- 8 hours ago
During the ESSENCE 'Paint The Polls Black' town hall, the panelist speak on voter registration, voter suppression and the need for election protection.
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00:00We're continuing our conversation, and this is going to get even better, you all.
00:03We have Couture Topps, and we also have the Honorable Lorraine Bearville and Reverend Dr. Susan K. Smith.
00:10They are joining us to share their knowledge.
00:14Couture is a civil rights lawyer who recently appeared and was a finalist on CBS Survivor.
00:22Her advocacy is shaped by her experience escaping an extreme and sheltered religious society,
00:28and she now uses her perspective as a cult and child bride survivor to speak out for others who are experiencing injustice.
00:38Lorraine Bearville is a legal volunteer in Texas.
00:42Her passion for helping to shape legislation and policy has helped protect elections throughout a court-ordered Texas redistricting map
00:51and preventing the state of Texas from implementing voter ID as drafted.
00:56She has been appointed and served on the Citizen Election Advisory Committee in Dallas
01:01and is a co-founder of the Barbara Jordan Leadership Institute, a civil rights and social action organization.
01:08Reverend Dr. Susan K. Smith is a poll monitor and peacekeeper.
01:13She is the founder of Crazy Faith Ministries in Columbus, Ohio.
01:17Since 2016, Reverend Smith has co-coordinated the Ohio Election Protection Peacekeeper Program,
01:27which activates a network of faith leaders and social workers to de-escalate tense situations
01:33and keep everyone safe at the polls.
01:36Thank you all for joining us.
01:38Yes, thank you indeed for joining us.
01:40And I know Dr. Smith is running a little late, so we're going to start with you, Lorraine,
01:44because I know that you have to drop off in a few minutes.
01:47And just give us a sense of what you do in Texas,
01:51what the challenges are that you're seeing on the ground for folks to know.
01:56Absolutely.
01:56So I'm very proud to be one of the people who's an attorney who's actually successfully sued Greg Abbott,
02:03which I would say is voter suppressor-in-chief in the state of Texas.
02:11And frankly, I would say that Texas, in many ways, is a petri dish for some of the tactics that we see across the South
02:17in places where VRA, you know, ideally is being enforced.
02:23So I will say in real life, you know, some of the things that I've seen,
02:27we've seen situations where voters have had to make four trips just to make sure that their vote counted.
02:33We've seen things such as state troopers peering through the home of a senior citizen
02:37who is simply supporting seniors in her community vote by mail.
02:42I have been in Beaumont, Texas, last election cycle,
02:45when voters were told that they were not eligible to vote, when in fact they were eligible to vote.
02:50So these are things that we see in Texas, unfortunately, on a daily basis in real time,
02:55that we are actively on the front lines fighting against.
02:57And I can tell you in every single one of these examples, we have fought back and won.
03:02Now, when you talk to people about the work that you're doing,
03:07because I think some folks who don't live in Texas,
03:09or they may not live in other states where we're seeing voter suppression efforts escalate,
03:14what do you want to communicate to them and what can they do?
03:18So if I live in New York, or if I live in New Jersey,
03:20or if I live in another part of California, maybe,
03:23and I want to help, I want to provide support to you and others that are doing this work,
03:30what can I do?
03:31Well, I would say for sure, if you're an attorney,
03:34and you want to volunteer for the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline, please do that.
03:39I've worked in the hotline, I've also obviously been at the polling locations,
03:43and I've worked in boiler rooms.
03:45So if you are a legal professional, you don't have to be an attorney to help with this.
03:49But if you are some sort of legal professional,
03:51and you want to help in places like Texas,
03:54and other states that are really seeing this in real life,
03:58please contact the Lawyers Committee, like Kamiya brought up.
04:01You can sign up to volunteer for 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
04:05Also, you can report situations that you see in real life.
04:11If you are in a position to volunteer, such as being a poll watcher,
04:16you can volunteer to be a poll watcher.
04:18I've seen many things happen at the ballot board,
04:22which is the place where vote-by-mail applications are reviewed, verified,
04:27and in fact, counted.
04:29So there are lots of ways that you can participate beyond being a legal monitor
04:33that are impactful and meaningful.
04:35But really just getting out there, being accessible,
04:38being available to help, all hands on deck are truly needed at this time.
04:42And I have one last question for you, because I know you have to run.
04:46Give us a sense of why you have to run tonight.
04:50Because I think it's important for people to understand, right?
04:54This work, we're doing this work.
04:57We're almost at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
05:00We're doing this work at all hours of the night.
