 It's May the 18th, 2022. Time for our new show, American Issues Take One. I'm Tim Appichelle, your host and today's title is Election 2022, Issues that Move Voters. That title might be antiquated as of this morning because CNN reported a nationwide poll that addresses voter turnout and some of the results are a little bit jarring. For example, of the voters that were polled, 59% were concerned about the economy, 30% are concerned about domestic and social issues, and 3% are concerned about foreign and domestic policy, excuse me, foreign policy. As far as how things are going in this country, we have 65% of Americans who are concerned, 21% of Americans are scared, and 10% are optimistic, and 4% are actually excited. And then the one I think that caught my attention the most was of those polled, 53% of Americans are burned out on politics, 23% are fired up, and of that 23%, 33% of them are GOP that responded, 25% are Democrats, and 14% are independents. And then to finish things out, 24% are neither burned out or fired up. So given those statistics, by the way, before I start in, I'd like to introduce my guests. Today we have Jay Fidale, my co-host, Sandy Ma, executive director with Common Cause, and of course, always Cynthia, Lee Sinclair. Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Kim. Sandy, I'm going straight to you. I just read off a nationwide CNN poll here, and I want to focus in on the excitement factor. 65% of Americans are concerned, only 4% are excited. Given where we have a midterm election here in November, less than six months, how do those numbers play out as far as voter engagement? Getting them to the polls, regardless if they're GOP voters or Democrat voters. Is that for me? Yes, Sandy. Thank you. Thank you. First of all, thank you for having Common Cause Hawaii on your program. We are a non-partisan, a non-profit part of a national organization. And so we are happy, ecstatic, that people are excited about voting in the upcoming 2020 elections. Many states are already engaged in early voting. As we speak now, Georgia, Texas, a lot of states are already involved in early voting. So we are happy that our citizens are motivated and enthusiastic about voting. And so that bodes well for our democracy. The foundation of our democracy is voting, and people should be engaged and should be motivated to vote. So many things are on the line, as we could tell from the recent leak draft Supreme Court opinion. Our fundamental rights are at stake. And so everything stems from voting and taking an interest in actually participating in the polls. We may not think that our voting matters, but everything matters. State and local politics, state and local education boards, school boards, municipal boards at the national level are in Hawaii, our city council, county council. Everything matters and stems from participating, just casting a ballot. One of the simplest things people can do. All right. You know, we just had our primary last evening. And of the primaries, particularly if you go to the GOP side, it looks like Donald Trump's candidates, about 50% of them, prevailed. One is still in question. That's Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is in Pennsylvania. That election has yet to be determined and it's going to probably go to recount. But it looks like of the Trump endorsed candidates, 50% made it and 50% didn't make it. Some are too close to call. And already Donald Trump is opined. And he said that if he was Dr. Mehmet Oz, he would just declare victory. And he's basically implying that there might be some shenanigans with vote tallying and vote counting, which of course shouldn't surprise us at all. The question is, how these states where there's a close race and it's Republican against Republican, how do they weigh then on the vote counting and these, you know, to make sure that people are convinced that it was a fair free election and it wasn't at all tainted for you, Sandy? Oh, thank you. How do we verify integrity, particularly given the new state's voter laws that have been taking place? And how do we go about doing that, particularly when Donald Trump may be saying that Dr. Mehmet Oz won and she declared victory and forgo a recount? So isn't there something called election integrity? So I mean, that is a really great question. And that is the issue of misinformation and disinformation and someone coming out and saying, you cannot trust what our elections officials are doing. That issue is sweeping across the nation. And that just cannot, we have to trust our elections officials. Elections officials are experts at what they do. They are trained and what they do, they're trained in elections security. They're trained in elections laws. They know what they're doing. And for someone who is not an expert in elections laws and election security and ballot counting and chain of custody and not understanding the nuances that goes in to how to run an election and to come in and say, well, it's just voter fraud because I don't understand it. And I don't have the expertise in it. And because I don't understand it, that means there's something fraudulent going on is just inappropriate. At some point in time, we have to trust the experts. We can ask questions, we can verify, we can learn, but we cannot just say that it's fraud because we did not get the results we wanted. And so we have to at some point understand that there are experts out there. And that is what elections officials are. They are experts in their field. They have spent careers doing this work. And it's okay. Yeah, well, good point that you've made. Let's look at 2020 presidential election. We had, presumably, if the courts had actually come down and say, this election was fair or this election was not fair. And in the case of 2020 presidential election, we had over 60 court cases, one which I think did prevail in the favor of GOP, but it was a minor issue. But so how do we in a nonpartisan way try to dissuade the popular belief that Donald Trump or any other politician, doesn't have to be Donald Trump, says that