Finding Justice (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - Voter Suppression - full transcript

It's powerful
to be able to vote,

to say, "I matter. I count."

No matter how much they try
to take your voice,

we have to vote.

It is our duty.

This is not just our country.

It's our right.
It's our birthright.

Make your voice heard.

Voter suppression is a big word
that people bring up,

but it means
so many different things.

It's this multifaceted campaign
of maintaining power.



By making it harder to register,
passing voter ID laws,

and closing polling locations.

The Klan used to stand outside
of polling places and say,

"If you go in here and vote,
we're gonna bash your head in."

More than 50,000 voters
are in limbo.

Why am I going through
all these things?

We have created
a new version of Jim Crow.

We have singled out communities

to deny their access
to the right to vote.

107,000 people
were removed from voter rolls.

How long have you waited
in line here this morning?

About three and a half hours.

It's not necessarily Bubba
on the back of a pickup truck

with a shotgun trying
to intimidate black voters.



But the threat, the resistance

to the black vote
is still there.

It's a disheartening situation.

Voter suppression works, period.

We are standing
before the forces of power.

We're not even 100 years into
full freedom in this country.

Before thiswhite guy,

there's been 100 years
of white guys.

We are literally talking about
folks' access to the ballot.

We're talking about the
fundamental right of democracy.

Across the country,
they are deliberately

trying to disengage
black people.

A federal judge
ruled that the law was

"unexplainable on grounds
other than race."

And the group claims
thousands of voters

are being illegally removed from
the polls in North Carolina.

They're doing everything
in their power

to make sure I don't vote?

My vote must be important.

- Count these votes.
- They all need to be counted.

Say, "Enough is enough."

Enough is enough!

Growing allegations of
voter suppression are emerging

in the hard-fought race
for governor in Georgia.

The votes are being purged.

Razor-tight race
that's been consumed

by a fight over voting rights.

I want them to remember that
people died for that right.

Brian Kemp and Stacey Abrams

is basically a dead heat.

Stacey Abrams'
run really represents

the battle that people of color
and black folks have always had,

not just in Georgia,
but this entire country,

to have a seat at the table,
to have their voices heard.

I'm going to win this election

because I revere
the right to vote,

and I'm going to talk
to every single Georgian.

Because her
background is in voting rights,

she understands what it means
to suppress votes

and what it means to actually
allow the voices of the people

that you truly represent
to be heard.

This is your chance, Georgia,

to let your voice be heard
and change the world.

You get a vote!
And you get a vote!

Give it up for your next
governor, Stacey Abrams.

Both of my parents were involved

in the Civil Rights Movement
as teenagers.

My dad was actually arrested
when he was 15 or 16

trying to register people
to vote.

My parents raised me to believe
that the right to vote is sacred

because they fought so hard
to ensure the people had it.

Under Secretary Kemp,

more people have lost the right
to vote in the state of Georgia.

They've been purged,
they've been suppressed,

and they've been scared.

Mr. Kemp,
would you like to respond?

Yeah, well, that's just
factually not true.

Brian Kemp is
the Secretary of State.

One of the major
responsibilities

deals with ensuring
election integrity.

Do you believe you can
impartially oversee

the state's elections while
also running for governor?

I took an oath of office
to serve as Secretary of State,

and that's exactly what
I'm gonna continue to do.

Brian Kemp
is now in charge of an election

in which he is running
at the top of the ticket.

What could possibly go wrong?

The honorable thing
to do would be to resign

from the office
of Secretary of State

while running to be
the governor of the state.

Literally, children understand

that you can't be the player
and the umpire.

He's the ringleader
in Georgia of voter suppression,

holding registration...

More than 53,000
voter registration

sitting in a desk drawer.

...attempting
to suppress voters.

Brian Kemp
brought criminal charges

against 12 local black residents

who helped in the
get-out-the-vote effort.

Peel off a couple
of hundred votes here...

People may not even realize

they've been
kicked off the roll.

...force long lines there...

Reports of lines
stretched out the door

long after the polls closed.

Voter suppression
is alive and real in Georgia,

and the person in charge
of the election

happens to be my opponent.

Voter purged...

