 If you're just joining, my name is Connor Goodwin and I'm an events associate with ProPublica. For those new to us, ProPublica is a non-profit newsroom dedicated to investigative journalism. Reading ProPublica's investigation into literacy and voting, I learned a surprising statistic. About one in five American adults struggled to read. I thought literacy tests were a thing of the past, but this statistic, alongside ProPublica's reporting, showed me how today's voting process is effectively literacy tests. Voting participation tends to decrease where literacy rates decline. I also learned that a new wave of state laws in places like Florida, Texas, and Georgia is making it even harder for Americans with low literacy skills to exercise their right to vote. I'll jump a link to that investigation in a second, but first I want to introduce our speakers. I'd like to start by introducing two people who appeared in the story. Olivia Coley-Pearson is the city commissioner in Douglas, Georgia. She was criminally charged twice for trying to help folks vote, but these charges were later dropped. Fay Combs is a literacy advocate who struggled to read for decades until she taught herself how to do so in adulthood. She's joining us from California. And joining them is Raymond Partolan, national field director for APIA vote. And finally, I'd like to introduce the reporters behind the story. Elia Swayvi is a reporter in ProPublica's South Unit covering children, families, and social inequality. Annie Waldman is a national reporter covering education for ProPublica. We've set aside time for audience questions at the end of the hour, but you can ask a question at any point by clicking the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen and typing it there. All right, I'll let the reporters take it from here. Hello, everyone. So as Conor said, I'm Elia Swayvi. I'm from ProPublica South Team and I'm based in Atlanta. And I am Annie Waldman. I'm a ProPublica reporter based in New Orleans. So for the past year, we've been trying to understand the human stories behind a pretty simple statistic. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, more than one in five American adults struggles to read English at a basic level. This means that there are about 48 million people in the United States, many of whom are native English speakers who left schools without the necessary reading skills. They are often resourceful, finding ways to cope and navigate the complexities of a world designed for readers. But they also face many barriers, challenges finding jobs, accessing medical care and getting social services. This not only affects individuals, it also impacts our collective democracy, particularly hindering people's right to vote. Throughout history, states have used literacy tests at the polls to exclude people from fully participating in society. Annie and my research dug into similar barriers that exist today across the country, including laws that conservative states have passed in the last two years, making it harder for people with reading struggles to get help at the polls. It was during this reporting that we met Olivia Coley-Piersen, the city commissioner from Douglas, Coffee County, Georgia. For decades, she has been fighting for the rights of people in her community, trying to protect the right to vote regardless of their ability to read and write. We also, in the course of our reporting, wanted to know whether anyone was trying to solve the problem and make voting easier for people with literacy struggles. And that's how we met Faye Combs, who works for Keita Community, a program that helps people who struggle to read get engaged in the voting process. She helps people overcome the shame and the stigma of not being able to read and helps empower them to participate in democracy. Before our conversation with these two incredible women, as well as voting rights expert Raymond Portolan, we're going to watch a short video produced by the talented in-host ProPublica documentarian Mauricio Rodriguez-Pombs. On the day of Georgia's primary election last May, Olivia Coley-Piersen woke up at 4 a.m. to rally voters, and we followed her to capture what it takes to ensure that voters who need help get the help they need to vote. So let's turn to the video now. It's him that just pulled over that way. Hey, how are you? Thank you for coming out. Come to that one for now. You're going live right now. So we are here. We're ready to get started. We have building power by having unity in our community. They want to pretend there are no racial issues here. We had a lot that needed assistance. They were illiterate. But the people who are less fortunate are left out. Here, Alene, you can get this one, too. Just running about the part. One going to go over there. One going to go on that side, y'all. That's good. That's good. That's a good spot. That's a good spot for them. We'll come and spread them out a little bit. I got them. All right. A lot of people are intimidated by voting who can read and write. Most of the people who have a problem with reading and writing and understanding, they're not going to go vote. If you have a low voter turnout, that's some of the reason why. We'll do all that at one time. Not right now. Because people got the sign for it so we can start up. Because I know some people said they have to go. Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Give it up for Coffee County. We are in the primary election in Georgia right now. We've got to carry people with us to the poll. We've got to call people. We just got to do whatever it takes. This is the last week of early voting coming up this week. If I come up, y'all coming up. I don't know no other way to do it. My mother was a civil rights activist here in Coffee County. That's what helped to frame me to be involved like I am. When you look at poverty in the community, the rate of graduation from high school, it works hand in hand. We're a rural community. There are racial issues, educational issues, employment issues. A lot of y'all supported me when they unjustly prosecuted me and lied trying to get me out of the way because I do this kind of work right here and I thank y'all for it. For the state election board, do you remember Miss Olivia helping you or assisting you to vote? Yes, she picked me up and she took me down there. She didn't mark why she assisted you and I was wondering why you needed assistance. Because I can't read. Okay, I did read. That's no problem. She can assist you if you have problems reading. That's no problem, okay? Alright, have a good one, Mr. Williams. This young lady was terrified. Wow. She told me. She told me. She said, I don't want to vote. I say, that's exactly why you need to vote, so that we can stop stuff like that. People were intimidated. Fear has been put into people. They would actually say, if they're doing this to you as an elected official, what in the world would they do to me? My mom truck, because I had a bag that had paper towels in it. Tim, you voted? Busy trying to get people to the polls. Your early voting is over. Today is the last day to vote. You need to tell all your cousins, your brothers, your sisters, your aunts, aunts. Everybody you know to come on down here to vote. Come for a scene for me. See if she's coming on the vote. Lin was always picking me up, but here lately she's been busy. Thank you so much for coming. You know me anytime. I know. I know. Look at you. That's right. We should have had you there. Yeah. You're welcome. Ready? Come on. Let's go. Okay. Now this is a proud voter here. Yes. I am. She is so proud. I'm proud. I did it. I did it. I did it. Yes. I just assisted her. Some words she couldn't understand. I feel good. I think my work here has been rewarding. You have to be in solidarity. You can't leave this group out of that group out. To move forward, we have to be all inclusive. I will bring on our panelists with that. I will quickly reintroduce them. Olivia Coley Pearson is a city commissioner in Douglas, coffee county, Georgia. We just saw her on the video. Um, Fabe coms works for key to community a program that helps people who struggle to read, Get engaged in the voting process. She also learned to read as an adult and for forties and understands the importance of helping people across literacy. later in their lives. Thank you again for joining us and I'll pass it along to Amida. Great, thank you so much and apologies for my internet freezing just now. So a reminder to our audience, please feel free to submit questions during the event as after the moderate discussion, Aliyah is gonna open up the chat for Q&A. So again, thank you so much for both of you being here. Let's just jump right in, Olivia. We just saw you in action. Can you explain a little bit about what you were doing exactly? What kinds of voters you were helping and why was voting a challenge for them? Thanks, Annie and Aliyah, thank you both. I got a little teary eyed here. I didn't know you all were gonna go quite in dig up like you did with Primary Election Day and the trial and everything that I went through. But yeah, what you saw on the video with me helping people like Miss Helen Simpson, who like she said, I always help her and carry her. And that's true. Sometimes recently I've had to get others to step in to assist her and others like her, like Miss Sabrina and her daughters that you all met while you all were here. Like the young man, Mr. Williams that the Secretary of State called on the phone and he stated, I picked him up and I carried him to go vote, assisted him because he is illiterate. So that's what I was doing on the video with trying to be a power, building momentum, trying to get my community engaged into getting out to go vote because voting is so important. And I focus more so on the people who have literacy challenges because if they do not receive assistance and help they're not going to go to the polls and people that like Miss Simpson she was so excited to do it, they want to do it. But if you have problems that's preventing you from actually going in there, casting your ballot and casting it like you really want to you're not going to go forward and cast that ballot. So I serve as that motivating force in the community building momentum, encouraging people. Hey, even though you might have a disability do not let that stop you you still have the right to vote and I'm here to help you however I can to make sure that you get a chance to exercise your right to vote. So that's a lot of what you saw me doing on the video. Thank you so much, Olivia. Hey, can you talk about some of the challenges that you have faced at the ballot box? Yes, the challenges that I faced at the ballot box was number one, the ballots were just too many words. I didn't understand. I didn't know who was who would it meant or anything like that. For years and years I had my husband to fill out the ballot and he just told me where to sign and that's what I did. I found it very intimidating in going into the box because I didn't comprehend. I could not understand what it was that I was voting for or what it even meant to me or to my community or to my family. So it was very intimidating. And when I would go into the booth people were coming and going, coming and going and I'm still there trying to figure out the first probably the first word that was even on the ballots or what did it mean? What did it mean for a person to be a council person or what did it mean for a person to be the governor or the president or what did it mean for certain local things in our community that would affect our community of social programs and things. And it was just so intimidating to the extent that I would just say well, let me hurry up and vote just Mark and get out of here because I'm in too much time. And when it was over, I didn't know what I voted for or if it was good or bad or anything like that. So that was a, it's a challenge when you do not have that one-on-one to really understand what you're voting for because I do believe and know that voting is not a law, it is a privilege. And so my upbringing with what I wanted to do within myself was to exercise that privilege of my ancestors who