rebecca so thank you to them and all of our responses so i went to law school to be an election lawyer. i then moved to washington, d.c. and i became a book seller now i do this so i never really got there. [laughter] but the interest is always there and so -- when this book came out it was like when i heard about it i said we have to do it. we cannot do it i hadn't read it i didn't know what she had to say and i thought this is one of the most important bocks that we'll see this year. that was corroborated by national book foundation who long listed 1 fern no vote for national book award. yep. please clap for carol. [applause]

this book is hard this is wonderful and teachers you so much and so little space i think there are 100 footnotes in the first chapter. seriously, and it is one of those books that you can read and reread and reread and you will find threads and different things that you missed first time through. i encourage everyone to read it to share it. it is one of the most important books of our time and here's carol anderson to talk to us about it. [applause] hello and thank you so much for being here. what i would like to do so first start off with a story that frames this story about disenfranchisement, then move us into a piece of the history of it and then to a couple of readings out of the book. so i'm going to start with the way that we often think about

disenfranchisement of african-americans and i'm going to start with macey -- it was 1946 was a veteran and won. he was a black man from georgia. and he came back home after fighting the the fascist he knew above all else that he was an american citizen because that's what a veteran is. and in georgia he was determined that he was going to exercise his citizenship rights. he was going to vote. in georgia -- i feel like this was a spoiler alert.

but there was an election going on in 1946 and there's a man running for governor with eugene and he is a mean dog. mean -- folks know gene are nodding. folks eugene was running on a platform of you keep the ends where they belong. because black folks came out of the second world war in a level of insurgency. when you fight the fascist when you fight the nazis when you fight supremacy and you're fighting under beener of the atlantic charter freedom from fear. freedom from want. whew, you want some of that democracy for yourself. and that was macio he goes down to vote and there's a sign in taylor county over voting spot

that says first negro that votes that will be the last thing he ever does. he's like -- i survived world war ii what's georgia got? so he went and macio voted. he was the only black person in taylor county that cast a ballot. he went home and it was quiet. this quiet for few days. and then -- opens the door and man says would you mind stepping outside, he's like sure. and he steps outside and he hears -- and it was a firing squad. an they laid macio out. and they laid him out. and walked away.

his mother runs out and she picks up her baby and drags him to the hospital. but this is 1946 georgia people do not have the right to healthh care. because they have a jim crow health care system. and put him in the room and nobody saw him for six hours while he just laid there. it took him two days to die that electoral violence is also how we conceptualize disfranchisement of black voters but there's another kind of violence that is

widespread and is even more with one voter here or there and that is the violence that started off the mississippi plan of 1890 to get around the h amendment that says the right to vote should not be abridged on account of race color or previous condition ofro servitude. and still wipe out black voters with the mississippi plan of 1890 like the poll tax literacy test. those that could not be in underfunded schools for black children with large portions

of the constitution and interpret to the liking of the registrar and then you had to pay the combination and only 3 percent of african-americans were registered to vote in the south. but another way, 97 percent of african-american adults in the south, so the bulk of them lived in the south it worked. it works so well that there is that insurgency comingiv through. with nonviolent protesters and

then sitting on the horses with full lips wrapped in barbed wire. so these symbolically carrying the body of jimmie lee jackson who has defended his mother against a beating during a voting rightste protest and covering that body to governor george wallace they ran right into the alabama state troopers and we saw that scene on the bridge blood hey. sunday. it was so horrific that abc movie of the week judgment at nuremberg was cut in to show the footage from blood he sunday. the nation was aghast and appalled.

with the basic fundamental democracy. how can this happen when people are just trying to vote? coming down to selma and bludgeoned to death to lead the united states to pass the voting rights act of 19651 of the greatest pieces of legislation ever. it worked. in early 1960 the numbers were in single digits and it was almost 60 percent of african-americans the voting rights act work maybe a little too well for some so we start

seeing elections andnd african-americans and then there was that election in 2000. remember that election. i knew this was church. [laughter] talk about what happened to down in florida. hanging chads voting machines that can count but i want to take us to missouri so what was right now nearly 50000 voters were purged off the rolls at the same lewis board of election illegally purged

and were not notified. so when they came to vote they were not on the roles. and they cannot get downtown becauseus the lines are busy the board of elections in a scholarly term was a hot mess. hours are drizzling by. the polls are getting ready to close the board of elections is still packed with people who were illegally wiped off the roles and unable toe vote. so they kept him open three more hours to let the citizens vote. immediately thereafter republicans basically countersued in a higher court