...wasn't allowed
to do his civic duty.

There's a whole host

of processes and systems at play

that are designed to suppress

the voices of minorities,
people of color.

The state's latest push --

work to eliminate
thousands of inactive voters.

In the last three years,
there have been 23 different

voter-suppression bills
out of 50 states,

very much targeting
black and Latino people.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld

a North Dakota State
voter-ID law.

Ohio's most populous counties

purged more than
200,000 inactive voters.

They manipulate
their voter rolls,

and they manipulate
the databases

so that people
don't even appear on the rolls

and they can't vote
when they show up.

They say this process
tends to disfavor

poor and minority voters.

I wasn't in the system no more.
I wasn't.

Most of the people that they
purged look like me and you.

Black people
could actively change

everything about this country.

But there are people
who don't want

people of color
to have that voice.

Because it ensures that equality
is not an achievable goal.

And what happens? It keeps
in power the same people

who have often been in power --
wealthy white folks.

We have a country
that really works hard

for the status quo
to stay in place.

It prevents people
from being able to see

any type of representation
that looks like them.

Let the people who have pure
intentions lead into the future.

Black Voters Matter
started in 2016

because we wanted to make sure
that we were helping

to strengthen
independent black power,

and voting is one tool
to exercise that power.

- Good morning. How you doing?
- Good.

Historically, black voters
have been disenfranchised.

We're going to fight
to make sure

that our people in our community

has free and fair access
to the ballot.

We got to have record numbers!

We need y'all to get everybody
in your family

to the polls to send a message
that we ain't going back!

We went down to
Jefferson County, Georgia,

and we had a roomful of seniors,
where we had a wonderful time.

We wound up having
this impromptu pep rally.

You can't keep on
messing with our vote,

and every time
you mess with our vote,

a little more madder we get!

And every time we get mad,

we got five more folks
we're coming with.

And 40 seniors wanted
to early-vote with us.

And so they got on the bus.

We're singing songs
and chanting.

Black Votes Matter!
Black Votes Matter!

Black Votes Matter!

Here is a moment
of epic black joy.

We're celebrating in the spirit

that we're going to
collectively go vote, right?

So, the bad news is that
they're gonna make us

get off the bus right now.

So, they're so mad and lowdown
that we getting jealous.

Somebody saw
all these black folks

getting on this big black bus,
got nervous,

got mad, called the
County Commissioner's Office.

The county administrator said

that the seniors
had to get off the bus.

County officials said the event

was a prohibited
political activity,

yet another apparent

voter-suppression effort
in Georgia.

These were adults
that came to a day center.

Some of them
actually drove themselves.

Once again, we find ourselves
being stopped.

Activists called it
an intimidation tactic.

Made them get off the bus
like they were being kidnapped.

Like, these are grown adults
that went to go vote.

That is a textbook example
of voter suppression itself.

What I've seen in
the 2018 midterm elections

around voter suppression
in Georgia,

I have not seen
in my adult life.

We have always been resilient.

We have always beat the odds.

So we organized five days later,

and we decided to come back
stronger and harder.

If there was one bus
that they stopped,

we were gonna come back
with 10 buses.

As we speak,
we've got buses and folks

that are going all over metro
Atlanta, 'cause we were serious.

Can't stop, won't stop.

Our goal is to move voters
to the polls, right?

Black voters! We ain't
turning around, are we?!

No!

- We ain't going back, are we?!
- No!

I've worked in the South
my entire adult life.

People are excited.

Come on, y'all!
Let's do this thing!

All right!

They voted,
and we've made change.

And when you're
on the side of right...

ultimately we're gonna win.

I'm Brian Kemp.
I'm so conservative...

...I blow up
government spending.

President Trump is in Georgia
for one reason alone --

to help close the deal
for Republican Brian Kemp.

The people of Georgia are
going to elect Brian Kemp!

We can build
a big, red, beautiful wall

around the state of Georgia
to knock that blue wave down!

When you think about the kind
of changing demographics

that are happening in Georgia --

32% of the population
is African-American.

We have a sizable and growing
Latino population.

And the Republican party,

their policies
no longer resonate

with that growing demographic.