the election was tainted. How do we do that in a nonpartisan way? And if it's not court cases, then how do we do that? How do we go about convincing the average voter that, hey, this 2020 wasn't a stone election. And certainly, moving ahead in the 2022 midterms, we will have election integrity. I mean, that is the million dollar question right now that everyone is trying to disinformation and misinformation and malinformation is sweeping across our social media. We are fed by these algorithms and to these echo chambers that feed our paranoia. And that is really what we are trying to combat at common cause. We are trying to figure that out. We are trying to hold Facebook, Metta, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok to some higher level of accountability. They cannot make money off of destroying our democracy. They are having these algorithms amplify misinformation, disinformation, knowing that it is false information. And targeting people and creating these echo chambers of wrongful information. And we really have to think about our education system and go back to its source. We need to better educate from elementary school, middle school, high school, college level as to what is democracy, how to understand and have a questioning mind without just saying, well, we don't understand it. So it must be false. We didn't get the result we wanted. It must be cheating by the other side. There is a way of questioning and asking questions without saying, well, if I don't get it, then it must not be true or accurate. So we must go back to better teaching our students. And we dismantled our social safety net. We dismantled our education system. And so we have to really kind of, we're now reaping the consequences and we have to rebuild. Okay. Well, Sandy, thank you. And I really appreciate your efforts trying to address social media and the many postings that are inaccurate and disinformation. I appreciate that. JTU, Donald Trump's endorsed candidates, half of them made it and half of them didn't. Why do you think they made it? Was it based on social domestic issues or was it the economy as what was it? James Carville said it's the economy stupid. Or was it just the fact that Trump endorsed the candidates that made a big difference in their real or their election into these new positions for the primary? The latter. Just because Donald Trump said it. He's a cult figure. Despite the fact that he's not on Twitter, not clear that he's going to get back on. But even without Twitter, he's a cult figure. And the country is moving right and somehow he attracts attention and support from a growing body of Republicans. And the Republicans are moving right as a party. I mean, it's in the paper almost every day how they're moving right and they're moving right for him. So, you know, the answer is it really was just this appointment to me to find that so many Trump endorsed candidates won in so many places. I would have expected they would have shoved off from him. I mean, the vote, the electorate would have shoved off from him. But no, the Republicans are supporting him increasingly and the party is moving right. Well, can't you argue that maybe it's a good thing they won the primary because they are extreme candidates. Some of the things they've said either on social media or in the press are bizarre at best, certainly extreme. And isn't that a good thing to have them as candidates for the general election? Can I get back to you in the middle of November on that? Okay, sure. Okay, great. All right. Good answer. Well, well deferred. Let's talk about the excitement issue. You know, the CNN poll says that only 4% of the population, I don't know how big the poll was, presumably is fairly large sampling. But that's a shocking number that 4% are excited. You know, 65% were concerned and 21% are scared. What are they scared of? What are they concerned about? Jay? Are you asking me? Yes, sir. Well, I think it goes to Sandy's point about disinformation and confusion. And we haven't discussed this in any detail, but voter fatigue. I think the numbers from that poll demonstrate voter fatigue. We're really bloody tired of hearing about it. It's the social media and it's the inconsistency, it's the influence of, you know, a media that lies to us. And it's the people really getting tired of hearing the drone go on day after day, week after week. And they don't know which way to go. And the leadership is, you know, not strong enough to point us in a direction where we can all get on board. I feel it myself, don't you? Well, you know, I'm really tired of hearing about some of these things. And therefore, and I intend to vote. But I think Sandy will have to agree, and Cynthia, too, that this plays against voting. Because if people are fatigued to say the hell with it, I'm not going down. It's too much trouble. I have very little confidence if I vote will count because there's all these voting officials that have been turned upside down by the Republicans in the meantime, especially right now. And so the result is, and this is what happens in China, if you don't believe your vote will count, you don't vote. Well, to answer your question, I'm not burned out or I'm tired of it. I can't afford to be burned out or tired of it, because we're doing this show. And the show's about politics. So the answer is no, I'm excited. I'm energized. Okay. So, you know, if we have 59% focused on the economy and 20, 30% focused on domestic social issues, how does that contrast with the 4% excited percentage that was cited in the CNN poll? I mean, aren't Republicans excited about a pom-pom celebration of the reversal of Roe v. Wade? I mean, they've been planning that for 50 years. And presumably that's why Donald Trump was elected in the first place, because he was dedicated to reversing Roe v. Wade through the selection of Supreme Court justices and doesn't Roe v. Wade energize the Democrats to turn out for the polls. Yet we have 4% excitement factor. That seems to be a bit of a contradiction of terms. Are you asking me that question? Yes, sir. I