Report measures economic and scholastic wellbeing of Black males; Brennan Center for Justice monitoring potential election action by Trump Administration

From WAB in Atlanta, this is closer look for Wednesday, August 12th. I'm Rose Scott. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump was asked about deploying federal agents to polling locations. Would you send a National Guard or ICE? The voting locations in November. Would you do that? Well, you know what? I do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections. We have to have honest elections. Federal law prohibits this type of federal action, so why are some voting rights advocates concerned about the upcoming general election? Also this hour, a new landmark report from Virginia State University finds that black men and boys continue to encounter major obstacles when it comes to education, employment, earnings, and long-term economic mobility. We'll review the report's conclusions and hear strategies about addressing these disparities. That's just ahead, but first, this news.

Support for WAB comes from Northside Hospital Cancer Institute with the most cancer center locations and board certified oncologist in Georgia, treating every type of cancer. Northside Hospital Cancer Institute is built to beat cancer. Support for WAB comes from Alloy Fundraising, helping nonprofits secure the resources they need to strengthen communities and advance their missions. Alloy partners with nonprofit leaders to build fundraising programs that are diversified, sustainable, and positioned for success. Their team brings together grant, expertise, fundraising events, development strategy, and board and donor engagement under one roof. More than grant writers or event planners, Alloy serves as an extension of a non-profit profits team, creating practical solutions that support long-term growth. Alloy helps organizations fuel their missions, expand their impact, and build stronger communities. More at Alloyfundraising.com.

And closer look continues from WAB in Atlanta. I'm Rose Scott. Black men and boys are the focus of a new national report. It's called the economic state of black men and boys in the United States. And it's from the John Friedrich Merz-Lankston Institute for African-American political leadership in conjunction with the Virginia Alliance for Black Men and Boys. Now, this 22-page document offers a pretty comprehensive look about educational attainment, employment, and household wealth. for black men and boys in our nation. The arts of the report describes it as the first of its kind. So we're going to hear more about his findings, as well as suggested actionable priorities. Join me now. Talk more about the report is Dr. West Bellamy. He serves as the executive director of the John Friedrich Merz-Lin Institute for African-American political leadership and an associate professor of political science and public administration at Virginia State University. Dr. Bellamy, you welcome. Thank you for taking the time. Good morning. Thank you for having me. Let's begin here because we often there are a lot of reports that deal with the current state of this or the current state of that. And I'm curious before you all were able to even decide what you wanted to go into this report. Obviously, you must have felt something was missing in terms of data and information that we had related to black men and boys. Not only their quality of life, but in terms of opportunity in this nation. Was there something missing? Yeah, well, first and foremost, again, thank you so much for having me. And I think that when we think about the state, the economic state of black men and boys, with many of the portions in which we see come out, just based off experience and conversations in which we've been having with a multitude of different brothers, there seemed to be a sentiment amongst a wide variety of folks that brothers were actually being left out in some regard, not being provided with the same level of detail or attention with the statistical information that was being brought forth. We compared this. analysis with the economic state of black women and girls that came out in March. By no means, do we want to create a situation in which we're pitting the men against the sisters, the brothers against the sisters? But we did feel as if that brothers don't need to be folded into data when different reports are coming out and they're talking about black folk collectively. We wanted to do something that spoke about us intentionally and then also provided strategic measures for us to be able to create and develop solutions moving forward. So what? Do you all decide you had to look into? I mean, often we may say, well, what are the metrics that were used here? But for our listeners, in terms of what areas that you have to look at, and then we'll get into where you got your data from. Sure. So there were a few different areas in which we decided to keen in on, one being education, secondly being economic fatality as well as the opportunity for us to be able to advance. And then thirdly, mental health. And then lastly, which I don't want to say lastly, but another area in which we chose to look at was just the overall well-being of brothers, how they felt socially, how they felt emotionally. And then we coupled all of that with painting a picture in terms of what our game.

