons of voter ID,

federal courts struck down
or modified a number

of the more restrictive
voting laws

passed after 2011.

[Scott] In anotherimportant story tonight,

North Carolina's law

requiring voters
to show photo ID

was thrown out
by a federal court

that said the law was designed
to bar black Americans

from the polls.

This is the third time
this month

that similar laws
were struck down,

the others
in Texas and Wisconsin.

These court decisions
frustrated advocates

of voter suppression
legislation.

The next play would need

to include changing
the federal courts.

But that would have to wait
for another day.

[sprinklers rattling]

[reporter 4]This is a Tuesday morning,

but not just any
Tuesday morning, Election Day.

[reporter 5] Good morning,America, Election Day 2016.

[reporter 6] Election dayofficially starts right now.

[reporter 7]
So who did you vote for?

Tough decision.

[indistinct chatter]

[Jay] If Hillary wins,
I'm done, probably.

I don't know what will happen,

but it scares
the crap out of me,

'cause if she wins,

I'm afraid I'll be hunted down
like a dog.

[indistinct chatter]

-[machine beeps]
-[woman 5] I think it took it.

Thank you, ma'am,
appreciate you coming.

Thank you.

Morning.
My name's Michael Hyers.

Well, you may not think so
when you go back

and research my name,
but I've been the...

I'm the fellow that's been
filing the voter challenges.

Let's face it.

There are unscrupulous people
out there.

And they could go
to the polls and impersonate.

And impersonate somebody.
I'll tell you what...

If I could get
more people of all,

I hate to say race,
'cause we're all

-the human race.
-Yeah.

But if more ethnic backgrounds
involved in this,

that way, people wouldn't be
taking pot shots at me.

The NAACP is hot as a pistol
at me right now

claiming I'm suppressing
the black vote.

They're accusing me
of targeting minorities.

They're throwing mud on the wall
and trying to get it to stick.

But if you're interested
in getting involved, uh,

look up
voterintegrityproject.com

-Okay. Well, have a good day.
-Thanks. Have a wonderful day.

[cicadas chirping]

[Darrell] Right now,
we're delivering

the election equipment.

You mind if we can put
the tabulator right here?

Ready?

[clacking]

[Darrell] We can't let it drop.

[suspenseful music]

[Pam] Hi.

Good.

-I don't know.
-You don't know?

Whatever God tells me to do,
that's all it's gonna be.

[foreboding music]

[Dan] Who was the first
president I voted for? Al Gore.

You see how
that turned out, right?

[laughs]

-[Gould] You have your...
-[Dan] Yeah, I got my documents.

[machine beeps and whirs]

[Gould] All right.

-Voting with my son.
-[grunts]

-[laughs]
-Yeah, first time, right?

Good stuff.

[calm music]

[Jay] What we're gonna try
and do is have data collectors

sitting there
passively collecting data

on license plate numbers.

See if we can figure out
which people, if any,

are going from voting location
to voting location.

The illegitimate reason would be

if someone is what we call
a serial voter,

and going from location
A to B to C.

Using a different name
in each one.

And what we wanna know
is how prevalent is this?

[Jay] You see any vote fraud?
[chuckles]

Not yet.

[phone rings]

[Jay] I gotta take this.
Hey, Jim.

[Jim] Have you,uh, seen any fraud?

Heard of any fraud?

[Jay] Uh, no. We've...
We've have not.

No. With only...
With only six data collectors,

the odds of getting someone
who showed up at two locations

-are slim and none.
-[Jim] Yeah.

[tense music]

[Sam] What would you say
to Jay Delancy and Mike Hyers?

Um, basically, if,
uh, if you had...

If you want to challenge me,

you know,
please contact me first.

A challenge is a challenge,

and if I challenge you
to a chess match,

I need you to play with me,
you know?

At least come back, you know,
show me what you got.

So, you know.

[tense music]

[ship horn wails]

Missouri becomes
a voter photo ID state

with Amendment six passing
with 64 percent of the vote.

[Gould] It looks like
it's gonna be a loss for us.

And it's really a loss
for the people.

I believe that
the right to vote is sacred.

So I'm really grieved
in my spirit right now.

Not a lot has turned around
in Missouri

in the last 40 years,

except in
the wrong direction, so...

[cicadas chirping]

[indistinct chatter]

[Pam] I won!

Pamela Elliott, Republican,
61.8 percent of the votes,

Jon Harris, Dem,
with 38 percent of the votes.

Just... Just blessed, really.

[chuckles]

-All right!
-[cheering]

[indistinct chatter]

[man 4] Great job!
We're proud of you.

[woman laughing]

Awesome.

[cheers and applause]

[Reince] Ladies and gentlemen,
the next president

of the United States,
Donald Trump!

Thank you, it's been an honor.
God bless.

Thank God.

