0:03

Welcome to Why I'm Voting, a production

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of I Heart Radio. Listen.

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You already know this, but it's an election year.

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You might already be tired of hearing about it.

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But here's the thing. Democracy

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doesn't work without you. I'm

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Holly Frying, and I'm sitting down with

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many of my fellow podcasters, from Will

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Ferrell to Stephanie Rule, as well as

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other luminaries, to find out about

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their relationships with the ballot box and

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ultimately just to find out why they

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vote. I hope you're

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exercising your right to vote, and if

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you're not, I hope that their stories inspire

0:39

you. Hello,

0:45

and welcome to Why I'm Voting. Today

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is a delight for me because I have

0:49

the honor of having Alicia

0:52

Garza on the show. The principle at

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the Black Futures Lab and co founder

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of Black Lives Matter. She is

0:58

the Strategy and Partnership director

1:00

at the National Domestic Workers Alliance,

1:03

and she has a book coming out this October,

1:05

The Purpose of Power, How We Come Together

1:07

When We Fall Apart. She is also

1:10

the host of Lady Don't Take No Podcast,

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and I just can't imagine how she gets all of this

1:15

done. Alicia, thank you so

1:17

much for joining me. Thanks so much for

1:19

having me. You are an

1:21

activist sort of through and through. It seems

1:23

like it's in your blood. So I wonder if you realized

1:27

at what point that voting was something that

1:29

gave you an active voice in democracy

1:31

and that you were going to get to do it. Well,

1:34

I'm not sure it totally worked out that way.

1:38

You know. I think like many black

1:40

voters, especially of my generation,

1:44

you know, we were told that voting

1:46

was a right that people fought and

1:48

died for, and so you

1:50

had to vote if you wanted to have a voice

1:53

in what's going on in your everyday life. But

1:55

mostly the messages I got, frankly, were

1:58

that I needed to vote because

2:00

my ancestors died for the right for

2:02

me to do so. It wasn't

2:04

until I got really involved in organizing,

2:07

and you know, years into it, that

2:10

I started to realize how

2:13

voting can actually

2:15

be a marker for how strong

2:18

our organizing work has been. And so

2:20

that is how I look at voting now. But I'll

2:23

be honest with you, it took a while

2:25

until I got there. No shame

2:28

in that. So does that mean that you

2:30

did register right away when you were a team,

2:32

getting the message constantly that you

2:34

had to do it to honor your ancestors, or did

2:36

you wait, I did, I've I've registered right

2:38

when I turned eighteen. It's kind of one

2:40

of those rights of passages. Right you

2:44

turn eighteen, you can register to vote, and there's

2:46

a whole bunch of other things you're able to do because

2:48

you're technically an adult. So

2:50

I think I went through the motions

2:53

of it without fully understanding

2:55

the significance of it until way later. Do

2:57

you remember the first time you voted and what that

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felt. I don't remember who it was

3:01

for, but I remember being fully

3:04

confused, and I

3:06

remember saying to myself, like, I

3:09

don't think they taught us this in high school, which

3:11

is like how to vote, right, Like I

3:13

was always told that we needed to vote,

3:16

that when you turned eighteen, you got to vote, like

3:18

it was a big privilege, But I never

3:20

remember an actual lesson on

3:22

like here's what a ballot looks like, here's

3:25

what's at the top of the ballot, here's what's at

3:27

the in between, and here's what those

3:29

things mean. And I think probably

3:32

other people are in the same boat as me. So

3:35

when you did get it, like, what was the thing

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that kind of turned that light on about

3:40

how important it was. You know, being

3:42

in California, we have propositions

3:46

where people who are organized

3:48

can get something put on the ballot for

3:51

the voters in California to decide.

3:53

And so, you know, the way

3:56

that I started to understand how

3:58

organizing could impact voting

4:01

was really through proposition fights. And

4:04

you know, I came up at a

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time when there were two

4:09

very big propositions that passed

4:12

in the state of California. One

4:14

was Proposition which

4:17

really was geared around access

4:19

to public services

4:21

for immigrants, and it restricted

4:24

it was restricting access. The other

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one was Proposition Too oh nine, which effectively

4:29

eliminated affirmative action in California.