fought did not get the opportunity to vote. So I went in not knowing what I was doing, but no better now. So it is very challenging and it is a turnoff because of the design of the ballots that they are now. They're not reader friendly. Those that can read and understand, they get confused. So if we're not reading and not understanding, we just don't go. And Faye, in your work that you've done, have you seen that literacy struggles persist? I mean, how widespread of a problem is this that other people struggle to read and this impacts their ability to vote? I've seen where there are families that don't believe in the system. So they put out that we're not gonna vote and your vote doesn't count. But yes, your vote does count. And it's been a struggle for them and in that way, they don't reach out to seek out. And it's not a conversation piece. Like we have conversations about different things in our lives. Voting is not something that comes to the table that people talk about. Your girlfriends don't sit down and talk about it. And your families don't talk about it. So what we need to do is try to do a one-on-one with the person, just maybe come to the table. So what do you think about them putting up a light bulb in our stoplight in our neighborhood and just start some conversation and things like that? I truly, truly believe that this process needs to start in the lower grades of school and not wait until they get to middle age when they're in technology now. So it's really gone. So I think we need to start with our youngsters at a very early, early age. That's great, they thank you. Olivia, just turning to you now. You know, what happened to you, it seems like officials were using the literacy rates of folks in your community as almost a form of voter suppression. And I'm wondering if you think what happened to you, can you consider that voter suppression? Could you call that voter suppression and what does that look like? And how does it compare to other types of voter suppression? What happened to me was definitely a form of voter suppression because as I stated in the video, some people said, well, if they're doing this to you as an elected official, what do you think they would do to me? And that was, I think one of the major motivating factors were to get me whether incarcerated or whatever to actually intimidate people to not go out and vote. But however, it did not work because, you know, from the trial of 2018, which, you know, they claim it started from 2012, but it finally ended in 2018 where I was acquitted, you know, because I refused to give up. I refused to take a plea deal because I knew what I was doing was right to help those people who were less fortunate because they can't read or write and needed help. So I did not allow the system to intimidate me to take a plea deal because then I would have had to been ousted from my seat, my political seat. And then ultimately the people would have felt that I had done something wrong when I had not. And more ultimate than that, so many people would have lost faith in the voting system because they would have said, hey, okay, see what happened to her, so we better not vote. And it did put a damper on it initially, but I believe now the momentum is coming back and people know and see that it is their right to get out and vote, whether they can read adequately or not, it's their right. And I'm glad that the people are responding like they are. So I know what I was doing was right, but it was definitely a form of voter suppression to try to scare me, to incarcerate me, send me to prison. But, you know, I've said it over and over and over again, my faith in my God is very strong. And I had a one-on-one relationship with him and I talked with him during the time that I was going through that ordeal. And that is how I overcame it because of my faith in my God who brought me through it. Thank you, Olivia. Both of you, Faye and Olivia, you have worked with many people with many different reading levels, many different literacy levels. I'm wondering for the folks who are out there today who maybe don't engage with people who struggle to read as much as you do or as often as you do, what misconceptions do you think persist today about people who struggle to read? What do you think people should know about people at this reading level? I would say that they're not alone. There's over 130 million people that are below the literacy skills and it doesn't mean that they're illiterate. It's just the skills that they have to learn to receive the information, how they receive the information and how it's perceived to them. And so I think that we need to, for the comprehension of it is the most important part. You can read a word, but if you don't comprehend what you read, it's you haven't read anything. So I think this is a big shame that has been put down, even if it's a form of suppression and the less people that read, the more that the other folks that can take advantage of us, which they're doing now, they can advantage of us I think in society because if we had over 100 million people that could vote, we could turn that thing around and change it. And so the shame that goes with it, you have that shame, I live with that shame for all of my life. And when I came out of this shame, a weight was lifted up off of me, but I wasn't by myself and I thought I was by myself and you're not by yourself. There's many that are out there. And with this pandemic, when you went to work, you had a program at your job and you knew how to do that program, but when the pandemic came and you lost your job, you didn't have any other skills. So that's why I say that we need to teach these things at the lower grades so that if you have to go to another job or do something else or something that you might really want it to do, for yourself, your dream that you might have wanted to do to take the time to learn how to do that. But one-on-one in groups and libraries being involved like that, I think is the best way to go. I encourage, I tell my story and I encourage people to want to do because I was too like them. I was too