and that court shut the polls down at 745. and what they try to do is keep them open a three additional hours this is an example of rampant voter fraud. how many of you have heard voter fraud? [laughter] massive rampant voter fraud. dogs on the roles of people using addresses from vacant lots voting over and over voter fraud. voter fraud. voter fraud. they carried that into the us congress. as congress is shaping the act

which is to deal with the reality of the trouble in florida like the machines that can count, that reality puts voter fraud on the same plane as in federal law thereby we must be able to deal with this by having voter id. so now let me pick up the story. indiana stepped in and the secretary of state said back in 2,012,002 election integrity was a huge issue people were losing confidence in the system there was a fear of the votes being stolen even

if that did not pan out to be true but the fear was still there.rc in other words, , based on that perception that was carefully crafted and cultivated and stoked by the g.o.p., they believe they had a mandate, even a calling to wrestle this voter impersonation fraud to the ground. to those republican legislators had a powerful barrier to the polls making sure we were balanced and honest in our approach to prove it wasn't politically motivated although every democrat voted against the bill and every republican supported it. that 2006 law required government issued photo id to

vote so to say what types were acceptable at the state expense the identification card for those who could not afford it and the offramp of the provisional ballot and provide the appropriate identification of authorities the aclu as well as the state's democratic party immediately challenged that there was no evidence indiana voter id law wasju justified that real motivationon was partisan so that seventh circuit heard a constant drumbeat from the 2000 election and that was worth

thee cost and with the us supreme court the aclu went right after the core issue and was no voter fraud there was no state interest at stake certainly nothing that could warrant this assault. it bears repeating they asserted that indiana had not identified one single instance of fraud at the polls in the history of indiana. and no one in the state has ever been charged with that crime. ever. moreover, when the bill was being drafted, no evidence of impersonation fraud was presented to the legislator one - - legislature at best

looking as a solution looking for a problem so they emphasized even at this hearing before the us supreme court no such evidence was presented in this litigation but there there was same tried and true anecdotes about the dead voting in st. louis et cetera but all of those were debunked.ou so what could possibly interdict - - place on the citizens right to vote? indiana of course, looked at free identification cards and provisional ballots to be sure there were protections againstst disenfranchisement. so those that lack the necessary identification the naacp said the studies and

analysis were inaccurate and full-blown misrepresentation that supposedly only 1 percent did not have an id was hardly negligible because that was 43000 citizens. but it was much worse than that. recent survey found approximately 16 percent of all voting eligible residents did not have an identification and 13 percent of current registered voters did not have a license or identification card. in fact, a subsequent study showed in indiana white citizens were 11.five percentage points more likely than black citizens to have the credentials to vote it was exacerbated by the requirements attempting to

obtain voter identification 60 percent of applicants were turned away because they failed to have the appropriate document mandated by the dmv. in other words,d the states buffer was a brilliant smokescreen to obtain the indiana driver's license coming with the cost borne solely by the word be voter. the naacp, aclu said the birth certificate was necessary to get a drivers license but in the obvious catch 22 in marion county with more than 200,000 of the population the health department required a drivers license to get a copy of a birth certificate.

with that state voter id law had consequences, real-life consequences. theem supreme court did not get that way the majorityti of justices saw before them of the never do wells to undermining did not lie - - democracy the court recognized the only kind of voter fraud that v was addressed voter impersonation of voting places. and again forced to admit that the record contained no evidence of any such fraud actually occurring in indiana at any time in its history. that easily should have been the end of it but it wasn't.

instead flagrant examples have been documented in other parts of the country to than pull out the story of boss tweed from the 1868 election. [laughter] followed by a swan dive into the swamp of the canine and dead voters not only do they swallow whole the myth of rampant voter fraud but equally important they could not fathom with any type of overwhelming burden especially offering to provide drivers license for free the court ruled that was compelling and no evidence there is any substantive burden on voters to block their access to the polls the voter id law was

constitutional under this reasoning. so on the one hand indiana did not have to have any proof whatsoever that voter fraud much less rampant voter fraud existed or h that anyone in the history of the states had ever been charged or convicted of crime instead each of those examples would not and could not be stopped by the voter id requirements especially absentee ballots that indiana exempted from the law but yet on the basis of nothing fables and urgent legends claiming democracy on the other hand,