standing in economic power or progress is for that matter. Did you look at a certain time period? I'm curious, Dr. Bellanis? Yes, ma'am. So we actually looked at this in three different ways. One, we had about 10,000 conversations, engagements, and interactions with brothers starting from about a year or so ago. roughly in June, July of 2025. From that, we also looked at in cross-reference statistical data from the Department of Labor and Statistics, as well as several other publications. I can't name them all of the type of looking at from the years of quarter one of 2025 up through. the month in which it was published in July of 2026. And then lastly, from an educational perspective, we wanted to pull data from as far back as 2021 just to see what some certain trends were. So we've scoured several different educational publications, including NDES, looked up in reference and cross-tracked this with several different individual institutions who we found findings from. And that's how we essentially came to much of the data in which you all saw in the report. And so I want to back up for a moment because when you talk about the conversations that you had with the brothers or someone say with the brus, how did that take place? I'm a new. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Mr. Kappa. I don't want to start nothing. You know, some of them were included too. No, I'm just kidding. I'm glad you included the omegas. I'm glad they're happy to hear that. A 1911 love over here. You start that. Don't you start. Let's talk about these conversations. So how did you all conduct this? Were they surveys? I'm just... I want to be clear how you got this. A wide variety of different ways. Not as many quote unquote surveys, but more so conversations with brothers at litany of different conferences, 100 by men conference, Urban League conference, NAACP conference, barbershops across the country, parks. I run a community basketball league here in Charlottesville in which we kind of consider like the Rucker Park, if you will, of Virginia. So we've been to about. 10 different community basketball leagues across the country, just having informal conversations with different brothers, a wide variety of different ways in which we had touch points. And we utilize much of what we heard coupled with the data to be able to draw some of these conclusions. And we try to make it clear that, you know, while this doesn't represent every black man in America, the data does speak for itself. And there were some themes that we heard. consistently from brothers from different regions of the country that were, again, very much so consistent in terms of how brothers felt and where we saw the need for us to be able to move forward. Things like what? What did you hear? Honestly, just brothers, a consistent...

feeling of being left out, a consistent feeling of nobody really cares about how we feel, a consistent theme of, even when I'm trying my hardest, these systems are in place that prohibit us from being able to move forward. But we also heard themes of some brothers, of many brothers, I'll say. Also feeling as if while the cards may be stacked against us in some regard, we've been knocking down card decks our whole life. We're master spade players and we'll be able to get through this. Well, let's talk about those systems because I want listeners to get a better understanding of this because the report is very revealing. And as you know, when you talk about solutions, you have to first acknowledge the problem and maybe have that be very detailed. Systems like what, what did you hear from the brothers? So when you look at from an educational perspective, let's just go there for you bear with me for a couple of minutes to break down some of this information. One, and this isn't specific to black men, but 17%. of all of our African-American children, according to NDS, are reading at a proficiency level of only 17% in the fourth grade. So that means that there are a great deal of issues there when you look at moving, and obviously we'll get to some of the solutions from that aspect. We'll talk about the issues right now. When you move to post-secondary education, college, for example, black males only represent. 26% of the enrollment share at HBCUs. And for PWIs, they only represent 28% of the enrollment share. Individuals that we hear often people saying things like, well, we just need to be going to trade school. We'll get a trade, go learn and get a skill. But those systems also are working against us. There are multiple instances, and there's no concrete data that we felt comfortable putting in our study that showed that black men are going into trades and droves. And for a couple of different reasons. One, if a young man decides to go into a trade school, Many of us are under housed or homeless. So you have to be able to sustain yourself when you pick up that trade and you go to trade school. Well, there's also a cost that's associated with entering into trade school. While you're in trade school, you're not being paid, which means, again, you have to sustain yourself while you're there. After you obtain your trade or your certification, there hasn't been a clear pathway based off the data in which we saw that individuals are automatically getting a job, which means that in some instances it would take two, three, four, up to six months to receive a job. Once you get a job, you have to pay for your tools, which is also an added cost. Those tools are not cheap. Once you get your tools, you get your job, you're working on the job for many of the companies in which we analyze or the brothers in which we spoke to. They're working for companies that are not black-owned or minority-owned, which also says that individuals who are hiring them and promoting them for that matter still view them at a lens in which they are not advancing at the same rate of their counterparts.