And so I would say
that the Republicans

actually have two options.

One, they can reform
their policies...

or they can suppress
those very voters.

I got a big truck...
just in case I need to

round up criminal illegals
and take them home myself.

You could have a governor
who has chosen his electorate

as opposed to the electorate
choosing their governor.

Our ballot
is a blood-stained ballot...

...drenched in the blood
of martyrs

who paid the ultimate price

just to exercise the basic
American right to vote.

There's a long history of
black-voter disenfranchisement.

People died and got lynched
just to have the right to vote.

Out of the Civil War,
here you have the South saying,

"How do we stop black folk
from voting?"

without saying, "We don't
want black folk to vote."

Literacy tests, poll taxes,
grandfather clauses,

and straight-up
voter intimidation.

By the 1940s,
97% of black adults in the South

were not registered to vote.

Now is the time to make real
the promises of democracy.

About 1965,
black folks mobilized,

black folks organized.

Nonviolent protestors lined up

on the Edmund Pettus bridge
in Selma, Alabama.

All hell broke loose.

We see the horses trampling
over nonviolent protestors.

We see the tear gas.

Selma so stunned the nation.

That horror then led Congress

and President
Lyndon Baines Johnson

to finally move.

This purpose is not to divide,
but to end divisions.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965

was a huge victory
for the Civil Rights Movement.

It was a vehicle and a tool

to assure that
black people could vote.

And then the Supreme Court
in 2013

eviscerated
the Voting Rights Act.

By 5 to 4,
the U.S. Supreme Court today

took the teeth out of a law
enacted nearly 50 years ago.

I am deeplydisappointed

with the Court's decision
in this matter.

When the Voting Rights Act
was gutted,

it let the dogs loose.

17 states
have laws now in effect

requiring voter identification
in order to vote.

What it did was unleash the
ability of secretaries of state

to diminish access
to the right to vote.

Removed from the rolls
of eligible voters.

It allows them
to cull the electorate,

to carve out people
that they don't want voting.

We live in a nation
that has spent centuries

denying the right to vote

and spent decades creating
barriers to that right to vote,

and I have an opponent

who is a remarkable architect
of voter suppression.

Here in Georgia,
a battle is brewing

over who's been removed
from voter rolls.

The Secretary of State's office

removed those voters
from the rolls

because they hadn't voted
in recent elections.

I've been a registered voter
in this state since 1992.

And Secretary of State Kemp
and Fulton County,

they tried to come for my vote
and three of my children.

You can't take my vote.

This was the line that got me --

"You have not voted or updated
your voter registration

in at least three years."

I just voted.

I was a victim
of voter suppression.

I took a picture of this notice.

I put it on Twitter.
It went viral.

And the ACLU contacted me
and represented me.

We were able to save
159,000 voters

who were just like me.

Yes -- 159,000.

I still want answers.

I'm gonna haunt
that man's dreams.

I want to know why.
But I'm here to help fix it.

And the fight for the vote.
There's blood on this ground.

My family was one
that did the great migration.

They fled
the suppression madness

that was going on in the South,

and I saw this for myself.

I remember being told
to get off the train,

and we had to go
to the back of the train.

This was in my lifetime.

It's still going on.
It's still happening.

It's got to stop.

We know how to do this.

Vote like you mean it.
Every single one of you.

This is a call for all of us.

We are the defenders
to fight back

against people who are
supposed to do the right thing.

You know, regulators, mount up.

Vote like you mean it!

Georgia's voter-ID law

requires the voter's ID
to match exactly.

The Exact Match Law
requires a precise match,

even something as small
as a missing hyphen.

Brian Kemp has
aggressively used Exact Match.

If there's a minor typo,

then they can kick out
your registration,

and we know that
in the state of Georgia,

it is predominately likely

to capture people of color
and women.

Say, oh, if your name is Shonté,
but it has an accent on the "E,"

and it doesn't match up right,
they won't let you vote.

Brian Kemp as Secretary of State

has overseen the purges
of at least 2 million voters

from Georgia's voter rolls.

They want this massive
legal purge of voters

because it's Jim Crow
in the mail.