4:32

So, you know, I

4:35

started actually seeing the connection

4:37

because we started organizing around

4:40

propositions that had passed that were

4:43

detrimental to our communities. So

4:46

I would imagine that this is something

4:48

because of your action and

4:51

the work that you do in the community. Local

4:53

elections are probably a big deal for you

4:55

as well as the bigger presidential ones certainly,

4:58

and I know you mentioned of propositions

5:00

in California and the California

5:03

ballots. Too many people that live outside of it seemed

5:05

very confusing because of all of this, But I

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wonder what your prep work is like to

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get the information you need for those

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local elections to make sure everyone

5:15

understands those propositions and what the wording

5:18

actually means. Like, what is all of

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that prep work like when it's not a case where

5:22

it's like a big presidential election where you're getting

5:24

constant media coverage. Well, I

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think you know, for me, the prep has looked

5:29

like um looking to organizations

5:31

that try to make voting easy,

5:34

because voting is necessary. So whenever

5:37

I'm confused, I look to some

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of the organizations locally and statewide

5:41

that I'm familiar

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with, who I know just work

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to make sure that voters are informed and

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sometimes they take positions on certain

5:51

issues to help voters better

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understand what's at stake with their votes.

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And so some of those organizations include

5:58

San Francisco Rise, which

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is an organization that really

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works to build grassroots power in

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San Francisco and beyond, and they

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put out voter guides every election

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cycle where it's really

6:13

simply broken down. And

6:15

so if there's something that I'm like, wait,

6:17

what does this person even do? And

6:21

how do I tell the difference between this

6:23

person and the other person. That's a place

6:25

where I can go. Other formations

6:28

include Bay Rising, which is like

6:30

a regional version of

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San Francisco Rising. And then

6:34

there's a very local organization called

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Oakland Rising, which has put out

6:39

voter guides and done voter education for

6:41

at least the last ten years now. So

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anytime I'm confused about what's going on

6:45

and how i can use

6:47

the power of my vote to impact

6:50

what's happening in my community, those

6:52

are resources that I definitely go to. There

6:54

is this unfortunate feeling

6:57

I think that happens particularly with young voters, where

6:59

they think that the results

7:01

of an election, particularly like in their

7:03

state, are kind of a foregone conclusion.

7:06

They're like, well, I'm in a blue state or I'm in a red state.

7:08

I already know how it's going to go, so I can just

7:10

stay home or go to work and not try to get

7:12

time off that day. What are your thoughts

7:15

on making sure that people get

7:17

to elections even if they think they know

7:19

it's a lock. I think what we've seen,

7:21

especially in the last election cycle,

7:24

is that nothing is a lock. I

7:27

mean, people were a hundred

7:29

percent sure that, for example,

7:32

in the last presidential election that

7:34

Hillary Clinton was going to sweep, and

7:36

that didn't actually happen. In fact,

7:38

it was quite the opposite. So I

7:41

would say voting, especially

7:44

if you're voting by mail or absentee,

7:47

it's really like, take thirty

7:49

minutes to an hour and just know

7:52

that you made your voice heard, and

7:54

don't assume that it's a lock, because there

7:56

are a lot of people who are thinking just like

7:58

you, Oh well, I

8:01

think it's already going to be taken care of, so mine

8:03

won't matter. And so many of our

8:05

elections, especially at the local level,

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come down to a few hundred

8:09

votes that every single vote

8:11

does actually matter. So obviously

8:14

we are in strange times, and

8:17

the nature of how people vote is something

8:19

that is constantly discussed at the moment. But

8:21

if this were not a pandemic

8:23

year, when we're worried about what's going to happen with the mail

8:26

service, would you normally be a

8:28

mail in voter, an early voter, or

8:30

do you like to go day of I am a

8:32

mail in voter since I was in college.

8:35

I do not like to navigate

8:37

lines. I don't

8:39

like to feel rushed when I'm voting. I

8:42

like to take my time and so,

8:45

and because I'm somebody who's at least

8:47

before the pandemic was constantly

8:49

on the road, it just was not

8:51

always possible for me to get to a precinct.

8:54

So I think it really depends

8:56

on what your life is like. But in

8:59

this moment, it feels really

9:01

important to say to everybody who

9:03

is planning to vote, and even people who are not

9:05

sure if they're going to. If and when

9:07

you vote, make sure that you give

9:09

yourself enough time to get

9:11

your vote counted. As

9:14

a somebody who also has a procrastination

9:16

issue, I can tell you I

9:19

have been known to be like rushing

9:21

to the ballot drop box at

9:23

the very last minutes and

9:26

because I didn't get my two weeks in advance

9:28

to make sure that my ballot got there and got counted.

9:30

So honestly, I

9:33

would say, really make a voting plan

9:35

for yourself, and make it with your friends

9:37

too. Sometimes knowing that

9:40

a group of you are going to do something all at one

9:42

time helps you pre plan for how

9:44

to make it happen perfection. Because

9:46

you are theoretically a mail in voter, not

9:49

I'm going to presume, not always procrastinating.