Black men as a whole only makes 77 cent for every one dollar that black, excuse me, that white men make. So there's an economic lapse there as well. Some folks were saying, hey, we need to go into entrepreneurship. Well, we saw that these systems were creating barriers, excuse me, very strong barriers that were prohibiting brothers from having access not only to capital for their businesses, but also access to contracts, whether that be on a municipal level, state level, or even the federal level, because those contracts are often awarded by individuals who are currently a part of these systems. And by and large, not always, but by and large, the individuals awarding those contracts do not. not look like us. There's, again, like a multitude of different things, which we saw consistently really just wring his ugly head. I'll just say this one last data point. Our report and our findings showed that black men who came from, because we always hear, let me backtrack really quick, we often hear, and we've seen in the comments as the report has been making the rounds, people say things like, well, this is a byproduct of a lack of black men in the household. Families are broken for a wide of different reasons. And while that just factually isn't true, the fact of the matter also remains that support for WAB comes from Northside Hospital Cancer Institute with the most cancer center locations and board certified oncologist in Georgia treating every type of cancer. Northside Hospital Cancer Institute is built to beat cancer. Support for WAB comes from Alloy Fundraising, helping nonprofits secure the resources they need to strengthen communities and advance their missions. Alloy partners with nonprofit leaders to build fundraising programs that are diversified, sustainable, and positioned for success. Their team brings together grant, expertise, fundraising events, development strategy, and board and donor engagement under one roof. More than grant writers or event planners, Alloy serves as an extension of a non-profit profits team, creating practical solutions that support long-term growth. Alloy helps organizations fuel their missions, expand their impact, and build stronger communities. More at Alloyfundraising.com. Again, according to our research, black males who came from affluent backgrounds and two parent homes and things of that nature, still had similar economic outcomes as white males who came from low or impoverished. families. So again, it's not a matter of, like, you can come from a very wealthy family, and that does not guarantee you economic success or even a fruitful pathway moving forward. What we do have to do is, again, be intentional with our strategies, be intentional with the way in which we operate and address these different items. using measured data, and we believe that that's what's going to make us get to where we need to be. Sorry for the long answer. No, listen, I'd rather you be thorough than just give me one sentence answer with some folks do on this program, but I appreciate you being thorough. They ain't news. The people who do that in our news. That's why. If you're just joining us, I'm in conversation with Dr. West Bellamy. He's the executive director of the John Friedrich Merz-Lanxton Institute.

for African-American political leadership and associate professor of political science and public administration at Virginia State University. And we're talking about this 22-page report that offers really a close-up, a snapshot about educational attainment, areas like employment and household wealth for black men and boys in our country. Let's talk then about what we want to call actionable priorities and strategies. And look, it's not something that can happen overnight. But as you all are combing through this data and your researchers, And you say, listen, let's then talk about where to begin. Is this something that policy, in other words, we can policy our way out of in terms of increasing or decreasing those disparities, those gaps? Is it solely about policy? No, no, it's not solely about policy. I think there's a couple of different ways for us to look at how we can attack this issue. One, policy does play a role. So when we look at strategic measures, I was the vice mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia for four years. And one of the initiatives that I led while I was in office was creating a pipeline, excuse me, a pathways to pipeline program in which we look very much so at African-American males and people who fit a certain criteria. to allow them to get training that was paid for by the city of Charlottesville. We partnered with different organizations who would indeed guarantee them a job. And then we paid for half the salary for the persons who came through our training program for up to six months to ensure that those persons had paid. They were going to be paid. They had a job after they came through our program. And we put some skin in the game for the companies to ensure that they could trust our product. Those. That kind of initiative is something that we would love to see duplicate it across the country. From another policy measure, we will love to see every state, all 50 states, create a commission on black men and boys. No matter where you look, black men and boys are under attack. We don't care if you're on a red state or you're a blue state. We need you to have strategic measures to be able to figure out what exactly it needs to do for where you are. Then that's the policy side. On the other aspect of it from a community aspect, we see a lot of people talking about what needs to be happened. And we challenge everyone to get inside our schools and mentor. When again, you're looking at 17% of all of our fourth graders reading at a proficiency level, whether you're a man, woman, or however you identify. that shows that we have a problem. We need individuals in our school, helping our young people learn to read. We need reading interventionists desperately. We need individuals who are willing to be math coaches. And then when you look at after school programs, programs like organizations like the one I belong to, the 100 Black Men of America, we need, again, brothers specifically getting off 2K. Getting off the getting off of TikTok, getting off Instagram. Now, now, not, now. Now, you know, Dr. Bellamy, somebody listening saying, well, listen. Don't, don't lump everybody into the, you know, because look, my nephews play 2K. Yeah. But, you know, because sometimes there's stereotypes associated with that, you know, but I'm going to let you take it from there.