am here with you. Sandy was referring to the echo chamber. And this is another aspect of the echo chamber, polls. Because we all know we've all written polls that one, Cynthia, you're shaking your head. You know what I mean? You know, we've all written polls that I'm sure Sandy has to try to get, you know, the public to respond and get a handle on where they are. But it depends on how you write the question. And, you know, it could be these questions, you know, they beg the answer. It could be they're not well written. It could be the people don't understand them the way you'd like. And so I question the 4% as a real figure about excitement. On the other hand, let me go back to a point that you and I were talking about a minute ago. And that is, how do we know whether that 4% will affect turnout in November? You know, there are various factors, you know, the move right, the Trump comments, and this poll number. How do we know whether this lack of excitement will, you know, will affect turnout? And I would say on that one, I got to get back to you in the middle of November, just as I said before, it's the same thing. But one other thing in that poll you mentioned, I'd like to take a moment on, and then I'm going to turn over the rest of my time to Cynthia, is there was a very low number in that poll of people who cared about foreign policy, a very low number in that poll that cared about what was going on in Ukraine. And I am mighty disturbed about that, because I think that Ukraine is more important than any of these domestic issues. It is the turning point on the liberal world order, and on so many things in so many places, which will be in the larger global echo chamber of information and political action and war and peace going forward. And it is very disappointing to find the American public, according to that poll, doesn't care. Good point. Thank you, Jay. Cynthia, again, I'm going back to the poll here for a moment. They cited 30% were interested in domestic social issues. To what degree is Fox, particularly Tucker Carlson, basically exciting the voting populace with this notion we call or notion or this theory that he's popped up with was replacement theory. I call it white fear. They've cited that Tucker Carlson has talked about this about 400 times since 2016. Would that qualify as a domestic social issue that is energizing certain voters? And I won't say just necessarily GOP voters. Also Democrat voters believe that they are they are somehow subject to this white replacement theory that Tucker Carlson drones on about day in and day out. And certainly how the Murdoch brothers seem to say, yeah, it's good for business. So to what degree is that going to energize voters versus the economy versus inflation versus increasing interest rates versus the higher prices of gas? Which one takes which one takes the top to motivate voters? Well, I think the GOP is 100% motivated by this white replacement theory. It's just incredible to me to hear it come out of anybody's mouth. But then I think about when I lived in the South, and I remember what the mentality of the people was there. So it makes sense to me. I don't think it's going to be a very big motivator for Democrats to worry about that. I think they're much more concerned about the economy. I think Democrats are more concerned about the economy than anything else. Because we were all behind that build back better bill, we really saw some relief coming. We thought, oh, maybe there's going to be help with childcare. Maybe there's going to be help with some of this stuff where you know, we're going to get a raise in pay so that people aren't making so much less and lower than the cost of living. And then it didn't happen. So people turned away. And that's where I think some of that affectation happened with Democrats where they're not interested anymore. They're burnt out. They're like, what is the point? I gave you guys my all and nothing happened. Okay. Well, let me go to that because one thing I didn't mention this CNN poll was probably the most important statistic. And that is Joe Biden's approval rating sits at 40%. And his disapproval is 55%. That's not good going into a midterm. So here's the deal. To what degree are these failed efforts in voting suppression laws and trying to get a national voting bill done or the build back better? To what degree is that part of his disapproval rating? I think that the fact that the voting rights legislation didn't go through affects everything. Not just, I know, sorry, who cares about what his approval rating is if the votes aren't going to be counted appropriately and correctly by people that aren't partisan acts. We already know that in Florida, DeSantis has appointed a Secretary of State that is purely Republican, been pushing all of the big lie and the election security broad. So right there, we've got one state that's already set there. We've got 17 states that have Republican legislatures in them, and they've already passed bills that make it so that the Republicans, the legislature can have more power than the Secretary of State. That, to me, is terrifying. Now this, I have something for us here today, and I think this is what the Democrats need. I see Jay laughing. Cynthia brings us a gift. Okay. So this one, I think the Democrats need to push 24-7, not just every once in a while. I want to hear it 24-7, and I really want to hear mainstream television news to stop promoting this stuff about Tucker Carlson. It's one thing to say he said it, it's another thing to show him saying it over and over and over. It's like they're playing into Fox News and, and I think, why? Well, let me interrupt you for a second, because Nick Covisoria, and I'm an Italian, I can't pronounce a fellow Italians last name, in the New York Times said that 33% of all Americans, not just GOP, not just Democrats, 33% of all Americans are leaning their shoulder into this concept called replacement theory. That's a frightening statistic. It is, but I don't believe in polls. I'm kind of like Jay. It all depends on how you ask them, who you ask, when you ask them. There's so many things that, you know, could change what the answers are. Okay. I'll buy that about polls, but I have living proof. 