the studies and statistics were notot enough the number one - - the stories were not enough. and the as hard as they tried no amount of evidence and no documentation that they could accept as persuasive with a limited number of bureau of motor vehicles in this case on a scarcity of public transportation and the difficulty and cost to obtain a birth certificate working to explain how this in oculus sounding law was a targeted hit especially for those who don't have the financial resources to amass the documentation to get the necessary id. the naacp and the aclu saw the strong correlation between waste and poverty in indiana

and they would strip those populations of the basic right toto vote as far as the court was concerned what they identified was danger was no more than smoke and mirrors while the mythical beast of voter fraud, that was real. [applause] but now in this section this comes out of voter roll purges and i am in georgia right now 53000. and brian camp is in this chapter but right now for this reading i will focus on chris kovach call his name.

[laughter] 's most devastating weaponas to date was the cross check which he nurtured and promoted as an important device to eliminate voter fraud from the american political landscape to root out those who are registered to vote in two different states as part of a national move to bring with those registration systems going from state to state and then to run that data but the interstate crosscheck more

than 45 million voter records date of birth last four digits of social security number and suffix if applicable to identify those who may be going from state to state to vote tainting election after election. [laughter] that is the narrative he told when he stumbled upon a 66 -year-old who own homes in both kansas and colorado. he felt he was well within his rights to vote in local elections in both states i vote for president and local issues in both places especially when he saw his property tax bill skyrocketing and that there was no taxation without representation. what was logical to him and not that big deal to the local

prosecutor was a red flag to call baku w pursued charges against the man with a vengeance. he simply needed to make an example of him. eighteen months and nearly $50000 in legal fees, s $6000 fine, $150 of court cost and a guilty plea to three misdemeanorto leaders co- box had his dirt. crisco bock came after me after an honest mistake. damnd right i am upset. i am a convicted man now that wilson was in many ways in such a fundamentally flawed database that the success rate is an epic fail for democracy. since the database launch seven.2 million voters have been flagged as suspect based on the individuall list the

states received back from co- bock they have wiped more than 1 million american citizens from the electoral map. in virginia, 342,000 names were immediately identified as suspect because they appeared to be registered in another state. those who were already on the inactive voters list were similarly removed leaving a stunning 41637 names were canceled from voter rolls most of them just before election day november 2014. texas purged 80000 even though the crosscheck match was weak only a court order and a lawsuit from a man marked is dead stop the process in ohio

it crossed off half a million north carolina secretary of state alerted the republican legislature at least 35750 voters were in the room and in georgia washington crosscheck seem to identify a total of more than 1 million unscrupulous voters in the 2016 election it was worse. especially given the slim popular vote margins that ultimately determined who won the electoral college. arizona purged almost 271,000 voters. michigan removed nearly 450,000 voters. and north carolina managed to eliminate close to 600,000 from the system. the staggering numbers fueled the narrative of massive rampant voter fraud the voter

role that the dead had ample opportunity to rise from the grave to throw the election. [laughter] but that of course, meant his pet program at least in the view from 30000 feet was successful but out close neither the list nor the database could withstand scrutiny. the problem was twofold. first, despite the hype of marketing the program does not actually look at every parameter. and not all states requirear the that crosscheck uses to purge the roles. social security numbers are rarely used ohio doesn't bother with a person's middle name. suffixes rarely make it in and as a result he believes that james brown is the same james

arthur brown as james clifford brown as james brown. the possibility for error is exponential and in georgia alone there are nearly 400 james brown's. and north carolina supposedly more than 35000 illegal voters simply evaporated when the state hired the ex- fbi agent to ferret them out to bring them to ge justice. he found exactly zero double voters from the cross checklist. research stanford harvard yale and the university off pennsylvania discovered that crosscheck has an error rate of more than 99 percent. that lack of accuracy led a shock of a database expert

whose clients include several fortune 500 companies to dismiss crosscheck it is too error-prone. god for bid he noted if your name is garcia. of which there are 868,000 in the us or if your name is joseph or josé because you are probably suspected of voting in 27 places. [laughter] crosscheck's overreliance on a handful of data points feeds into the second major problem it is infected with racial and ethnic bias. minorities in america attend to have common or shared last names. of your last name is washington there is an 89 percent chance you are african-american. hernandez. ince 94 percent hispanic. kim. 95 percent chance your asian.