Uh, Mr. Kemp,
are you removing

black voters
from the voter rolls?

Mr. Kemp, are you
removing black voters

just to win this election?!

I've been hunting down Brian
Kemp and chasing him around.

Why are you purging voters
from the voter rolls?

I took the entire purge list
from Brian Kemp.

I gave the list to the top

address-verification experts
in the nation.

340,134 never moved.

These are people
that lost their vote

because Brian Kemp said,
"They're gone."

Mr. Kemp,
why are you purging

the voter rolls
of Georgia, sir?!

If it were random,
it would just be

crazy and unfair
and undemocratic.

It's worse; it's racial.

Good to see you.

I want to thank you
for being out here today.

And, by the way, the excuse
for this is to stop voter fraud.

Pres. - Any form of
illegal or fraudulent voting,

whether by noncitizens
or the deceased,

must be stopped.

Voter fraud is a feint.

It's designed to distract us
from what is really happening.

Voter fraud is not real.

They prosecuted
38 cases of voter fraud,

so 38 out of millions.

It doesn't happen
on a national scale.

It's not about stopping
voter fraud.

it's about stopping voters.

The Brennan Center,

Lawyers' Committee
for Civil Rights,

the ACLU don't find
incidents of voter fraud.

We have seen secretaries
of state across this country

use their power
to dismantle democracy.

When you look at the
demographics of this country,

there's really no other way
for the Brian Kemps to win

unless they cheat.

All eyes are on Georgia.

All eyes are on Georgia

the night before the election.

We've come tonight to say
that we're going to meet

rabid voter suppression
with massive voter mobilization.

We intend to turn up
and turn out!

The Ebenezer Baptist Church,

this is the home of
Martin Luther King, Jr.

This was a religious environment
that gave birth to him,

that gave him the words
that transformed America.

We must go to the ballot box

and vote in large numbers.

John Lewis
is in the house, y'all.

The Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson
is in the house, y'all.

There are forces
trying to take us back,

but we're not going back.

We've come too far!
We're going forward!

We've got to fight for
the character of our country

and for the soul
of our democracy.

During the '60s, I was beaten,

left bloody and unconscious
on that bridge,

but I didn't give up.

I'm still here,
still bearing witness!

We got to go to the polls

and vote like we never,
ever voted before!

Stacey Abrams.
See, she's special.

She's exciting.
She's charismatic.

Thank you.

I'm saddened by the fact
Dr. King cannot watch this.

What she's doing is
the fulfillment of his dream.

If we overwhelm the system
with our turnout,

if we demonstrate the capacity
of Georgia to show up,

then any shenanigans
that might be happening

will be discovered
and will be taken care of.

Last question.

When Malcolm said,
"By any means necessary,"

that means by any
and every means.

I'm gonna do everything it takes

for me to achieve freedom,
and that includes voting.

When racists get heated
and there's a lot on the line,

which there is right now,

everybody's using every trick
in the book they can.

Frederick Douglass said
that there are three boxes

that are important to us, right?

The cartridge box,
the jury box, the voter's box.

You know what I'm saying?

Killer Mike is a legend
in these Atlanta streets.

- Do the door-knocking now?
- Yeah, let's do it.

We're going,
we're knocking on the doors,

and we're dragging people
to the polls.

I'm Michael Render.
How you doing?

- Hey, Michael.
- Good to meet you.

- It's election day in Georgia.
- Yeah.

And we were wondering
if you voted already.

- Yes, I did.
- Fantastic!

We have spread a message
of love and power.

You don't have to be
a celebrity,

you don't have to be known,
but you matter.

Are you looking
forward to voting?

- Yes, sir, I will.
- Why?

You can change your future
and make sure

that you're getting what
you need for your community.

- I appreciate you.
- Thank you.

Let's go vote.

Let's go change your world.

I was able to vote early
this year.

Unfortunately, my son
did not vote early,

so I'm taking him to the polls.

You got your ID?
'Cause you know...

Hello. Good morning.

You usually never see a line
in here.

Where's the back of the line?

Significant delays
at polling locations

throughout metro Atlanta.

...delayed for hours
due to a lack of a power cord.