[cheers and applause]

President-elect Trump has been
quite active on Twitter,

and he said, "In addition
to winning the electoral college

in a landslide,
I won the popular vote

if you deduct the millions
of people who voted illegally."

The President-elect
is absolutely correct

when he says the number
of illegal votes cast

exceeds the popular vote margin

between him and Hillary Clinton.

Our next guest,
Gregg Phillips, first tweeted

the claim that three million
people voted illegally.

Do you know
and can you prove, right now

that three million people
voted illegally?

Yes.

-Do you have the proof?
-Yes.

-Will you provide it?
-Yes.

-[Cuomo] Can I have it?
-No.

If you look
at voter registration,

you look at the dead people
that are registered to vote,

you're gonna find,
and we're gonna do

-an investigation on it--
-But three

-to five million illegal votes?
-Well, we're going to find out.

But it could very well
be that much.

After the 2016 general election,

I called all 50
Secretaries of State,

managed to reach 49 of them.

And never found
more than one or two,

at tops three or four,

suspected instances of fraud.

Not proven, but suspected.

Or alleged. Uh, many states
had none at all.

Recall that what curtailed

widespread voter suppression
in the 2016 elections

were rulings by federal courts
overturning or amending

many of the new
voter restriction laws.

[Jeffrey] And now,
with the Republican Senate

and White House,

Republicans could nominate
and confirm

their own judges.

A new day was coming.

[upbeat music]

[man 5] Welcome, everyone,
especially the nominees

and their families to today's
nomination hearing.

We'll hear from four nominees
to district courts.

President Trump has set a record
for the most number of judges

named to the courts
of any first-year president

ever in American history.

But think of 145
district judges,

that's world-changing,
country-changing, USA-changing,

and we have unbelievably
talented, smart,

great people being put
in those slots.

And so, whatever protection

against voter suppression
is coming

from the courts
is going to be eroded

by the impact of this vast wave
of Trump judges.

And Democrats are decades
behind Republicans

in terms of recruiting
and thinking about

how to control the judiciary.

[Jane] I mean,
the Federalist Society

in many ways is... is...

is writing the lists of judges

for the Trump administration
to pick from.

[Jane] The Federalist Societyis the creation

of billionaire right wing
funders, like the Kochs.

They helped get it off
the ground in the first place.

The Republicans,
they have found a formula

that has allowed them to win

even though the demographics
of the country are changing.

We can reassure ourselves

that those strategies
can only work for so long,

but the question is
for how long?

And what if so long is a very,
very long time?

[Jeffrey] The Voter Suppression
Playbook is complete.

It's part and parcel

of the same malevolent
and dark strategy.

Cut a few voters here,
a few voters there.

Discourage others
from even taking the time

to cast a ballot.

In short, undermine
the sacred American principle

of one person, one vote.

So just to finish up,
you see what's happening,

the process is rigged.

This whole election
is being rigged.

[Jeffrey] As Donald Trump
has said, so many times,

"The elections are rigged."

But in a much different way
than he claims.

They are rigged to stem
the rising demographic tide

of non-white voters,

and to discourage
younger voters.

Clearly, the Voter
Suppression Playbook

is working all too well.

We need all of our institutions
of power

to protect the right to vote.

We need the legislature
to protect the right to vote,

we need the executive
to protect the right to vote,

and we need the courts
to protect the right to vote.

When you deprive people
the right to vote,

the vote being the very fiber
of this wonderful quilt,

we call a democracy.

[Elijah] When you begin to tear
the threads away,

saying this person can't vote,

that person can't vote,
the next thing you know,

you will not have a democracy.

I think our Founding Fathers
were brilliant.

And I think they put in

guardrails of democracy
to keep the crazy out.

Now I think
we're being sorely tested,

and we're gonna see
how strong those guardrails are,

uh, because they've
never been tested like this.

But that's the nature
of democracy,

that it does not,
it's not static.

It doesn't just stay
free and open

because it's a democracy.

It's because every day,
you fight to keep it open.

Every day, you... you have to...

you have to put
your shoulder to it.

We have to dream
about the democracy

we want to have.

[Judith] We have to say,
"Whose side are you on

in this fight
for our robust democracy?"

People don't understand
why it's so important

that this experiment we call
”the United States" continues.

Then you say, "Well, it's...

It's always been this way
in my life,

so I'm sure America's
gonna continue the same way."

Well, are you?

The right to vote
isn't partisan.

It is an important part,

and it's, in fact,
the bedrock part

of our democracy.

That people own the agency

to participate
in their government.

And until we can say,
without doubt,

"One nation under God,
indivisible,

with liberty
and justice for all."

Until that means exactly
what it says,

we are still working

toward becoming
a more perfect union.

[light music]

[ominous music]

[Jeffrey] If you wanna know more

about what you can do to defend
America's democracy,

go to our website,
riggedthefilm.com.

I'm Jeffrey Wright.
Thanks for watching.

[tranquil music]