like them and I want them to be better than I am because it took me longer and I don't want them to take it wrong. But anyhow, I just think it's another form of suppressing the people from voting. And Olivia, do you have anything to add on to that? Do you think there are misconceptions about the people who struggle to read that we should educate each other about? Oh yes, Annie, thank you. I think that the misconception is out there because, and I think at one point, I can't recall exactly where it was, but there was something about the district attorney who was prosecuting me, who was stating something about people can just figure it out or whatever. But, you know, that's not true because I introduced you all to a gentleman who was in Douglas who thought he had went inside. He was ashamed to admit that he didn't know how to read and write. He said he didn't need any help. It took him a while in there. When he came out, he said he didn't see the people that he wanted to vote for, you know, based on what he could recognize. The reason was that he had voted the wrong party. He had checked the box that he didn't intend to check or thought he was checking them, but whatever. But that was the reasoning as to why he did not see those folks that he had intended to vote for. But because of his embarrassment to not being able to adequately read and write, he voted incorrectly from how he wanted to really vote. So there are misconceptions out there. Voting is too serious for somebody to say, oh, just figure it out, you know, because you are making decisions oftentimes about your livelihood and the livelihood of others. So you wanna make sure that you vote the right correct way that's best for the masses of the people, not a select few. So there are very many misconceptions out there. People think that illiteracy does not exist, but your stats have shown that illiteracy is real. It is real, and we need to address it as society. And we need to not frown upon it, but we need to embrace people who have these deficiencies to let them know for whatever reason it is that has caused them to be in this position, that it's okay, we're gonna work to help you to make it better to get where you need to be instead of frowning on people, which is oftentimes what happens. Great, thank you so much, Olivia and Faye. I wanna bring in Raymond Portolan now, who is the National Field Director at APIA Vote and National Nonpartisan Organization committed to working with partners to increase civic participation, particularly among Asian and Pacific Islander Americans across the country. Raymond grew up in the Deep South and has been an advocate for immigrant and refugee communities for years. Raymond, can you tell us what exactly are the rights of voters who struggle to read? Yeah, happy to Annie. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you, Aliyah and Connor. Really delighted and grateful for the opportunity to share today. So I think it's important to start with the fact that every single citizen in the United States has the right to vote. You don't need to speak, read or write English in order to vote. No such requirement exists. You only need to be a registered voter. So I was contemplating being on this panel today because most of my experience is in working with communities who are limited English proficient. So not illiterate in the traditional sense, but illiterate in the sense that they don't necessarily comprehend or understand written and perhaps even spoken English. So based on our research at APIA vote, Asian and Pacific Islander American vote, we know that about 28% of Asian Americans who live in the United States are limited English proficient. This means that they speak English less than very well. A lot of people don't know this, but there is a section of the Voting Rights Act, which is a seminal piece of legislation that guarantees our right to vote as citizens. It's section 208, which basically states that any voter who requires assistance to vote by reason of blindness, disability, or inability to read or write may be given assistance by a person of the voter's choice. As long as that person is not the voter's employer or an agent or officer of the voter's union if they are a member of a union. So that is a right that everyone has. Everyone has the right to bring an interpreter or someone to assist them to go vote. There's also another section of the Voting Rights Act, section 203 that requires certain counties and jurisdictions and states across the United States to provide bilingual voting materials in communities with language minorities and limited English proficient residents as long as they meet a certain threshold. So there are myriad rights that are available, Annie, for voters and it's important to note that since the 2020 election, state legislatures around the country have been seeking to curtail that right to vote or make it more difficult for people to vote. According to a study from the Brennan Center, more than 440 bills with provisions that would restrict voting access were introduced in 49 states in the 2021 legislative sessions. So it's very difficult time for us right now, especially for people who believe in the right to vote, who believe that everyone should have a say at the polling place. But I firmly believe that advocates like Olivia and Faye, when folks like the two of them are leading the charge, I believe that we can fight back and ensure that everyone has the ability to access the polling place. Great, Raymond, thank you. What are common obstacles of voters who struggle to read and how does one overcome them? How do you as an advocate help them overcome them? Yeah, that's a good question. So here at APIE Vote, we have one resource that's available for folks. It's our multilingual voter protection hotline. Folks can reach it at 1-888-APIE-VOTE. And by calling that hotline, voters can receive live assistance in the language that they prefer, whether it's English or Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Hindi, Urdu, or Bengali. We provide voters with the assistance that they need in order to understand