Here in the command center,

they've been fielding calls
about concerns at the polls,

any kind of
voting irregularities.

The phones are ringing
off the hook.

Are they being turned around
because of the address?

Is there a specific reason
why they're being turned around?

There are only
two functioning machines

at our location,
when the average is about 20,

and they're turning people away.

We are seeing people
being turned away at the polls.

Latricia
just mentioned that it was

an alarmingly high number
of people getting turned away.

We're hearing feedback
that Gwinnett County

had voter machines
that were completely down.

Not a surprise, right?

That, like, one location
that could go blue for Georgia,

we're seeing some issues there.

Gwinnett County, Georgia,

reporting that there are
four precincts

that have had...
technical difficulties.

I've actually been
in there for a total,

I think, three and a half hours.

This whole overall experience
was just frustrating.

A technical issue delayed

touchscreen balloting
for nearly three hours.

Here they had 10 machines.

Two of them were working.
There's a two-hour wait.

The machines were down
for an hour.

We don't have cords
to plug in the voting machines.

This is what we call
voter suppression.

This is what we go through
to vote.

Now, we no longer
have poll taxes

as they were in place
in the 1950s and '60s,

but instead,
if it takes you an hour

to get to your polling place

and you have to stand in line
for four hours,

most folks can't afford that,

which means you are paying a
poll tax for the right to vote.

I'm just encouraging everyone

to come out to the polls.

They can't keep you from voting.

So you stay in line.

It's too coincidental to think
that it is not planned

and orchestrated

to win this election
for Brian Kemp

by suppressing
African-American votes.

Just voted here
at Chastain Park.

It was very fast, and I was
in and out within minutes.

There was no line.
It went smoothly.

Everything was posted clearly.

I've heard a lot
about voter suppression.

I've never seen any problems
at any of these,

you know,
polling stations, so...

Stay on those lines and vote.
Fight back.

Stay in line.
Please stay in line.

Voters were given the options

of filling out paper ballots
or coming back later.

The Georgia Secretary
of State's office says

hundreds of Southwest Georgians
voted on a provisional ballot.

No. Absolutely not.
We're... staying.

We don't need your paper ballot.
We're gonna vote.

The provisional ballots
were created

specifically to allow
people to vote

who were wrongly removed
from the voter roll.

They get to fill out
this special ballot.

If you don't have an acceptable
form of photo identification,

you can vote
a provisional ballot.

They say, "Oh, your name
is not on the list.

Here's a provisional ballot,
and it might get counted

if the Secretary of State
decides to count it."

The provisional ballot
will count

if the problem is solved
within three days.

Most provisional ballots
aren't counted.

Though Kemp gets to decide,
think about this,

whether those votes get counted.

I am furious!

We went through the damn case
with count with the ACLU.

Now he can't even vote
in Hayneville

because it will be voter fraud!

His registration was changed
to reflect our new address.

This was done by the ACLU.

So why he's still showing
on the poll books in Hayneville

is the mystery
of the mother... day.

They are violating
the court order!

This is Georgia!

We're not in good shape if you
have a provisional ballot.

That's like a fart in the wind!

I don't want to do this.
I just want to live my life.

I want to play
with my grandchildren.

I want to make pottery.
You know, I want to cook.

But I'm out here fighting
for voting rights in 2018!

We live in a nation

that was fundamentally
based on oppression,

that was based
on white supremacy.

People of color
all over this country

have seen time and time again
the impact of our voice

to move culture,
to move economies,

and to truly change government.

That's scary to a lot of folks,

and so you're
gonna see oppression,

you're gonna see suppressions

that are meant to truly
disenfranchise people.

Throughout the United States,
we have voting issues.

In Tennessee, power outages.

300,000 people that could
potentially be disenfranchised.

Ballot shortages
in Arlington, Texas.

You'd be like,
"It doesn't make sense to vote

if they could just
suppress the vote."

But then on the other hand,
if it wasn't important,

why are they going through these
measures to make this happen?

Voter suppression happens
to black and brown people

in this country.

The law is seen
to have one purpose --

keep Native Americans
from voting.

In Arizona, the law affects

working-class voters
from minority communities.

The country is changing.