similarly garcia, lee, jackson all signal a strong probability to be a minority in the united states because minorities are overrepresented in 85 of 100 of the most common last names. as a result, when crosscheck zeros in on name matches the whites are underrepresented by 8 percent on the purge list. while african-americans are overrepresentedaf by 45 percent. asian americans 31 percent. hispanics. 24 percent. with crosscheck over similarly last names it has blasted a hole through minority voting rights as reported, for roughly 14 percent of all black voters were purged from

databases under the guise of preventing double voting and fraud. the death of disenfranchisement led award-winning columnist to conclude co- bock is jim crow walking after serving racial casualties in ohio they knew it wasn't just kansas secretary of state but the entire g.o.p. apparatus that decided the only way to win an election was to stealal american citizens vote. a brand-new jim crow. today on election day they will not use white sheets to keep away black voters. today they are using spreadsheets. [applause]

. >> i know this sounds daunting this is not then an uplifting conversation so far. [laughter] so the last chapter i call the resistance. i zero in on that epic battle in alabama against roy moore and doug jones. this was some shared jedi. [laughter] i start off the chapter to lay out alabama the poverty and public health crisis in education crisis and alabama ranking in the bottom tier consistently and all of these quality-of-life indicators.

this is the toxic blue base that gave rise to judge roy moore the republican candidate for the u.s. senate in a 2017 special election.ec his bible thumping diatribe embodied the sense of god ordained racism that had already doomed the state to the bottom tier. his resume was a testament to homegrown canon masquerading as homespun symbolism despite his obvious shortcomings the idea senator roy moore was not so far-fetched that only had republican one every u.s. senate election in alabama over the past 25 years but since the advent of shelby county which was the supreme court's decisions that gutted the voting rights act they had amassed voter suppression techniques targeted at one constituency that could possibly give doug jones beyond a snowball's chance in

hell and a sliver of hope of g winning. each re- drawn about one - - boundary and barely equipped polling station each longline and each id requirement all negatively affected voter turnout. the first test was the 2014 midterm election as naacp president noted it was a shameful midyear plummeting to the lowest in decades and in counties with sizable minority populations alabama achievement no other state had, a full 5 percent decline in voter turnout the most i precipitous drop in the nation. secretary of state and other republican lawmakers did not see the problem.

the issue of access to the ballot box had nothing to do with alabama rejecting government passing id closing the dmv's and the black belt counties curtailing the hours at the court houses to put inconsistent information on the state website and wrong links or online registration for people without the basic fiber optics much less computer in rural areas. alabamiansthe could buy nonexistent public transportation to other counties or the mobile voter id unit only gave 2 percent the problem was the people. if you are too sorry or lazy to get up off of your we are to go register to vote or register electronically and then go vot vote, then you don't deserve that privilege.

as he twisted not only state constructed barriers into failings but also the 15th amendment into a privilege and not a right. as long as i'm secretary of state of alabama you have to show some initiative to become a registered voter in this state. alabama was in other words, going to continue to treat the right to vote as an obstacle course for african-americans creating more hurdles to jump over and balls to climb. frankly, it looked hopeless. roy moore was on the cusp of shaping the law for the united states of america in the 21st century with the vision clearly 19th century antebellum that wing and a prayer consensus that those disgusted whites combined with black voter turnout rate that

surpass that off even obama was the biggest in alleged serial pedophile to be elected as us senator one of his colleagues said southern baptist control the whole damn state they will vote for roy. it will be a landslide. but yet there has always been more than one kind of christianity in alabama. [laughter] as martin luther king called upon in 1963 from a birmingham jail so turn at the bethel church in 2017 it can never be forgotten the state that produced the judge roy moore's also created the civil rights warriors who took down and c defeated the others now had

roy in their crosshairs. [laughter] [applause] so now i'll take us to the night of the election i am skipping what the civilgh rights warriors did. really more nonetheless had a lock on the stronghold from the northern sectors of the state of the votes began to roll in his lead continued to grow. almost insurmountable as the votes continue to be counted the election showed black voters overwhelmed and outmatched with diffie at the hand of a much more powerful opponent but then the uppercut caught roy moore square on the