how to vote, where to vote, and why voting is important. So based on the calls that we have received in our hotline, the most common obstacles that we encounter or that we observe from people is the need for language assistance at the polling place, understanding what's on their ballot, understanding how to cast a ballot, when to go vote, where they can vote. We get a lot of phone calls on our hotline from folks asking where their polling place is and needing to know what to bring when they go vote, like what kind of voter ID do they need. So in terms of how we overcome those obstacles, so we always encourage voters to plan ahead. And we try and help facilitate that at APIE Vote. This year alone, our organization is sending direct mail to over one million Asian American households all around the country in multiple languages, explaining to people how they can cast their ballot, when and where they can cast their ballot. And also advising them of their rights, which we just talked about earlier. One thing that we encourage people to do is that if they do need an interpreter, make sure to go ahead and plan to bring an interpreter with them to the polling place. And also we encourage people to check what kind of ID requirements there are in their specific state to make sure that they are 100% prepared to vote. That's great. Kind of wanna go back to one question that I skipped earlier, which is, for Fay, Olivia, for Raymond as well, for people who are watching this right now, who wanna get involved, they wanna help voters who struggle to read, who struggle with English, who struggle with literacy, what should they know? What advice would you give these assistants, people who wanna provide some kind of assistance in the same way that both of you have, all three of you have? I'll start with Fay. Do you have any advice for people out there? Well, I do. There are several teachers that are retired and for them to get involved with their local libraries to seek out with the schools for these youngsters, some of them that need, especially since this pandemic, I'm certain it is gonna be a lot that need to have the help. You can ask, have them to come out to that. Also, you can just kind of, well, I guess since I've been in the situation or who I am, I can kind of feel when a person is having some struggles and just talk with them and share where they can get some help, but there is help. I feel that the media should do more given of assistance. I hear us talking, but we don't talk about those of the deaf community and the blind community. Those are persons too that need to vote. So we need to reach the masses of everybody, that the best way that we possibly can to reach them. But I think the media should give more to those with low literacy skills because of the high number of the millions that needs to be addressed because that's not good for any country, any city or anything. It would make the economy grow better if we had more people that felt confident that they could do the job, that they would perhaps have a dream to do, but don't feel confident enough to do it. That's great. And Olivia, would you have any advice for people who wanna go to the polls and help people vote? Yes, I'd just like to first say to them, it's important to be, and naturally they would be sincere and caring, but I just like to remind them not to overthink the situation. If a person is saying that they have trouble, then accept that honestly because that's something people don't do very often is admit if they have a problem, especially with reading, writing, understanding. So be compassionate, be considerate. Don't downplay it because it is real, it's serious. And let them know that you care, and it's okay. Most of all that it's okay to help to soften that level of shame or embarrassment. I would tell people who want to get involved to help people in this area to get familiar with what the laws and rules might be, because as Mr. Raymond mentioned earlier, so many states have passed new legislation pertaining to what can be done to assist people who have disabilities or whatever. So it will be great to familiarize yourself with what the new laws might be. For instance, here in Georgia Senate Bill 202 was passed, making it very, very, very difficult for people to get assistance who are unable to read and write and who can provide that assistance, I should say. You have to be with the absentee ballot, the mailing ballots specifically for those. You have to be immediate family members. Whereas before, you just had to be an elector and you would just sign your name that you was helping this person because they needed assistance due to their inability to read or write. So getting familiar with the new laws because some of these laws have been enacted to suppress the vote. And it's very sad, it's very sad. But ultimately I would think the people who want to help those who need assistance, I would thank them very much because it's very much needed. Great, Olivia. And Raymond, do you have any advice for people out there who want to help voters get to the polls and help them understand the ballot? Yeah, I think Ms. Spay and Ms. Olivia have provided some really great advice already, but just to add, I mean, there are so many organizations out there who are nonpartisan, who simply want to get out to vote and to increase civic participation in our communities. I would encourage people who are interested in getting involved is just to seek out volunteer opportunities. Organizations like API vote and so many others are always looking for volunteers to help encourage people to recognize the importance of their vote. That kind of work happens through phone banking and text banking, door-to-door canvassing, postcard writing, poll monitoring. There's so many different ways to get involved depending on what your skill set is, what your interest is. And if folks are interested in volunteer opportunities, there are plenty to choose from. For me personally, so actually I have kind of a like an unorthodox kind of reason for getting into voting work. And that's because I was undocumented for most of