Yeah, I think the facts are the facts. And I'm talking to every brother who's listening to this. You can play 2K all you want, but you got to get your 2K behind out in the street and get in the field and mentor our young men. We don't have time to waste. We don't have time to play around. We don't have time to just pretend as if everything's okay. We don't have time to pretend as if somebody else is going to do this for us because the fact of the matter remains, nobody's coming to save us. We can have all the fun and watch the NFL and college football and all that good stuff that's about to come about. We could talk about the Lakers and LeBron and the Sixers and everything else. the matter remains is that our young people need us desperately. So if you have the duality to do both, then more power to you. But I need all of us to prioritize helping our young people, not tomorrow but today. Sounds like a call for community. You know, often we talk about the village, right? Because I'm curious also in terms of other entities, whether it's the faith community, whether it's organizations. Like I mentioned the... National Association of Black Journalists. We have a convention this week here in Atlanta. It's going to take a holistic approach from varied groups. Everybody. Everybody. We need everybody. I want to talk about the boys for a moment because I'm curious in terms of age range and how you were able to, and I can understand talking to, you know, the brothers, you know, of a certain age, they're able to articulate and clearly define those issues that are impacting them. But as it relates to boys, what was that age group you are looking at? And how did you get that information? Yeah, we were very careful not to interview a young persons under the age of 18. We took more so of a holistic approach and just analyzing data. We didn't want to get into a situation in which we get in trouble with IRB or the Internal Revenue Review Board or anyone else for that matter. So, again, we were very careful to not subjectate. young adults or individuals who are considered to be children or subject them rather to this kind of data. But again, or interviews rather, but again, the data was very clear. There's a multitude of reports that were out there, which is what we scoured. And then from conversations, again, that we had informally or touchpoints that we had with different young folk, older folk, while we were at different functions, again, parks, basketball leagues, barbershops, conferences, and so forth. From young to old, really, the themes were very much so the same. Like, I don't believe that I, like, I hate to say it like this, but just a lot of guys, young and old, consistently felt as if that. The brothers then receive the same level of love, grace, and attention that we often give to other demographics. And when you look at the unemployment numbers, like in the day that we break it down.

6.6% of all black males were unemployed in the month of June, 2026. And that was actually down from 7.3% in April of 2026. Black men lost 650,000 jobs from quarter 1 to quarter 1. But he still was the highest among all the other racial and ethnic groups, correct? That's the point I was into. We've lost 650,000 jobs from quarter 1 of 25 to 20, quarter 1 of 26. The highest of any of the major, the four major race groups, according to BLS. We are in an economic state of despair. We're in an educational state of despair, and we have to get to work. This is a big election year, as you know, and as with all candidates, they always make promises for specific groups. What is your message to the brothers, black men in terms of when it comes to candidates and asking what the right questions that directly impact them to make their informed, an informed choice? Because you've heard it. You know, there are certain voting blocks that people want to, they need to garner this certain percentage. Here in Georgia, we have a huge gubernatorial election. So what is your message to the brothers about what questions they need to be asking to candidates as it relates to their quality of life? I think there's two questions. One, what is your plan to get black men? to work. What is your plan for the economic advancement for black men specifically? And then lastly, what is your plan for the educational advancement of black men? I think those are the three things that we have to be asking. Not who gives us the speech about what makes us feel the best, but again, what is your specific plan for brothers during your term or your tenure in office? You all are, you want to make this an annual? report. And I understand that where black men are going after high school is the founding research question for your next edition. Why did you pick that? Well, because we don't have any concrete or conclusive data about where they aren't going. There's a lot of innuendo. And again, we stated the reports, excuse me, the data points earlier in regards to only 26% of brothers being represented at HBCUs, only 28% being represented at PWIs. I wasn't confident in terms of putting in the report that we could say significantly or substantively rather that many of us were going into trade school or just staying home. So we wanted to take some time to, in our next. report will be looking and analyzing at again, where are we actually going? We may have something that comes out before then. I can't necessarily announce it yet. But next year, that will be the focus of our report and are looking to have those findings in addition to a follow-up of what we released this summer. I have a question from a listener who wants to ask two questions. One, did you also specifically reach out to? Black men who are of the LGBTQ plus community? And also, is there a health and wellness or mental health aspect to this report as well?