jaw send his folks snapping back under their way to deliver that 52nd and well delivered stunning below. so fittingly the first indication he was in serious trouble came from a legendary place. selma. lord selma exclaimed bernie's king daughter of martin luther king it is no coincidence she tweeted that selma with the struggle for voting rights of black people pushed doug jones ahead for good as the election results kept coming in the turnout surprised almost everyone. the south of the get out the vote campaign which made it seem so last-minute nonchalant pollsters and a significant barrier to the boardroom that alabama crafted brought about that a confidence that the

blacks would just not vote and indeed the voter overall turnout rate was paltry 25 percent that was predicted even though he cast his ballot would have one. but more than 40 percent of voters showed up with surges will be on 50 percent in counties favorable to jones. the people of the black belt counties that was everything alabama could throw at them were equally impressive. an average of 73.4 percent of the votes in those counties with turnouts averaging 45.4 percent five percentage points higher than the state average. the black belt simply came through and while selma had more reeling birmingham

delivered the knockout blow picking up 8213 more votes than more while republican turnover was significantly less. there were simply not - - not enough white evangelical votes left there would be no recovery there would be no we counted as a result there would be no senator in front of roy moore's name. as it became evident that he raised the specter of voter fraud and pointed to overwhelmingly black birmingham the same way they pointed to st. louis and tromped to philadelphia as the culprit.il moore insisted the black voter turnout rate was simply too high and the republican vote

was mysteriously too low. for him they could only mean one thing. voter fraud. the charge of course, was as hollow as the man and all of those before him who gave voice to that pernicious lie because in alabama, as in the uniteds states, african-americans no somebody paid big price to come and vote people had hoses turned on them people had dogs turned on them and unfortunately and in the 21st century, people had to overcome every barrier that alabama put in their way and they did. but let's be clear they shouldn't have had to. voting is neither an obstacle course nor a privilege. it's a right. thank you. [applause]

thank you. . >> so now let's take some questions for about 15 minutes and we will include some calls from book tv viewers. . >> first of all, thanks for coming out i hope everyone here has a plan to vote this november. please do. we need it. i'm from connecticut sorry joe lieberman. but my question comes about the whitewashing of the legacy with the idea to politely ask to say please let us vote and

the way people say sure here you go. [laughter] so one of those folks of color that we are not allowed to be angry or mad to keep voices low and calm to give up that privilege. >> we cannot kavanaugh quick. >>. >> this is why. one of the classes i teach i start off the class we get this sanitized watered-down version for the civilwn rights movement but to start off rosa sit down. martin stood d up. he had a dream.

and there was change and basically it has been reduced to that. but when you see what it takes to have movement so with that understanding it wasn't about martin luther king but there could not have been movement with just martin luther king for the montgomery bus boycott you have to have that political committee in july and one - - joanne robinson cranking out 30000 is is a just like a xerox machine i need 30000 copies, no. you have to have that mimeographed.

and then to set up that distribution system so what it took for the movement and the right to vote was a key element so we are going through the battle for the right to vote there are no black registered voters. zero. in other counties there may be one when they were trying to register folks to vote with bob moses coming down to mississippi he is driving around beaten on the courthouse steps trying to register black people to vote

when hunter lee is killed by a statea senator he is killed because he saw the state senator kill herbert the. people are dying like t five for the right to vote when we get to selma along ongoing battle the indigenous battle they were getting war out student nonviolent coordinating committee came out and sheriff jim clark is not moving and then we start getting the beatings that moment on the bridge, it took

decades of struggle. we don't know how many bodies there are it was not high. we need the right to vote. okay? it was not that like the southern dominated congress because they could be reelected over and over because they did not have to appeal to most of their constituency. so when i taught at the university of missouri teaching my survey class and i have 300 students in there, i would say how many seniors? there would be three or four. they would hold off on the required course until they had to have it to walk across the stage to say you didn't take american history? [laughter]

so those students raise their hands and say i only have to be responsive to your needs. what do you want do want to take exams and get in a? we can do that. the fishman say gay. [laughter] that's not fair. - - the freshman say yea. but they are the only ones doing my course evaluation. [laughter] so i become teacher of the year based on those for a loan. this is how you get to be the senior positions in congress because you don't have to have realn' elections. got power. over my dead body.

the moral arc ofof the universe teaching the civil rights movement class because the students are shellshocked and said imagine the mayor hates you. the city council cannot stand you. the school board does not want to see your children educated. the judges? the cops? the state representatives do not represent you. your congressman? the senator? yeah right. and your president? once you gone.