my life. For most of my life, I watched as elected officials were making decisions that impacted my life without me having a seat at the decision-making table and without having any kind of input. And to this day, I'm not a US citizen yet. And people always find that really surprising because I'm so involved in the voting space and in the civic engagement space. But because of how complicated our immigration system is, it's been a long journey. I've been here in this country for almost 30 years and I'm not yet a US citizen. And so the reason I tell that short story is because we need everyone to vote. We need everyone who is eligible to vote because this is the way that we have a say in the important decisions that affect our everyday lives. And there are people out there who can't vote like myself, who are depending on people who can vote to make conscious and informed decisions at the polling place. Right. Thank you so much, Raymond. I'm going to pass it over to Leah right now. I was going to open it up for the Q&A. Hey, thank you so much, Annie, and thanks to our panelists. So as we move into the Q&A section, feel free to continue asking questions in the chat. We also have some pre-submitted questions that I'll be asking our panelists. And I'll try and include some of the ones that y'all asked today. So first actually goes to Annie. There's a question asking if we can break down the statistics on reading and literacy by factors like age, like class, and like geography. What is those millions of people? What do they actually look like? So thanks, Leah. So for our reporting, we relied on data from the National Center for Education Statistics. They collected data as part of their program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, which is also known as PIEC. This includes state data, county estimates of average literacy levels, and it's based on a number of surveys that were conducted between 2012 and 2017. It represents the most comprehensive picture of the nation's literacy levels today. About 80% of American adults were assessed as proficient or nearing proficiency in reading, but 20% had difficulty completing literacy tasks according to the survey. While adults born outside of the country are, of course, disproportionately represented amongst the lowest-skilled readers, 2 thirds of adults with low reading skills were born here in the United States. White and Hispanic adults constitute about 70% of adults with low literacy, and Black adults were overrepresented, making up about 23% of the total, while accounting for less than 13% of the total population of the country. Regionally, we also saw some really interesting trends with swaths of California, the Texas-Mexico border, the Delta region in the South, and pockets of Appalachia showing lower literacy levels. Great, thank you for that, Annie. So I want to address this next question to Raymond. Olivia talked earlier about this law, Georgia's newest voting law, Senate Bill 202. Can you talk a little bit about what that law is? There's been a lot of national conversation about it. Why are people talking about it, and how is it set to impact voters with lower literacy skills? Yeah, happy to tackle that question. I do want to acknowledge that while I did grow up in the state of Georgia, I don't live there anymore, and I moved out right before SB 202 was passed and signed into law. So Miss Olivia may have some better insight than I do. But based on my understanding of the law, it definitely impacts low literacy voters and limited English proficient voters in the state because it includes, one, a ban on mobile voting, a new narrow identification requirements for requesting and casting an absentee ballot, which Miss Olivia referenced earlier, delayed and compressed time period for requesting absentee ballots, restrictions on secure drop boxes. I don't have the figures right in front of me right now, but in Fulton County, which is the largest county in the state of Georgia, there used to be dozens of drop boxes that were available for folks to use prior to the passage of SB 202. And now with the passage of the new law, they have greatly reduced the number of drop boxes that are available, thus making it more difficult for people to be able to access a place where they can cast a ballot. There's also out of precinct provisional ballot disqualification. So if you cast a provisional ballot outside of your assigned precinct, your ballot may be thrown out and not counted. There's also been drastic reduction in early voting in runoff elections. And I think this is what has sparked the most conversation at the national level. There is now a ban on volunteers providing water and snacks to Georgians who are waiting in long lines at the polling place, which is just absolutely draconian. Some of these lines could be two or three hours long. And I actually used to work at an organization in Georgia called Asian Americans Advancing Justice, where something we would do year after year was provide snacks and water to voters in line. So the law definitely makes it a lot harder. And it's one of those things where we just have to remain vigilant. We have to continue to advise people of their rights at the polling place and encourage people to get educated and to plan ahead when they're casting their ballots. But at the same time, we don't wanna scare people, right? We wanna make sure that people understand that it's important to vote, that so many of our ancestors have fought and died for our right to vote. And it's important for us to do everything in our power to make sure that we vote and that our votes are counted. Thank you so much for that response. Olivia, I wanna also direct part of that question to you as someone who's very much on the ground in Georgia. What are people telling you about how the laws impacting whether or how they assist people or whether or how they ask for assistance? Well, people are saying that they feel that the government has gotten these new laws enacted to prevent people from being able to cast their ballot. And I agree with them 100% because basically that's what it's