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Stacey Abrams: "We Have to Work Harder" Than Those Who Would Suppress the Vote
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/1/31/stacey_abrams_we_have_to_workfrom Democracy Now 1-31-2019
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AMY GOODMAN: Stacey Abrams’ new group, Fair Fight Action, is now suing Georgia election officials for mismanagement of the midterm elections. I recently spoke to Stacey Abrams in Los Angeles, where she was attending the National Day of Racial Healing, organized by the director Ava DuVernay. I asked Stacey Abrams about Fair Fight Action.
STACEY ABRAMS: We have launched Fair Fight Action, which includes Fair Fight Georgia. Our mission is to fix our democracy by forcing changes to our electoral system. Voting rights is the foundation and the bedrock of how democracy works. It’s how we make our voices heard in our communities. And in Georgia and around the country, that democracy is failing. And so, our mission is to make certain that we take a systemic look at what’s happened, from registration to voter access to ballot counting, and make certain that for every state and for every American that the right to vote is held sacrosanct and that everyone can leverage it.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you think of Amendment 4 in Florida? And do you see this as a model for the country?
STACEY ABRAMS: Well, I think what was done with Amendment 4 and Desmond’s work is extraordinary. What I want to point out is that Florida had the most egregious laws when it came to felony voters and—felon voter re-enfranchisement. In states like Georgia, it’s not that they don’t have the right to vote; it’s the complicated forms that they have to navigate to access that right to vote. But I do believe that lifting up the fact that anyone in America who is an American citizen, who’s a taxpayer, who has paid their debt to society, should be re-enfranchised, and it should not be an obstacle course. And I’m proud of the state of Florida for taking the step to make that re-enfranchisement possible.
AMY GOODMAN: The governor seems to want to find a way to stop it, but a lot of people are getting re-enfranchised, are signing up.
STACEY ABRAMS: I think that what’s happening in Florida is a pathway that we need to walk for the rest of the country, and that is not only demanding better action, but then standing behind those demands and pushing better action by those who are elected. Whether it’s in Florida or Georgia or across the country, we have to understand that our responsibility doesn’t end on Election Day, because the minute the elections are over, the people who won—who did not share our values—are going to be working hard. We have to be working even harder.
STACEY ABRAMS: We have launched Fair Fight Action, which includes Fair Fight Georgia. Our mission is to fix our democracy by forcing changes to our electoral system. Voting rights is the foundation and the bedrock of how democracy works. It’s how we make our voices heard in our communities. And in Georgia and around the country, that democracy is failing. And so, our mission is to make certain that we take a systemic look at what’s happened, from registration to voter access to ballot counting, and make certain that for every state and for every American that the right to vote is held sacrosanct and that everyone can leverage it.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you think of Amendment 4 in Florida? And do you see this as a model for the country?
STACEY ABRAMS: Well, I think what was done with Amendment 4 and Desmond’s work is extraordinary. What I want to point out is that Florida had the most egregious laws when it came to felony voters and—felon voter re-enfranchisement. In states like Georgia, it’s not that they don’t have the right to vote; it’s the complicated forms that they have to navigate to access that right to vote. But I do believe that lifting up the fact that anyone in America who is an American citizen, who’s a taxpayer, who has paid their debt to society, should be re-enfranchised, and it should not be an obstacle course. And I’m proud of the state of Florida for taking the step to make that re-enfranchisement possible.
AMY GOODMAN: The governor seems to want to find a way to stop it, but a lot of people are getting re-enfranchised, are signing up.
STACEY ABRAMS: I think that what’s happening in Florida is a pathway that we need to walk for the rest of the country, and that is not only demanding better action, but then standing behind those demands and pushing better action by those who are elected. Whether it’s in Florida or Georgia or across the country, we have to understand that our responsibility doesn’t end on Election Day, because the minute the elections are over, the people who won—who did not share our values—are going to be working hard. We have to be working even harder.
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