what are you going to do? and they say so the people in mississippi in 1950 they say yes. yes. [laughter] and that is one of the things that's what happens when you get this sanitized soundbite version you don't understand how many civilians or missteps were the depth of the violence that they faced or all of the obstacles they had to overcome or the strategies or the alliances they had to make with other people and you don't understand to be meticulous about sizing up different types of institutions so looking at a congress instead of saying they hate us say where in

congress are thoseon allies? instead of looking at a city council is there somebody on the city council? where are the weak spots? they figured out the weise spots because the south is trying to economically develop. you want to economic develop? [laughter] right. so that kind of strategy thinking through that sanitization of the civil rights movement of martin luther king brings them to defeat instead of power. . >> we are a a few months removed from where they were campaigning against scott walker in wisconsin the guy i

supported was considered to be insight to the political structure today that we have an awful lot of media attention to the horizontal divide of the left and the right. that is where most of the focus is. but the real disparity is not horizontal h but the vertical one between the average person or thehe poor. . . . .

we voted overwhelmingly for a black man for president of the united states but the majority did not vote for barack obama in fact the majority have not voted for a democratic candidate since 1964. when the federal government signed legislation by lyndon baines johnson, democrat saying that the federal government would enforce african-american citizenship rights notci since 1964. so you had a sizable number that voted for obama but it was obama's ground game, the mobilizing, organizing for

registering to vote, brought 15 million overwhelmingly black, hispanic, asian, young and poor making less than $15,000 a year replicants looked up and have a scooby doo moment. when you think about the voter id we talk abou talked about its of african-americans but we have to have an analysis switch just how when the naacp and aclu are talking about the indiana voter

id law and said race and poverty goes hand in hand in indiana and you are taking these voters out that is what these walls do so the polling places in the minority and poor neighborhoods, what that does for every every h of a mile because transportation is expensive for every tenth of a mile a black voter turnout rate goes down. .5%. so in this part of georgia and voter suppression is reasonable and sounds like it is defending democracy or that they are doing something you would expect

really responsible policymakers to do so we've got fiscal issues, we've got to balance the budget sot we are going to consolidate some of the polls so that we can be fiscally responsible. 17 miles away. it's not just a race issue, it's a class issue so it is woven without this book the way that the class plays into this. it is a democracy that is vibrant it recognizes all.

it wasn't afraid of the people who. extreme partisan gerrymandering. powerful software, mapping the districts to reduce competitive races. it's somewhere between 16 to 26 at the shuttle republicans in congress.

they chose the voters instead of the voters choosing to them and it means we have policies emanating out of dc but feel an anathema with the people want. they are applauding paul ryan and they are just really happypy about this. you see the polls that say 70% of the affordable care act strengthened. how do you reconcile the u.s. house of representatives is seeking to that access to healthcarere while 70% of americans want its strengths and. or how do you reconcile 80% of americans did not approve of the

text to a. of voter suppression is destructive to the american democracy and that's why we have to vote to get folks in power. it's not believing in power it's about believingg in democracy.

let's bring some questions up. the book was one-person novotel voter suppression is destroying democracy. a finalist for the national book award and her first book won the national book critics circle award and it was cold the unspoken truth of our racial divide. carol anderson we have a lot of cold wind up thank you for sticking around at the beginning of new york city. this is richard in new york city. >> caller: hello. thank you for taking my call him doctor anderson for your wonderful talk i want to address a couple of points were discussing which was specifically the issues between race and class and how that affects our democracy. in many cases, if the money that

keeps the incumbents hold parties in power and it's always been the end unto itself but in a democracy it should be the good of the people. and we haven't seen that. since tip o'neill for god sake. god's sake. citizens united made it much worse. she addresses how this has been put forth over the past 50 years or so and i was wondering if you could comment on the mechanisms and the illll localities and the lies that have been put forth to push this agenda. to push the agenda of money and

politics, the biggest lie is that corporations are people. [applause] and therefore have constitutional rights and that somehow limiting the corporate donations to politicians is violating the freedom of speech. the kind of legal gymnastics that got to make to do it and make it seem plausible is to get the dark money. i loved the book dark money h've got to get dark money out of politics. do tos a lot we have to get our democracy back on track. getting rid of dark money and voter suppression. techniques opening up the vote to the larger shares of our electorate and reducing the

barriers. all of that is absolutely essential to the kind of democracy that we deserve. we are a commercial democracy. you can watch booktv.org and both of the books have been covered. the african-american studies chair at emory university. a facebook comment for you. this is from lydia voter id should be required. we are a constitutional republic. >> one of the things that has been happening is the kind of domain like are we a democracy or a republic.