doing. It is restricting who can get the application for the absentee ballot. I mean, there are just so many rules and it's just not, it's not fair. It's not fair. And there's even of once the person's actual ballot is mailed to them, there are restrictions on who can assist them to complete it and there are restrictions on how it can be submitted back in. As Connor mentioned about the drop boxes, but if someone is homebound, how are they to get it back to the mailbox? It has to be their immediate family, immediate family. And if that person doesn't have immediate family, how do they get their ballot submitted in to be counted? So yeah, what people are saying here on the ground is that the laws are very strict, very prohibitive, trying to prevent people from being able to cast their vote. And again, it's wrong, it's wrong. But Connor, I mean, Raymond, thank you. You summed it up. You said you left Georgia before the Senate bill hit, but yeah, I see you've kept up with it because yeah, you were on point with all of those. It was very detailed. Thank you very much. Ife, I wanna direct the next audience question to you. This person is asking about the role that Embarrassment and Shane of not being able to read what role that plays in self suppression. So for you specifically, were you less likely to want to vote because of the shame of not being able to read? No, excuse me. I've always, my grandmother was an advocate for voting and I grew up in Bakersfield and at that time, of course, I'm much older than you all but at the time, everybody, when I can remember, they were Republicans and she was out fighting for them to change to the Democratic product. And not knowing, not reading, but hearing and listening to things like that, I grew up knowing that voting was important and so I always wanted to vote but the shadow that I was up under, not being able to read and or to comprehend what I was reading had been a hindrance to me for so many, many years. And then when I reached out to in my 40s to go to the library to get help from the literacy program then I became to be a part of Key to Community which was a program for learning learners how to vote and what it meant to vote what the propositions meant. And that's when I really opened up and I felt empowered. I didn't have to rely on my husband anymore to give me to vote, I was able to know what to do and to vote for myself. So the shame of that, I've always, it's like, I just had this guard around me. No one ever knew it, no one ever knew that I couldn't and I was able to, it's called survival to me. I was able to survive in this wicked world out here but then again, I knew that there was more that I needed to do. And at that time, I felt I was a part of the problem and I always wanna be part of the solution. So my solution was to go out and keep pushing and keep my secret to myself until I felt comfortable enough. And as Ms. Olivia said, I'm my trust in God and I just stepped out and it was hard. It was just something I never had ever done. At that time, I'm telling you I had three children by that time and I had grandchildren and it was just a hard thing to do. But I knew that it was something that I had to do because my ancestors are still calling for me to do the right thing and that is to vote. So I'm being a spokesperson for them, for all of us, for the community, those that are learned it and those that are unlearned to continue, vote, vote, vote. It does make a difference. It will make a difference. I may use this as an example. If you're in a community where you're not voting and you wonder why we live over here, we don't have a bank, we don't have a major grocery store, we don't have all these things, you know why? Because you're not voting, you're not even trying to go, I mean, you don't go to the council meetings, you don't talk to people. And so the money, yeah, it goes to somewhere else and yes, they have all everything they need. So you have the right to have that same thing. So I want to be able to share that you have that right to get out to vote, keep on fighting, don't give up, don't give up hope. Just trust in the Lord, He'll get you there. I'm telling you. Thank you, Cah. So one question that y'all have answered before but I think people are really wanting to still have recommendations for is what can they do to help? I mean, how can they find, what are ways to find the local organizations that are working on this? What are some of those solutions that are gonna be shorter term and then what are ones that they can help fight for that are going to be longer term solutions to some of these problems? Well, here in California, we have our state library has a literacy program. And so there are a lot of libraries here that have literacy programs, which brings in groups and all different ethnicities. It's not just one group and getting involved with your libraries, checking with your people in their districts to see what programs are out there. And there again, I go back and say the media can play a part by putting these types of information that's out there for those that need help. If you don't put it out there, they might not read it but they might hear it. And if they hear it, and that's how some people have come to go to these programs because they've heard of it. It was introduced to me. I was a director of my program and I was introduced by my secretary who I was supervising about the literacy program. So there are people in the shame. Yes, it is a shameful, but it's not a shame. It's not a shame. Right. You don't have a heaven or a hell to put me and you can only give me hell. So I gotta go do what I have to do. And that is to be the best that I can be for myself, for my family and for the community that I live in, and for the future as well. So I think we should go back to those retired teachers and they had those little meetings and things like them little coffee meetings and things that they should talk about, let's get involved and let's go to a school, let's adopt a school and help these young people to get to the reading skills that they need to get to. One thing I