05:03Why are you dropping off?
05:05Why is this important?
05:06I'll just give you an example of something that happened today.
05:09We had a polling location here in Dallas County,
05:12which Dallas is considered a progressive island in a Red Sea.
05:15We've got a few of those islands in Harris County,
05:18which is where Houston's located, Austin, Texas,
05:20and some battleground places like Fort Worth, Texas.
05:23So I'll give you an example.
05:24Today, we had a polling location in a predominantly Black precinct where, one,
05:30the polls did not open on time.
05:32Number two, we had poll workers telling people that the documents that they
05:35presented were not valid when we do have a court order.
05:39For example, in the case I brought up earlier, VCB Abbott,
05:42where we did successfully litigate that.
05:45We have a standing court order that allows voter registration cards to be accepted
05:48as validated a vacation so long as they present and sign the reasonable impediment form.
05:55So we have election workers that, unfortunately,
05:58they're following the training that's been promulgated from the Secretary of State
06:03that in real time deemphasizes some of the documentation that voters are allowed to bring
06:09to prove that they are eligible to vote.
06:12We have polling locations that are telling people only five people are being allowed to vote
06:16in any given time.
06:18When we know that the equipment and the staff supports a greater number of voters.
06:23So these are the things that we're having to deal with.
06:25And so that is the reason why I'm not able to stay on as long as I'd like.
06:30We are actually working to address these things in real time in places like Texas.
06:34Well, I want to thank you for all of the work that you do.
06:37We have a number of questions for Keturah, but thank you for everything that you do.
06:41Because she also does similar work.
06:43But again, we know that you have to run off and thank you for joining us.
06:49Ebony?
06:50I don't know about you.
06:52Even though we know the information, I get so angry.
06:55Alfonso, I'm over here like ruined because I'm burnt up.
07:01And I can only imagine, Keturah, day in, even you too, Alfonso, right?
07:07I'm talking to two attorneys, day in, day out.
07:10You're hearing, you're seeing, and you've got this bullhorn that you're trying to tell
07:13people like in Spike Lee movie, like, wake up.
07:17I need you to wake up about what's happening around you.
07:21I'm looking at the comments that are coming through.
07:23And I saw someone say, people need to know about this.
07:26Yeah.
07:27Yeah.
07:27And you know what's really frustrating, Ebony?
07:30And I'm just so excited to be here with everyone.
07:32So thank you all so much for having me.
07:35I just want to emphasize, so I've been doing this work for quite some time.
07:39I've been a civil rights lawyer for nearly a decade.
07:42I've worked in all of the different realms.
07:44I've been an election protection lawyer.
07:46I've been a poll worker, poll monitor, all those spaces.
07:49And the most infuriating part of what everything everybody has said is these are the exact same
07:55issues every single election cycle.
07:57Not only the primaries, midterms, we see this repeatedly all the time.
08:01And it's specifically targeted towards our communities.
08:04So I'm really excited to answer some questions.
08:07But I just want to highlight for anybody listening, these are not new.
08:11This is not going to stop.
08:12This will continue to happen.
08:13And that's why we have to be collectively as diligent as possible.
08:19What was the very first time?
08:22And Ebony will probably tease this out.
08:24Yeah.
08:25But when was the very first time that you did this work and it surprised you?
08:30Because I've been practicing now for close to 25 years.
08:33And there have been a few surprises with some cases that I've taken where you sort of realize
08:39that things are happening in a way that maybe you didn't fully anticipate.
08:44You knew that these things happened in the past.
08:46You just didn't think that they were still happening.
08:48Maybe you can give us a sense of when did you first see that happening in this work for you?
08:53Yeah, absolutely.
08:54Unfortunately, there's countless examples.
08:57And I mean, I will say I was excited to say I've been practicing for nearly a decade.
09:01And then you just put me to shame with that 25 years, Alfonso.
09:06But, you know, I think one of the most jarring encounters that I have, I was doing election
09:10protection work in Missouri, my home state.
09:14And I remember specifically that someone had called the police because there was a line of
09:19black voters.
09:20Some people started arguing and people called the police and it seemed kind of routine.
09:25You know, there was a disagreement.
09:27Still didn't seem like it needed to be escalated to that level, but there it was.
09:30And what happened is actually we had a large slew of police officers just kind of post up in
09:38front of the polling location.
09:39Now, mind you, we're in a predominantly black area at a predominantly black polling site.
09:44I think we were actually at a black church.
09:46And we had a large group of police officers just standing in front of the polling site with
09:51their arms crossed, fully armed.
