Native Lampard is a production of iHeartRadio and partnership with Reason Choice Media Welcome.
Home to the Natives. Yeah.
I think that what we're seeing is states across the country are emboldened by what we are witnessing Republicans do, which is to make it more difficult to vote and to intimidate voters. So the Riverside County Sheriff, Chad Bianco, who also happens to be a front runner on the Republican side in the California governor's gouvenatorial race, is trying to seize more than six hundred and fifty thousand ballots under the auspices of conducting a recount effort.
I believe he already sees Yeah, he did.
He already sees them. I'm sorry, and I think that what is fascinating here is the Attorney General, Rob Bonta said that this sheriff has no probable cause for such an investigation. The court actually did not agree with the Attorney General. What I think this does is put people in harm's way. They are afraid about what is happening. Again, Andrew, you talked about a solution in search of a problem.
They're going on looking for voter fraud, when in fact it says there have only been seventy one cases a voter fraud in the past thirty two years in California and those are voter fraud convictions despite California County more than eleven point five million ballots in November in the
special election alone. So that, I think is what is an issue here again them being emboldened by the Steve Bannons of the world, by the Heritage Foundations of the world, by Project twenty twenty five that also deals with voting. So yes, what's happening in Mississippi and why this case was before the Supreme Court have everything to do with this. So from Mississippi to Cali we see this problem happening.
So in California, just so that listens, all of us can let this sink in. A sheriff of a county is able to not off of a referral from the prosecutors office. Right, that's genuinely generally how a investigation out of nowhere thin air comes into formation because you don't just investigate for no reason. You investigate with the intention to prosecute and hold accountable people who have done something wrong or.
Unless your intention is intimidation, which.
Is who are guided by other intentions. That's extra, That's exactly right. So all I'm saying is that if imagine where you live, your county sheriff deciding that they have the power to go and seize the ballots of another constitutionally elected officer. Almost in every place, supervisors of elections
are elected. Secretary of States in some cases are appointed, but many of them are elected going into that jurisdiction off of a right wing conspiracy that the votes that were tallied don't match what they believe the actual turnout numbers represented in that country.
Right, Andrew the Attorney General not to cut you off, even said no, he said, please, let's let me let me investigate before you continue down this path. Let me see where these allegations are coming from, if it's even founded. He's like, no, I'm all sad, and no, I haven't talked to Trump, and I'm like, this is wild the world that we live in. Again, to your point about literally creating a solution for a problem we don't have, this administration is good for that. Maggan is good for that.
I think of the trans issue in sports, there really isn't an issue. There isn't as if this is a big issue and trans boys are taking over girls' sports in high school and in college. But you ran on that like it was such an issue. These are not real things, and people are being sit in their mind, they're like, this is happening. One is too many? Five fourteen people who voted illegally? Is too many? Forty seventy seven people throw off these random numbers. It's just too many.
And that's what's happening right now in real time.
I'm I'm curious from y'all's perspective whether or not you think. And again we'll get to the Supreme Court cases. Is really important that we all stay abreast of this. But what do you think democrats forget Democrats lovers of democracy, people who value the rights that we have and want
to see them expanded and not contrict constricted. How should we be talking about this if we know that most reasonable people but car you invoked this folks in the Bibles shop saying, what's the problem with you're being able to produce ID when we know it's more complicated than that. How should we be talking about this in a way that validates some of the reasonableness of the of the argument around identification with what is draconian and what they
are doing as as repult. If we had advice and somebody was on the listening end of our advice, what would it be around how this thing ought to be argued? Innovated car. If you're talking, you're muted.
I'm sorry my house phone was ringing, so I'm mute at myself. But I don't even know what we got no house.
I'm impressed you got a house.
I got some new headphones, good cars.
Do you see what I go through? Do you see what I got through? I've actually talked to hr at I Heeart and they just said, they just said stick with it. I mean.
R goes okay, Michael board Jordan's every man's name. His name is Andrew.
Yes, anyway, all right, all right, anyway, So back in two thousand, in two thousand and six when I first read for office, ran against Thomas Road, who was eighty two years old, have been in office for twenty six years. And on election day at one of my biggest precincts in Denmark, we actually had two white guys pull up to the precinct in a pickup truck and they got out of the pickup truck with a shotgun and they literally just sat in front of this all black precinct
for hours with a shotgun, like counting key. It's not open carry, but it's Denmark. Were close enough to open carry, right, we're open carry now, but at the time you had to have a license. But one about gonna bother them. It was that type of intimidation, that kind of overt intimidation, We're gonna see what up with physic I'm sorry, Nick, We're gonna mess you up with physical violence. Type of intimidation that we could see, and we just built our mindset to say that nobody was going to stop us
from getting to the polls. Black folks always say, you know, we're going to overcome this. Whatever hurdle they put in our way, we're going to overcome this. So my first piece of advice is one that nobody's really gonna like. Right, The first piece of advice I have is begin now working for what the possible outcome may be. So with
our seniors, with our older people. NAACP. By the way, shout out to Kristen Clark for being the new Announcements of News General Counsel of the NAACP, begin organizing right now, helping people get their papers for November of twenty twenty six, begin working on what the possible outcome may be, so we're not scrambling in November doing provisional ballots and having all of these and a very consequential election tossed out. That's first and foremost. The second thing is we're in
the middle of filing periods right now. In a lot of states, people are filing to run for office. We need to make sure that one of the biggest and most sexy races that people run for a secretary of state. You know, for a long period of time, we haven't focused on secretary of state. We haven't focused on judges, we haven't focused on Supreme Court justices. And that's coming to bite us in the ass Supervisors of elections, supervisors
of elections, those things matter. And actually what we're seeing right now because of the West Coast is sheriffs. Because if the sheriff has the audacity to walk into a precinct and seize ballots, what is he doing On the side, He's probably sprinking a little coke on your son when he pulls them over for a minor traffic violation, right, So, I mean there is a direct correlation, trust me. So I just think that we have to begin to prepare
ourselves for what the endgame is. Work backwards and preparing for an election, running for office, electing to people. And right now it's important for our local elected officials mayors out to all the mayors we love, but they're going to have to utilize their platform to raise their voices about this issue because they are closest to the ground. Mayors, city council people, school board people need to be teaching
people about what the Save Act is. Of course you don't have a vote on it, but Randall Wolfin's voice is probably more powerful in Alabama than even those people who are federally elected. Frank Scott's voice in Little Rock is more powerful than people who are federally elected. And so I empower all of those local elected officials where we still have some success. Chris Hollins in Houston, Texas.
I mean, make sure that you're raising your voice using your platform so people really understand what the Save Act is when we talk about it and mention it. So those are my three kind of tangible things that we have to do to prepare for what is this tsunami.
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