like to add too is people who are interested, they could make themselves known if they're not a part of an organization that's working in the community to help people who have literacy issues, they could just maybe advertise themselves on social media sites that they're willing to volunteer to assist people with getting to the polls. They need assistance at the polls voting that just put themselves out there that they are available, but there are various organizations in different communities that provides certain types of things. And so, but definitely tapping into the library is one. And like I say, just get out there, churches, contacting churches, asking if they're parishioners or well-educated and literate. You just have to be creative and just put yourself out there and it'll come, believe you me, if where there's a need, they'll come to you if you put yourself out there that you're willing to help. Yeah, if I could add just one more thing here. So something that I think everyone can do as an individual without even participating with an organization is just to be mindful and aware of the rampant spread of miss and disinformation about elections. It's definitely something that we as an organization are observing and actively combating, but I would encourage everyone, as you're scrolling through your social media feeds or going through your emails or even watching the news, just treat things with a healthy dose of skepticism and make sure to evaluate the source of any information that you're receiving. There are folks out there who believe that the 2020 election wasn't legitimate and that people were casting fraudulent votes and study after study has shown an investigation after investigation has shown that that is just not the case. And so definitely encourage people to be mindful of what you're sharing on social media and with your friends and colleagues and just do your part to help correct the record and help people understand what the truth is on the various touchy issues that we deal with day in and day out. All right. So we have time for just one more question, unfortunately. So someone asked about the risk of fraud when it comes to voter assistance. And this is something that critics of voter assistance have said throughout history is that if you allow people who struggle to read to get assistance, then that will lead to instances of fraud. I'd love for Raymond first, and then the other panelists to address this question. Yeah, happy to try and tackle this really quickly given the time. So speaking of mis and disinformation, that is also one of the areas in which we think mis and disinfo is rampant. Basically, according to an associated press investigation, they found that only 475 potential cases of voter fraud occurred in the six battleground states in 2020, which is far too low of a number to even potentially sway an election. We know that voter fraud is rare and possibly even rarer when it comes to people committing fraud as they're providing assistance to voters. And we also know that our elections are safe and secure. Instances of voter fraud should be handled appropriately, but our system is able to catch these rare incidents and that should give voters peace of mind. What we did in our workshops is that we did not tell, we just showed them how to vote. We did not give, they had to make their own decision was not ours. We just showed them the process of how to vote. We did not make those decisions over there. And I like to chime in too, being that especially being that I was charged with voter fraud assistance and I was acquitted of it. You know, it's very sad. So, and I reiterate what Raymond and Ms. Faye just stated. I mean, you all are absolutely on point. So basically when you provide voter assistance, you are not allowed to tell the person who to vote for. You ask them, you read to them, you know, everything on the screen, you'll read it for them or to them or whatever. And you ask them, what is their choice in that? And then you let them, you point towards their answer and you let them touch the screen to show, to, you know, indicate, to select their preference. So the risk of voter fraud with providing voter assistance is, I mean, it's slim to none. To have an impact, you will have to be actually assisting thousands of people. And Coffey County, we have maybe what, of 12 to 15,000 voters or whatever. So normally we only assist approximately a couple of hundred folk. But yeah, there will have to be, let me end with this. Here in Coffey County, I'm sure everybody is seeing it on the news now. Everybody is seeing it on the news now where Coffey County officials, election officials, allow people, former President Trump's attorneys and whomever, his people represent him to come in and copy voting equipment. So there's more of a risk of voter fraud to happen through a process like that than by volunteers going out, carrying people to the polls. Because in a given day, you're only gonna assist, you know, 10 or so if you do that many. So that's a misconception. And I'm glad that Mr. Raymond stated that. That's a very misconception about voter fraud happening through voter assistance. And we need to learn the facts, people. We need to learn the facts and we need to own up to the facts and we need to stop going for anything that we are told. Because like I said, how many people would you have to assist to be able to amount to a significant number for a voter fraud risk? It would have to be in the thousands. Nobody in voter assistance has happened that many people. But the risk is more so at the election offices that's not doing their jobs and not being fair. That's where the risk comes in for voter fraud. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah, thanks, Olivia. That's our time today. I wanna thank all of our speakers, Faye, Olivia, Raymond, Aliyah and Annie for such an insightful and important conversation. A big thanks to our audience as well for all of your thoughtful questions. And from all of us at ProPublica, thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you next time. Have a good night. Thanks.