We have seen
the politics of race

emerge as a distinct strategy.

They can't feed the ballots
into the tabulators,

and they're blaming humidity.

People who do not want
to hear your voice,

they are pulling out
all the stops

to make it difficult
for people to vote.

Long lines, slow machines,
and delayed results.

Where I poll at
went from 16 to 4 machines,

you're like, you know, at this
point, we're being snookered.

Fulton County,

they have 700 voting machines
in a warehouse.

700 machines sat unused

after a pending lawsuit
questioned their accuracy.

Georgia is one of 14 states

that has unauditable machines,

and there have been some strange
things going on in Georgia

that can't be explained.

In four counties,
several voters say

they tried to vote for Democratic
candidate Stacey Abrams,

but the machines instead chose
Republican candidate Brian Kemp.

Long lines
at several polling places

well into this evening
because of equipment issues.

Select polls remained open

well past 7:00 p.m.
due to various issues.

There are some things
that definitely

don't sit well with me.

The amount of
voter-suppression tactics

that were deployed
in just Georgia --

we've got a lot of work to do
on a lot of fronts.

I still hold hope in us.

I'm pretty sure, Georgia,

we are fired up
and ready to fight.

So, they said the South
was gonna rise again.

It is. It's just gonna look
a little differently this time.

All eyes on Georgia
and this gubernatorial race.

We are likely
going to see this race

run late into the evening as
these election returns come in.

We built a campaign
that was designed

to turn out people
and to get their voices heard,

and what we realized
based on the reports

we're hearing from the
voter-protection hotlines,

people aren't being counted.

We weren't gonna stop
until we made certain

every vote got a chance
to be counted.

Democracy only works

when we fight for it!

When we demand it!

And apparently today
when we stand in lines for hours

to meet it at the ballot box,
that's when democracy works.

Her speech
ignited something in me.

Hearing the determination
and the commitment in her voice,

I was reminded about who she was

and why it was important
about what she was doing.

Votes remain to be counted.

There are voices that
are waiting to be heard.

I'm not gonna name names,

but some have worked hard
to take our voices away.

What a great night in Georgia.

Make no mistake --

the math is on our side
to win this election.

Less than 63,000 votes
separate the two candidates.

Earlier today, Kemp's campaign
declared he's the winner.

This election is over.
The votes have been counted.

Brian Kemp as
the Secretary of State

declared himself governor,

and the election
isn't certified.

The voters of Georgia
deserve answers.

They deserve their votes
to be counted.

We're moving forward
in filing litigation today.

Brian Kemp did resign as
Secretary of State this morning

and begin the transition
to the governor's office.

It was a tough election,
but we've won,

and now we've got to move on.

All the votes
have not been counted yet,

and so to go ahead and say,
"Oh, I'm the governor

but without all the votes
being counted,"

it seems a little odd.

Supporters of Georgia
gubernatorial candidate

Stacey Abrams rallying to make
sure every vote is counted.

Each clipboard
holds provisional ballots

from Georgia's 159 counties

collected by
Stacey Abrams' team.

The Secretary of State
has never once provided

the data to back up their
numbers on provisional ballots.

We were prepared for this
to be a difficult race.

What we were not prepared
for was for someone

to be the architect
of voter suppression

who also got to be
the referee of the election.

Brian Kemp claiming
victory in the election.

He suppressed, and he purged,
and he made it impossible

for so many people's votes
to actually be counted.

Count every vote!

Count every vote!
Count every vote!

Count every vote!
Count every vote!

Count every vote!

This election is a referendum

on voter suppression.

We're gonna do
everything in our power

to make sure that
every Georgian is heard.

So telling of where we're at
in this country,

and it is so telling of the work
that we must do beyond this!

We're in the cradle
of the Civil Rights Movement,

and so now we're telling people

that your vote
really doesn't matter.

We're gonna go ahead
and call this election

even though
it's a razor-thin margin.

You're occupying
these premises illegally

pursuant to Georgia code...

I want you as law-enforcement
officers to understand

that this is another form
of intimidation.

Let her go!
Let her go! Let her go!

There's too much corruption
in Georgia!