09:54And I would watch as people would drive up to the location, circle around and then leave.
10:01And we saw it happening over and over again.
10:03And basically what was happening is we had all of these people who were coming up and were
10:07nervous about why the police were standing in front.
10:10And so people have legitimate concerns.
10:12You know, are the police going to be there?
10:14I might have warrants.
10:15Could I possibly risk getting arrested?
10:17And ultimately, we have to be realistic.
10:19No one is going to say, let me risk my liberty and not going to jail over casting my vote at
10:25this moment.
10:25And so that's just like one example of how shockingly blatant these efforts are to make
10:32sure that we don't actually access the polls.
10:34Now, as many of you know, police and law enforcement are not supposed to be at the polling sites.
10:39It is a form of voter intimidation, especially when you have a large group of officers.
10:44But yet, that's something we see happen very often.
10:47And you could see people in real time literally deciding, I'm not going to do it.
10:53I want you to slow down because a lot of people don't know that.
10:55A lot of people don't know that police or officers are not supposed to be there.
11:02And so someone may think someone may get intimidated.
11:06Someone may think, oh, they're there to protect.
11:08But I want you to just kind of go over that a little bit more because no one really goes
11:13down and reads rules about what is and what is not supposed to happen at polling locations.
11:18They just they just don't, you know, so they don't know whether to report that or to call
11:22and say, hey, you are you out of bounds on this one?
11:25Well, I would first say what I tell everybody and I'm talking about people in my personal
11:30life and when I'm speaking about this publicly on social media is report everything.
11:36Absolutely everything.
11:37The first time I worked for election protection as an attorney was back in 2016.
11:42I think my first year out of law school and I quickly realized while being on the receiving
11:48end of getting all those calls of people reporting stuff, nothing is too small.
11:52I think someone mentioned it earlier, but it is the most important thing for collecting
11:57data in real time to see which polling locations are having specific issues and why, where those
12:02issues are coming from.
12:03And even if you aren't able to have it fully rectified in that moment, it can be helpful
12:08to protect others at that polling location later on down the line or have other remedies
12:13addressed.
12:14So always report everything.
12:15I always say that.
12:16And then two, polling locations have very strict guidelines.
12:19Actually, there are limits on how many feet people can be if they're not nonpartisan poll
12:25workers, poll monitorings, how many feet away from the polling location they can be.
12:29And specifically in relation to law enforcement, I believe it is 100 feet away from the polling
12:34location.
12:35So I can't speak to every single state in every single location.
12:38And for most of the places that I've worked at, law enforcement is not supposed to be
12:43within 100 feet of the location unless there is some emergency or extenuating circumstances.
12:48But in the example that I witnessed back in Missouri, there was an extenuating circumstance.
12:53Law enforcement was called for some semi-valid reason.
12:56And then they just stayed for like hours.
12:59And that's how we started to see voter intimidation happen.
13:02And I just want to also highlight to people, you know, it's not an accident when you have
13:08a governmental presence that's armed with weapons that's historically been tied to our
13:14harm and our pain being posted up in a historically Black, sorry, in a predominantly Black polling
13:19location.
13:20It's not accidental.
13:22So anytime you see anything and you're not sure about it or you have to question it, I would
13:26say call.
13:27Well, there's nonpartisan poll monitors at every location and they're there to answer
13:31your questions.
13:32But as we heard from examples earlier, even the polling workers may not always be advantageous
13:38for us or always on our side.
13:39So I would, I literally tell everybody, call 1-866-R-VOTE.
13:43You can text them all the time that hotline is available and there is a lawyer on the other
13:48side waiting to answer your call.
13:49And I just want to highlight this point that you mentioned, because I think sometimes people
13:56think I can't really report anything unless it happens to me, right?
14:01Unless I was asked for another form of ID, unless I was harassed, I can't really report.
14:09Talk a little bit about the context of people reporting, not only things that are, you know,
14:17voter suppression tactics that are directed to them, but voter suppression tactics that
14:22they see.
14:25I think that's a crazy important point, Alfonso.
14:28Speaking as a lawyer that practiced primarily here in New York, I think we often have this
14:33view that a lot of these voter suppression efforts, voter disenfranchisement efforts, all
14:39of these things are happening in the South, right?
14:41That's what we're hearing about it a lot.
14:42But that's just frankly not true.
14:44These issues are happening across the country in every state.
14:49There may be different levels to it, but it is consistent in every single state in this
14:53country.