Yes, so we did not, quote unquote, spare anyone for that matter in terms of our conversations. A black man is a black man in my eyes, no matter how you identify or what your sexual preference is. That's none of my business. You're a brother. I love you and we wanted to hear from you. The mental health aspect of this report was very sombering, much of which we didn't put in the briefing. There is an extended version of the report that we haven't necessarily published. Black men are facing or, excuse me, experiencing suicide and attempts at suicide at very, very alarming rates. And again, there were some things that I just chose. to not put into the briefing that we sent out. We may release some of those findings later, but I felt that right now it wasn't the best idea to put everything in the short briefing for a few different reasons. And I have another listener that says, Rose, I'm also concerned about our men, our black men and boys who reenter after leaving the correctional facilities. Does the report address that? So we had some data in regards to rehabilitation and the individuals coming back into society, where they were going in terms of earning, excuse me, their earning potential, what they were doing in terms of advancing their education, what supports were in place. That's going to be a part of our, the second portion of the, excuse me, what we'll be doing next year. I'm sorry. And preliminary findings were bleak. But there are instances in which we've seen that some municipalities doing it right. We didn't have enough conclusive data to what I believe to accurately put it in the report. And here's the other thing when we're doing studies like this one. We want to try to be one as accurate as possible. Secondly, our goal is that this report will be picked up and individuals will read it. So we want to make sure that we're painting a picture in which we're telling the facts and telling the truth, but also not painting an inaccurate picture with one in. from inconclusive evidence. So we look forward to including much of that information in our next report, and we hope you all will be reading. And finally, Dr. Bellamy, who should read this report? everyone. We were in Mississippi last week speaking to the congressional black caucus at their institute. And I asked a question and post a question, if you were black, if anyone who was in the room and you were black, for I asked for them to raise their hand and ask them that they value themselves. And everybody raised their hand. And I asked them if they valued their blackness and everybody raised their hand. For the white people in the room, I asked them the same questions. And then I followed it with, if you value your blackness and you value yourself, and show us that you value black men by not only reading this report, but getting to work and doing something about it. Dr. West Bellamy, the executive director of the John Friedrich Merz-Lankston Institute for African-American Political Leadership, and he's also an associate professor of political science and public administration at Virginia State University. The report is called The Economic State of Black Men and Boys in the United States. We'll have a link to the report on our website. Dr. Bellamy, thank you so much for taking the time and really digging into this report. We appreciate it. Thank you for having me.

Closer look continues from WAB in Atlanta. As always, I'm Rose Scott. Back in May, President Donald Trump briefly answered questions from reporters as he departed the White House. One reporter asked if he's considering the deployment of ICE agents and the National Guard to election polls in November. Would you send a National Guard or ICE? The voting locations in November. Would you do that? Well, you know what? I do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections. We have to have honest elections. So you're not ruling that out? Now, some of Trump's allies have shared similar comments, though the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has repeatedly denied any plans for ICE agents to be at polling locations. But new analysis from the Brennan Center for Justice says there are safeguards in place to prevent this, including existing federal law that prohibits the government from sending armed federal agents to polls. Join me now is Wendy Phil Weiser. She's the Vice President for Democracy at the Brennan Center for Justice. Welcome to a closer look. Thank you for having me. Wendy, the president says we have to have honest elections. Do we not have honest elections?

American elections are actually quite secure and honest, and there are really multiple safeguards in place to ensure that they are. This scrutiny and criticism of our election has been quite relentless, but it has spawned multiple investigations, lawsuits, and studies, audits, and they've all come up with the same. result. Our elections are safe and secure. Only American citizens are voting by and large, and there are multiple safeguards in place to ensure they stay that way. We'll talk about that in a minute because I want listeners to understand, and I couldn't find this information, but are you aware of any other previous presidents have considered this idea? No, what we're facing right now is unprecedented. A president of the United States not only relentlessly trying to mistrust in our election system and criticize it, but actually actively taking steps to try to interfere in it or to claim that he has authority over elections. And I just want to be very clear. The president has no legal authority over elections. And everything that is being threatened, everything that is being insinuated or suggested is actually not lawful. States run elections, local governments run elections. Congress has a role, but the president has no role under our constitution and laws in the election administration in the United States. And we should note that, and you correct me if I'm wrong, because. Every state has some type of chief election official. And then you're right about as it, you trickle down to local municipalities, particularly counties here in Georgia, we have 159 counties. They have the authority over the elections, not the federal government. That's right. Elections are run at the state and local level through a really elaborate infrastructure like the one you decided. And states set the rules, like actually the Constitution says states can pass laws regulating elections. Congress can pass national laws overriding those and setting national standards, which Congress has done in some areas. But other than that, the states and Congress set the rules, the states and localities run elections with this broad infrastructure, and the president has no role in that. And we should note that the Supreme Court, and you correct me, if I'm wrong, listen, again. Not the, regulating this is up to the states. They can exercise their authority. This is left up to the states. Just want everyone to understand that. Because as you and I both know, information and misinformation gets circulated. And then that's while we're having this conversation as well. Yeah. That's really important for people to remember. It is the states and our localities that run elections. And to the extent.