9:52

That means that election day is probably

9:54

a day where it's literally about

9:56

the returns for you. So what do you do on that

9:58

day? Do you watch all day long as

10:00

the results come in? Or do you stay away

10:03

from it? Do you have a lucky outfit? Like?

10:05

How does voting day play out for you? Well,

10:09

look, I'll be honest here. Unless

10:12

there's something that I really care about on the

10:14

ballot, it's rare that

10:16

I'll be plugged in all day. The

10:18

last few election cycles, I have been

10:20

plugged in all day because there's been a lot of

10:22

things that I've cared about, including

10:25

who's taking it at the top of

10:27

the ticket, all the way down to ballot

10:29

measures in my community that would fund

10:32

more affordable housing or that

10:34

would make sure that we have clean water like

10:36

those things I care about too. So my

10:39

favorite thing to do on voting day is

10:41

to make sure I have my sticker. I love

10:43

the feeling of wearing that sticker around

10:45

all day and knowing that I actually

10:48

participated in the decisions that impact

10:50

my life every day. I imagine

10:53

that it also motivates other voters who

10:55

weren't totally sure if they were going to do it, that

10:58

they just go and handle it. I

11:00

tend to not like the

11:02

rigamarole of like the predictions

11:04

of what's gonna win. So I

11:07

actually have more of an early morning

11:09

day after the elections ritual where

11:13

I get up so that I can see the

11:15

returns and see what races

11:17

have already been called. And I love

11:20

doing that, like it's a weird numbers thing for

11:22

me. But the predictions thing is

11:24

always really strange to me because I can't

11:26

always tell what the predictions

11:28

are based on and all of that stuff.

11:31

I love it, alright. So the final

11:33

question is one to help

11:36

inspire and motivate our listeners. Anybody

11:38

who's maybe not sure that they are really

11:40

feeling it. But if you had, you

11:42

know, just one opportunity to tell

11:44

someone one thing in the hopes of

11:47

getting them out there and using their right to vote,

11:49

what would it be. Okay, I've thought

11:51

about this a lot. I

11:53

think about this every day. So I

11:56

would just say, if you're somebody

11:59

who isn't using

12:01

your right to vote, and you're not using it

12:03

because you don't

12:06

think that it matters or you

12:09

think that you know politics

12:11

is corrupt, I just want to say to you it

12:13

totally is. It totally is.

12:16

And a lot of people will tell you to

12:18

you know, look past it or look over it.

12:21

And I just want to say that part of why

12:23

I vote is because

12:26

I know that every

12:28

space that I leave, my

12:31

opposition takes that space

12:33

and uses it for nefarious purposes.

12:36

And so it's really about

12:38

making sure for me

12:41

that I don't seed space

12:44

that people didn't earn. And

12:46

so I think it's possible

12:48

for us to hold the tension

12:51

of not being satisfied

12:53

with the way that politics is operating. But

12:56

what I know is that when I'm not satisfied

12:58

with the thing me sit out of,

13:00

it doesn't do anything to change it. So

13:03

if you're somebody who feels like your vote

13:05

doesn't matter, I'm going to tell you it

13:07

does. It matters for some things,

13:10

it doesn't matter for other things. But at

13:12

this moment in time, your vote

13:15

literally can help determine

13:17

whether we march full steam

13:20

into an authoritarian government

13:23

or whether we try and scraped

13:26

together what's left of our democracy

13:29

that has been shredded intentionally

13:32

by a very powerful movement over the last

13:34

thirty years. So if you want

13:36

to see these kinds of big picture

13:38

changes, it does matter who

13:40

the coalition is that is making decisions

13:43

on our behalf. And for now,

13:45

you actually get to weigh in on

13:47

who it is that you want to do that. You

13:50

also get to weigh in on a local level

13:53

around how money is distributed. And that

13:55

is a very direct connection that

13:58

I feel deeply, much more so often

14:00

than I feel with the presidential elections.

14:03

So all I'm saying is, Annie,

14:05

scraps of food you leave on the table,

14:08

somebody else is gonna come and eat, Get out there

14:10

and hold your space. You got it straight from Alicia

14:12

Garza.

14:17

Hey, are you not registered to vote yet?

14:19

But you think it's something you want to do. You

14:21

may still have time. Voter registration

14:24

deadlines vary by state, so to find

14:26

out the scoop for where you are, check out

14:28

a nonpartisan registration voting

14:30

site like head count dot org or

14:32

fair vote dot org. Why

14:34

I'm Voting is an I Heart Radio production.

14:37

For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,

14:39

visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

14:42

or wherever it is you listen to your favorite shows.