14:54And so what's most important is for people to be able to speak up because a lot of the
14:58times when you are the subject of that, it's embarrassing.
15:03It's scary.
15:04You don't know what to do.
15:05You don't know the rules.
15:06You're not walking into your polling location, having read all the guidelines for your polling
15:10location.
15:10And quite frankly, you don't have to, and you shouldn't have to.
15:14And so if you're experiencing something, I've seen people be told, I'm sorry, you have to
15:18leave.
15:19You don't have a proper ID or you don't have an exact signature here.
15:23All of these things.
15:24In that moment, when that happens, you are more likely to say, okay, I have to trust the
15:29person that's here that's telling me that information.
15:32And you may not always call.
15:33But if you call, if the person who's seen that and experiencing that as well call, now
15:39that's two reports.
15:40Now that's multiple reports.
15:42And that puts a flashlight, a highlight on that particular polling location.
15:46So I would say there is no such thing as over-reporting.
15:50There is no such thing as how dare you report something that didn't turn out to be something
15:55that you thought it was.
15:56Report every single thing.
15:58What we have to reiterate, and I was really glad that Reverend Al Sharpton mentioned this,
16:03this has been the plan in our country for decades.
16:08This has always been, the goal has always been to target Black voters and make sure that
16:14our votes do not count, that we have less access to gaining political power.
16:19It's not by accident and it's not occasional.
16:21It's rampant and it's increasing.
16:23People feel that we're in 2024 and things are getting so much better.
16:27They're actually getting worse.
16:29We're seeing a reduction in rights and access of protections of Black and Brown voters from
16:34our federal government.
16:35We're literally seeing a rollback of the Voting Rights Act in our lifetime.
16:40And so I just want to highlight how serious this is.
16:43It's not a light thing.
16:45It's incredibly dangerous and it affects all of our lives.
16:49Thank you so much for that.
16:51Now that we've talked about this from the legal perspective, we want to spend a little bit
16:56more time talking to poll monitors who are doing the work on the ground when you walk
17:02into a polling station.
17:03We're very, very pleased to have with us the Reverend Dr. Susan Smith, who is a poll monitor
17:09and a peacemaker.
17:10She's the co-founder of Crazy Faith Ministries in Columbus, Ohio.
17:15And she's going to talk to us a little bit about her experience serving as a poll monitor.
17:20And I'll turn it over to Ebony, who's going to ask her a few questions.
17:24Thank you so much for joining us.
17:26Look, Reverend Smith, with all we just said and heard, we don't want to scare people.
17:32What made you want to become a poll watcher?
17:34Like, you are very important in this conversation.
17:38But what is your drive after knowing all that?
17:41I want to be a poll watcher.
17:42Well, you know, I'm actually more of a peacekeeper than a poll watcher.
17:46Yes.
17:47And that's a whole different thing.
17:50We think, sir, I don't know if I wanted to do it.
17:53I think I just kind of fell into it.
17:55But with all the craziness that's going on, with all the craziness that's going on,
18:02it just seemed like it was a necessary thing to do because there's so much anger
18:06and misinformation, disinformation, malinformation, people wanting to jump down each other's throats.
18:13And actually, you know, for us, the goal is to make sure that everybody in line gets to cast their vote.
18:20So we really don't have a lot of room for foolishness.
18:23And so what we do as peacekeepers, and I hope I'm not taking us too far from the question you asked,
18:31but what we do as peacekeepers is train people how to handle contentious situations.
18:40So that if somebody is, you know, acting a fool, I'm sorry, you know, just acting a fool,
18:48we are trained to use principles that were practiced in the civil rights movement of the 60s,
18:56but this nonviolent thing where you de-escalate a situation with your voice, you know,
19:04so you're not showing any type of resistance or violence or challenging.
19:10What you're trying to do is listen to somebody who you really don't really want to listen to,
19:14but you're trying to calm them down.
19:17And we call it a ministry of presence.
19:21And what we do is, and we have found, we first started off just having a clergy person be peacekeepers.
19:27But then as we train people, we've had social workers and psychologists and stuff
19:32who had also had good training in de-escalation.
19:34And so we use them as well.
19:36But if you're not a clergy person, you can wear these bright yellow hats and these buttons
19:41so that you're readily identifiable.
19:44But if a clergy person wears either the collar or the stole or something,
19:47the yamical or something, depending on the religion.
19:51And we find that even the most obnoxious people,
19:57when they are approached by a clergy person, they tend to calm down.
20:03You know what I think it is?
20:04I think it's because everybody remembers going to church with their grandma.