All of this talk and all of these claims, the president is threatening to take over voting, elections, to interfere in various ways. It is just talk. And some of it is designed to confuse people as to who has that authority and who does that. And it is the states and localities, as you say. Wendy, I want to talk about this for a moment because, as you know, and this is very clear, we know that this administration has, for lack of better words, tried to. go around certain legal laws. And for someone says, well, should we take this possibility seriously from the president? We have this law in place. But are you all concerned that this administration might try to work around this? Well, the administration already for the last year and a half has been taking many steps to try to interfere in elections and work around the laws. And so, yes, we should be vigilant. We should be concerned. But we should not despair because actually the law is quite strong and the administration has actually been rebuffed at every turn in its attempts to interfere in elections. And I want to actually... just emphasized how strong that law has held so far. For example, the administration has tried to get private voter information, voter rolls from all 50 states. They sued more than half the states to try to get that information. Right now, we have 22 courts so far have ruled on their attempt to try to get that private voter information. 22 courts have ruled against the administration saying, you have no authority, you have no right to this information. The president is purported to issue two executive orders regulating elections and trying to require special documentation to register to vote or to try to interfere in mail voting. Courts have blocked those and said that is not lawful. The president has no authority over election. So those are just some of the examples, the courts have been consistently holding strong in upholding the law, as have election officials and community members as well. And I'm curious, Wendy, and I don't know if you had an opportunity to watch then, his confirmation hearing for Attorney General Todd Blanche, who didn't necessarily rule out. He wouldn't. goes too far as say I absolutely would not rule this out, but his answer about ICE agents at polls. I don't know if you got a chance to see it. He said he would file the law, but he just really stopped short of pledging not to actually do it. And this is the Attorney General. What do you make of that? You know, the way in which we've seen a debasement of the Department of Justice is really one of the great tragedies of this administration. And actually, it has...

undermined their credibility, not just with the public, but with the judiciary across the board. Many courts have said that the Department of Justice no longer is entitled to a presumption that it's telling the truth and that it's following the law because of these sort of repeated ignoring the rule of law and precedent. That said, again, that doesn't, the Department of Justice isn't the final arbiter. There are many other safeguards in place. And so I don't mean to say that people shouldn't be concerned. People should really be, you know, people should be worried. But there are safeguards and we need to be, we need to activate them and support them. And for folks that are concerned, because actually I know that you all had a study from the 2016 general election. And listen now, we're talking about. more than 23.5 million ballots that were cast, right? There were, you all found maybe 30 incidents of suspected but not confirmed cases of a non-citizen voting out of 23.5 million ballots. And I'm not a mathematician, but I know that is way, way, way, way less than 1% of the vote. Yeah, and I will say that that has been now consistently supported by many other studies since then. And actually, by the administration's own efforts this year, I mean, they have been pressing many allied officials to engage in deep autopsies and studies of their voter rolls. And again, it is a tiny fraction of. suspected non-citizens that are either found on the voter rolls or that end up having improperly voted, and then the laws enforced against them. And so this is obviously unlawful, and it is very rare, and we have safeguards against it, and then if they fail, then the law is enforced against the perpetrators. I have listener who says that they are concerned that if this could be escalated to the Supreme Court. Given the makeup of the court rose, it wouldn't surprise me if this somehow was changed. But I want listeners to understand that this isn't something that can be just arbitrarily changed. You're talking about something that's in the Constitution. Yeah. And, you know, we've certainly been very critical of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has issued some very radical rulings. I mean, most notably recently gutting the Voting Rights Act in devastating ways. But the court has been, has shown itself very resistant to any effort to sanction. interfering in elections. And I want, you know, this is very strong, as you said, the constitutional structure and provisions are very strong and make it very clear that the president has no role. The court has not only rebuffed efforts to sanction.

