On Wednesday, MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle hyped a PBS Frontline documentary that purports to have highlighted a massive voter suppression scheme in Wisconsin. PBS turned to leftist professor-turned-New Yorker scribe Jelani Cobb to host its documentary to explain how Wisconsin's actions are disenfranchising minority voters.
Cobb, who once previously declared that it is undeniable that President Trump is a racist, joined Ruhle to talk about his new work for PBS.
Ruhle began by hyping the doc as an real election fear in contrast to Trump's made up fears, "President Trump has been very outspoken about his “fears” of voter fraud. (Puts scare-quote fingers in there.) His fears that have no fact behind them. But the bigger issue in November will be voter suppression. This year more than 1 million ballots are set to be rejected by election officials, and that is the best case scenario in a pandemic. It is all part of the new PBS Frontline documentary Whose Vote Counts, it looks at the history of voter suppression and how it’s impacting key states."
Explaining why he picked Wisconsin, Cobb declared, "We started in this project before the pandemic hit and we were really looking for a state to talk about the issues of voter suppression that didn't fit into the old narrative of the states of former Confederacy. We wanted to point out that this has become a national problem."
According to Cobb, former Republican Gov. Scott Walker is the villain. "Wisconsin was really a kind of grab bag of all of these different dynamics in terms of gerrymandering and voter roll purges and strict voter I.D. laws, all of which were enacted under the tenure of Scott Walker as the governor."
Cobb then alleged the pandemic gave voter suppressors cover to enact their schemes, "And it became clear very quickly that there were two narratives here. There was the voter suppression that had already been in place and then the ways in which people would politicize and manipulate the pandemic to further that cause."
Ruhle then asked Cobb to better clarify, "But I don't understand, you report that a million people could lose their vote during the election because of the pandemic. Why? I don't get the connection."
According to Cobb, "There is, however, evidence in the Columbia Journalism Investigations team really dug deep into this, there is evidence there’s a disparity in the likelihood of your absentee ballot being rejected and that disparity runs along the lines of zip codes in districts that have significant numbers of black and Latino voters there."
After Cobb railed against signature requirements, Ruhle concluded by imploring viewers to overcome Wisconsin's efforts, "And here’s what you can extrapolate for that: if you know voter suppression efforts are underway, and they are, you can do everything you can to get out there and vote. Jelani, thank you so much. I encourage people to check out this new PBS Frontline documentary."
This segment was sponsored by Verizon.
Here is a transcript of the October 21 show:
MSNBC
MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle
9:47 AM ET
MSNBC
MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle
9:47 AM ET
STEPHANIE RUHLE: President Trump has been very outspoken about his “fears” of voter fraud, his fears that have no fact behind them. But the bigger issue in November will be voter suppression. This year more than 1 million ballots are set to be rejected by election officials, and that is the best case scenario in a pandemic. It is all part of the new PBS Frontline documentary Whose Vote Counts, it looks at the history of voter suppression and how it’s impacting key states. I want to bring in the man behind this film PBS Frontline correspondent Jelani Cobb. Jelani, Wisconsin wasn't the only state that had long voting lines this year. Why did you frame the documentary around Wisconsin?
JELANI COBB: We started in this project before the pandemic hit and we were really looking for a state to talk about the issues of voter suppression that didn't fit into the old narrative of the states of former Confederacy. We wanted to point out that this has become a national problem and Wisconsin was really a kind of grab bag of all of these different dynamics in terms of gerrymandering and voter roll purges and strict voter I.D. Laws, all of which were enacted under the tenure of Scott Walker as the governor. And so we started working on this and then about two months in the pandemic hit. And it became clear very quickly that there were two narratives here. There was the voter suppression that had already been in place and then the ways in which people would politicize and manipulate the pandemic to further that cause. And so those things together made it really important to tell the story about Wisconsin.
RUHLE: But I don't understand, you report that a million people could lose their vote during the election because of the pandemic. Why? I don't get the connection.
COBB: So, what happens here is there's been a push for absentee balloting. And one of the things I think that's been true over the course of this administration is that when Donald Trump accuses some else of something that's a good window into what he's actually doing himself. And so there's no evidence that absentee ballots are systematically fraudulent, or that they're particularly vulnerable to misuse or cheating or any of those things. There is, however, evidence in the Columbia journalism investigations team really dug deep into this, there is evidence there’s a disparity in the likelihood of your absentee ballot being rejected and that disparity runs along the lines of zip codes in districts that have significant numbers of black and Latino voters there.RUHLE: Why?
COBB: And so if you extrapolate out just from -- well, there are signature matches that people use there to disqualify people voting. There are very -- and particularly in Wisconsin there are very complicated I.D. laws around what has to be done, your I.D. has to be uploaded into a database before you can file the voting -- the absentee ballot. All of these kinds of complicated things that have disproportionately been difficult for these communities. And the other thing that, just generally speaking, any time you have absentee balloting, you have a number of ballots that will be rejected because the person didn't sign the envelope or didn't adhere to whatever the state guidelines are in that particular election. So we extrapolated from the from the numbers that we saw just in that primary, the numbers we've seen in other elections, we would get about a million people whose votes would be rejected this year, and that obviously is enough that could tip the balance in a really close state.
RUHLE: And here’s what you can extrapolate for that: if you know voter suppression efforts are underway, and they are, you can do everything you can to get out there and vote. Jelani, thank you so much. I encourage people to check out this new PBS Frontline documentary.