20:09And I think that they remember Sunday school lessons.
20:12And I think they remember somebody talking about heaven and hell.
20:15And I think that even though they are doing and sharing and shouting and everything that they've been taught,
20:25they also had a little bit of Sunday school somewhere in their lives.
20:29And they remember it.
20:30That's what I think.
20:31So when we walk over and we're trained to talk very, you know, very softly and, you know, very calmly and, you know,
20:39we have to know our own triggers because if somebody is doing something that hits all of our own triggers,
20:45then we know that's not the place for us to be.
20:48So we call our partner over and let them take care of it.
20:50But the goal, and I was very adamant about this as I'm one of the coordinators of the program here in Ohio,
20:56the goal is to not call the police, not call the police.
21:02And I said that from the standpoint of being an African-American woman who knows that, you know,
21:08police officers are not always our friends.
21:10They're not always our enemies, but they're definitely not always our friends.
21:13And I said, we have to be able to do this peacefully.
21:17And so we have found that it works.
21:21We also say in the training that if this is not for you, you know,
21:25because we kind of fashioned it after some of the training on the civil rights movement.
21:31And, you know, people found that when they were being trained,
21:34when they were like getting ready to go over the Edmund Pettus Bridge or something,
21:37and they said, oh, no, this, you know, the training was brutal.
21:41It was very brutal.
21:42Reverend Bill Lawson was, he was a good teacher, but it was brutal.
21:46And some people found that that wasn't their ministry.
21:48And so, and it's okay because there are poll workers that are out there.
21:53Then you could do something else, you know, be a poll worker.
21:55But if this is not your ministry, then you pull away from it.
22:02Oh, it looks like we unfortunately lost her.
22:05And it was so good as she talked about,
22:07I like how she turned my question around and talked about the power of being a poll worker,
22:13like the power that's in it and the peace that they bring and the comfort.
22:19I think like I, after we talked about the police officers in some locations being there,
22:23but to walk inside and see someone like Reverend Smith there,
22:28I think my heart would just be happy.
22:30Like that was an amazing story she told us.
22:33Yeah.
22:33And I mean, as I think about, cause I've had the privilege and an opportunity to vote in multiple
22:38elections and I can tell you the folks who are volunteering their time in some cases,
22:43others, of course, they're being paid to be there.
22:46The folks that are deciding to do this work should be applauded in so many ways because yes,
22:53you may live in a part of the country where you don't see these contentious challenges,
22:56but unfortunately we're seeing them in other parts of the country.
23:00And unfortunately we lost the reverend, but hopefully she's able to join us.
23:06Oh, she's back in.
23:07She's, she's back.
23:08So we're going to have her join in.
23:11We lost you a little bit and, and we have to close out this section of the program,
23:16but we do want to ask you before we turn over to some additional legal experts,
23:22including the one and only Janae Nelson.
23:23Um, want to talk to you about, you've done this for a while.
23:27Um, are you seeing that it's getting worse or are you seeing that it's getting better?
23:33I think what's actually getting worse is the anticipation of it being worse.
23:39Um, because the more the rhetoric flies and the closer, like the presidential race becomes,
23:49um, the more people are nervous about what's happening.
23:53So like here in Ohio, of course, um, we had the, the former president talking about Haitians,
23:58eating cats and dogs.
23:59And so people are nervous because in, in Springfield, people were, you know,
24:05driving through the streets openly during the day with the, the, the KKK thingies
24:10and the Confederate flags and all that being intimidated.
24:14So people are nervous, um, and they anticipate things.
24:17So we train people, um, to, you know, understand that, that Ohio is an open carry state.
24:22We are, we are not going to be afraid.
24:23We are not going to be afraid, but they are anticipating it.
24:26So we anticipate their anticipation, um, and that's how we approach it.
24:31Whew, it is, it is spooky.
24:36It really is spooky.
24:37Um, what I tell people though, is that in terms of this, all this, I call it sophisticated
24:43voter suppression.
24:45This is, this is not our first rodeo as black people.
24:47It ain't our first rodeo and it's always been a part of our history.
24:51So, you know, I tell people, let's call them the ancestors because, you know, they've been
24:55here, done that.
24:57And, um, and even though they're gone, their spirits are with us.
25:00I feel that.
25:01I just feel it.
25:02I feel like John Lewis and all of them are just saying, it's going to be all right.
25:05It's going to be all right.
25:06So I call on them because this is not our first rodeo.
25:09We have had to deal with this a long time and we can get through it now.
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