efforts to interfere in the 2020 election. But more recently, there was an effort to try to change the rules nationwide as to how it is that mail ballots are, like to have some kind of creative reinterpretation of what federal law that's been around for over a century to change when mail ballots can be received. The court rebuffed that. That was just a couple of months ago. And the court has. on multiple occasions, four separate occasions, pushed back on the administration's efforts to abuse emergency powers or to claim extraordinary powers that give to do things different. And so I think that so far the court has shown that this is not something that it is inclined to do. And the lower courts have been incredibly strong, uniformly pushing back. on the administration's efforts to interfere in elections. And it's not just those cases I mentioned. I mean, there are many, many incidents right now where the administration has tried things, have overstep lines and courts have really been a bulwark. The court has not. yet stepped in and done anything to upset that. So I'm, you know, this is, and the rule of law is not only upheld by the courts, it's upheld by all of us. And so we need to also stand firm. And that leads to my next question, because for listeners who, and I've got some emails here, for listeners who are concerned, and listen, we're going to be very clear because sometimes it's not easy to identify a federal agent. However, if you suspect that there is some unlawful monitoring or appearance or disruption at your polling place, who should they contact? Who do you suggest they contact? Well, first, there are nonpartisan election protection volunteers and services. I would call 866R vote. That is the election protection hotline that will be able to get that report to the appropriate authorities and be able to manage it. report it to your local election authorities. Election authorities have actually been planning for, not for these threats, but for all manner of threats. This is, in fact, What election officials do, they plan backup plans and resiliency measures for any kind of threat or disruption of elections so that elections can continue unabated. And so voters' voices can be heard. They can and will help address it. And, you know, to the extent that you are able.

document, be a witness to what is happening so that if any action needs to be taken afterwards, you know, there is a clear understanding of what happened and clear witnesses to what happened. But again, I think that this is going to be a very rare occurrence. You should feel comfortable that a lot of plans are being put in place and protections are being put in place. And the thing that voters should most pay attention to doing is to make a plan to vote. Consider all of your options right now. There are lots of ways in which you can vote before election day. Voting early, voting by mail. These are options available in most states in different forms. Look up, make a plan to vote as early as you can in the way that you feel most comfortable. verify your voter registration, make sure it's up to date. You know, there's still time to do all of that. Because this is intended to intimidate, so don't be intimidated. And we should note that the President Save Act, and I know that you've read some of this, is any of that legislation even necessary through your lens, Wendy? Yeah, no, this is a bill that the president has been pushing all year. It would require people to show a... passport or birth certificate to register to vote. There's been so much attention given to his push to do this that some members of the public mistakenly believe it's. actually been passed. It has not been passed and people should know you do not need any other documentation other than what's already required, other than the ID required by Georgia law to register to vote or to vote. This is not the law. If you have changed your name and you're married or anything else, like none of this is required to register to vote. That is what the president has been pushing. It has been unpopular. It has not passed the Congress. It has repeatedly failed. It does not have the votes. And so I just want to. And it is unpopular because it would be actually devastating if it passed. It would block millions of eligible Americans from participating. We actually were able to identify 21 million. eligible Americans that don't have a passport or birth certificate readily available. When you think about married women or people who've changed their names where they might not match, the numbers are infinitely larger. Half of Americans don't have passport. So this would... Not make sense. This would be very bad policy. But it is not the law. You do not need this to register to vote. And so don't stand back if you don't have those documents. And when in doubt, check with your Secretary of State's office for most of us, obviously. Check with your election officials in where you live. And that should clear it up.

That should. And it's all available online and they'll take your calls as well. That's where you get your accurate information about registration and voting. Do not be intimidated. Make a plan to vote. check all that information and stand up. If you see something, say something. All right. Wendy Phil Weiser is Vice President for Democracy at the Brennan Center for Justice. We'll have a link to your voter resource guide on our website, wab.org slash closer look, Wendy. Thank you for taking the time to give such credible information to our listeners. I really appreciate it. And thank you so much for having me and for taking this on. And that's it for this edition of Closer Look. Our producers are Daniel Rezell and Lashon Hudson. Our supervising producer is Tiffany Griffith. Our engineer for the day was Ariel Sims. Let us know your thoughts on today's program or any other. You can always send me an email, as you all love to do. Community at wabee.org. That's community at wabee.org. Make sure you catch our rebroadcast tonight at 8. We have a podcast, so subscribe to Closer Look wherever you like. This is WAB 90.1 FM and HD1 Atlanta. I'm Rose Scott.

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