it drives us off of the peace that we need to be. we are a people that vote for the representatives, period. the fact that it gets scrunched over, divided, that is a problem for our democracy. second, the reason it came into being had to deal with the why of voter fraud. this is why i mentioned it and quote it throughout because it is so dominant in the nation's discourse where 50% of americans believe voter fraud is real. and it's not. what is real is for instance justin levitt who is a law professor did a study from 2000 to 2014 and he found about out

of 1 billion votes, there were 31 cases over the span of 15 years, so we ar we're looking at two a year. that is hardly massive rampant. when greg abbott who at the time was the secretary of state in texas and is now governor was targeting for texas as the voter id law, he was arguing before a judge remotes that we have the rampant voter fraud. and hee said to. when they can't produce the massive voter fraud when he's arguing that we have to have walls that he wants because of the massive voter fraud if he

cannot produce the evidence when you've got the voter suppressors it tells you the voter id is not needed. it is another obstacle barrier. >> the nexconnect the next callr professor anderson ivar on with booktv. >> first i would like to say thank you and i would like the audience to realize phil steele collegsteelecollege the reason e college is a great citizenship they have republican governors. as it is in brazil it is penalized and is a lack of insurance. number three, cast the professor simply and solely to give a

distinction between a right and a privilege to. everything is great. thank you. mandated voting, verses of privilege. choose one. >> thank you. i will go with birthright. there's a brilliant scholar whose retin-a book and she dissected each of the arguments and just wait it out. there is a move to have a new constitutional convention, and one of the elements is to

construct the electorate but so that means to turn the popular vote into having been appointed by the state of the switcher which means if you have a gerrymandered legislature that's why it is important. >> we have a question in the audience. >> thank you for coming out. i've been following the news about north dakota i ended the session there for the impact i was wondering if you could speak to different issues when it comes to voting. >> the north dakota case it epitomizes the difficulties in

order to get the voter id, you had to have an address. on the reservations they don't have addresses. they use po boxes and the supreme court who po box isn't enough and if you don't have an address okay. we have essentially moved people to a reserve and then started stripping away the rights thatt they have by making a sound logical and again i get back to voter id is a fraud. we don't have the massive rampant voter fraud.

we know that there is a racially and economically disparate access to vips for a variety of reasons you were able to call the electorate so when i saw that coming through, yes. >> yes ma'am thank you for your talk you have inspired me. fighting this fight since i was a young child i saw the horrors in mississippi and alabama as i was brought up in the states. i returned to rescue my elderly relatives that is what most females do. they still did not have gender a quality either. my point being we got them

elected and worked hard on the ground. we started early and we are working on the ground again. the thing i would like to say to all citizens that are listening is you can make a difference by getting involved in doing your work. i call tv stations, radio stations, i wrote a 13 page letter today that i'm going to sendle off to as many people i n send it to monday like "the new york times," the "washington post." citizens must be involved to save our democracy. i've witnessed it since i was a child into these things were burned in mye brain. >> guest: the engagement of

citizen, the people are this democracy and that is the component that we must continue to understand. it's what we've been seeing after the election and how they stand on this issue or that and saying this is what we want. people coming to the town hall holding the representatives accountable. that is that engagement is going to make the m difference. this is a pretty young audience but was anybody here involved in the civil rights movement at all

you have contributed wonderfully to booktv. to answer your question yes i was involved to the unitarian church in the civil rights movement and in factt our minister went down to selma alabama. i didn't go down there but he did a. the professor is doing an excellent job. someone like george soros needs a multibillionaire and is always looking to do good things. i think it would be wonderful if he would've asked -- adopt

safeguard democracy and make that something he would champion. in other words he could be so responsible for providing transportation and everything that is necessary so that the voter suppressionsa is denied. >> in alabama one of the key elements is that millions of dollars poured into alabama because of that grassroots organizing is not cheap. but what those folks sending in the money understood is s that u have to pay attention to the local folks that led to the local people figured out how to deploy those funds.

destroying the democracy, professor carol anderson is the author. thank you for spending time with us. [applause]

more booktv now stanford professor explains how to move past identity politics and remove to civil discourse in his book identity o the demand for dignity and the politics of resentment.