I stood peacefully
next to my constituents

because they wanted
their voices to be heard,

and now I'm being arrested.

State senator Nikema Williams.

She was one of 15 people
arrested inside the Gold Dome

during a protest demanding
that every vote be counted.

And today the results
of those 2018 midterms

here in Georgia were certified

by the Secretary of State's
office.

Let's put it like this, right?

They did the math already.

How many people they anticipate
is gonna register,

how many they need
to take off the polls

so he can win
by this little, small margin.

Numbers don't lie.

More than 200 years into
Georgia's democratic experience,

the state failed its voters.

Make no mistake --
the former Secretary of State

was deliberate and intentional
in his actions.

You shouldn't scheme your way
into power.

I have the responsibility
to fight to make certain

that democracy works,

because it did not work
on November 6th.

The math and the laws are wrong,

but I know that the values
of America are right,

and my job is to fight
for those rights.

This is not a speech
of concession,

because concession means to
acknowledge an action is right,

true, or proper,

and I will not concede

because the erosion
of our democracy is not right!

Look.
It's a tough business, politics.

But the fact of the matter
is the election is now over.

And I've got to focus on
governing this state,

and that's exactly
what I'm gonna do.

Voter suppression works, period.

This race has allowed us to see

that we have, in Georgia,
the ability for the person

holding the office
of Secretary of State

to unfairly affect elections.

We have had systematic
disenfranchisement of voters.

We have seen gross mismanagement
of our election.

Stacey Abrams
has drawn a spotlight

onto the very kind of
bureaucratic, mundane ways

that destroy American
citizens' right to vote.

Members of the 116th Congress

now officially sworn in.

This Congress
more diverse than ever before.

We're not fighting
for assurities.

That's not possible in America
as it is right now.

We're fighting for possibility.

We have the ability,
like Maynard Jackson said,

to have a seat at the table.

Black people in this country

are ready to take
leadership positions,

stepping out as candidates.

People of color and folks

who have been disenfranchised
for so long

are really acknowledging
the impact

and the power
that our voice has.

That's exactly
what this country needs.

Once we get
the candidates in office

and everybody's allowed to vote,

the policy will reflect
the makeup of the community.

This is a system

that was created
out of white supremacy.

The work of reforming it
will take generations,

and we have to be willing
to be part of that.

We can't just walk away.

Ooh!

For too long,

they have consistently
gone after black voters,

and now we are starting
to feel courage to step out.

It's time we stand up
and put a stop to it.

As we move towards 2020,

if there aren't people
and vanguards out there

in every state, every county,
every municipality

fighting for open
and honest elections,

we're gonna see
the same problems come up.

They ain't gonna stop us.
Can't stop, won't stop.

We're gonna keep working,
and we keep grinding.

Until the day I die,
I'm gonna do this work.

Your vote is a praise.
Your marching is a praise.

When you stand up,
that's praise!

Praise is what you do!

If you don't like the system,
get involved in the system.

The only way that changes
is when people of conscience,

people of faith,
people of moral courage

stand up and say,
"America is better than this."

The reason
I fight so hard every day

is because I know
what voting is.

It's a key.

It's a key that unlocks the door

to all of the things
we know we want.

And they want us to
keep that door closed,

but there's absolutely no change
if we let the door stay locked.

Only if people vote

will their voices be heard
and will their lives change.

It's about whether or not
enough of us fight back

that they can't win
rigging the game anymore.

So help me God.

We must come together

and stand for
and with one another.

We cannotaccept efforts
to undermine our right to vote.

- Say hi, everyone.
- Hey!

-We out here.

I'm running for President
because I believe in us.

I believe in these values.

I'm gonna put them
before the American people.

I am a candidate for President
of the United States of America.

I stand before you today
to announce my candidacy...

for President
of the United States.

From a very
young age, black children

come into the classroom
and are immediately targeted.

It's subtle programming people

to think of themselves
as prisoners in school.

I don't think we can talk.
I'm lost. I'm off.

These children
are being dehumanized.

Young people are hungry
for change right now.

Students, not suspects!

If you're gonna
stand up for anything,

this should be the thing
that you stand up for.

- When we fight...
- We win!