2016, Donald Trump was elected partially because he pumped white fear into the voters, and it stuck, and he became president of the United States. Well, now that I, I do agree with, and I, all those people that I was, you know, interacting with in the South for all those years, they fell right into that white replacement theory. Okay. So here's what I think Republicans don't want us to remember, especially they don't want women to remember. And this is the stuff I want the Democrats to push. In 1974, Republicans and conservatives voted against the Equal Credit Act that would allow women to apply for their own credit cards and mortgage loans. Men should always co-sign. In 1978, they voted against the Pregnancy Act that they wanted to keep the employer's right to fire pregnant women. In 1980, they voted against allowing women to report sexual harassment in the workplace. Men will be men. And then, okay, in 19, excuse me, in 2012, they voted against the Equal Pay for Equal Work for Women. Men should be paid more. In 1994 and 2012, they voted against Violence Against Women Act, which helps victims of domestic violence and rape and educates law enforcement. In 1972, they fought against selling birth control to single women until the Supreme Court made it available for all. I want those things shouted from the rooftop, because we've got to remind Democrats who Republicans are. Right now, there's going to be a race, okay, we know the results coming out of Pennsylvania's governor race, right? We know that Mastriano, the guy that was Trump, you know, supported. We also know that he's been subpoenaed by the January 6th committee, because he was one of the leaders in pushing the big lie, all right? That goes to my point that, fine, let him win the primary and how I'll stack up in the general will be another question. Thank you, Cynthia. Shout from the rooftops. Well, there is no rooftop here. I'm in a condo. Okay, thank you. Appreciate it. Hey, Sandy, going to you, you know, in any voting or any election, it's all about the ground game. So how does the GOP, how do the Democrats, how does any organization that encourages voting, how do they energize the volunteers and to what degree are those volunteers up for the 2022 midterm elections? So we run a really state by state election protection program in which we ensure that people are able to get to the polls. If there are trouble at the polls reported to our election protection staff of attorneys who will go to court and ensure that their ability to be able to vote is honored and protected. And so that is what we do throughout the state. We call elections officials to say that there is trouble at the polls. And this is state by state, county by county, to ensure that people are able to vote. We educate people how to vote throughout the different states throughout the different counties, like how to early vote, which early voting sites are open, which early voting sites have been closed, went to use a provisional ballot, went to demand actual ballots, what kind of IDs are accepted, which kind of what are not accepted, you know, if the states would have ID requirements. So we do run that election protection program state by state, county by county. Alrighty. Sandy, how's the health or the pulse rate of mail-in ballots in all the other states? I know Hawaii, we're doing quite well as our mail-in. I mean, it's our way of voting. What's the health of mail-in balloting in many of these states where state legislatures have tried to restrict or prohibit mail-in balloting? Well, it's not good. Other states are not as welcoming as mail-in ballot. If you want a mail-in ballot across the nation, and especially the southern states, you have a very onerous requirement that you have to go through. Some states require, I just learned that in Missouri, you have to, they just passed a law that you have to swore out in affidavit, and so that is very challenging. And it's targeted towards minority populations. It's really to prevent minority populations from voting. And so it is difficult. Well, I can appreciate it's really difficult. Are there concrete methodologies to try to, other than legislative techniques, are there other techniques of trying to get around these restrictions about mail-in balloting? So definitely, people are going to court to challenge these laws as discriminatory of violating the Equal Protection Act. There could be a state constitutional protections that could be challenged under as well, because as we all know, the federal courts are not as welcoming as they used to be. Is there any hope by November 2022 that some of these court decisions may prevail and open that up? I cannot guess the courts anymore. Not to mention their decision, certainly their timelines are up in the air too. Yeah. All right. Well, hey, Sandy, thank you so much. Jay, we've run out of time, but I want to ask you something. You know, Fox News has done great to provide misinformation, disinformation to our voting public. To some degree, White Fear has set in. Also, the Stop the Steel, the election 2020 was bandied about on Fox News for quite some time. Did I say Fox News? I'm sorry, Fox commentary. It's not Fox News, it's Fox commentary. The question is, what can Democrats do to foil this disinformation campaign that Fox so much loves to do and is quite good at it? I don't know why, but what pops up in my brain is you go black. Justice on the Supreme Court years ago. Fire in a theater. Fire in the theater. Yeah. And, you know, yes, you have the right to say anything you want, but you can't call fire in a crowded movie theater because it's too dangerous. And there's a limit. Okay. And I think what we have in Fox News is fire in the theater, because everybody knows what's what's going to happen. And you divide the country and you make everybody mad at each other and you encourage, you know, murder in the street. And this is a big problem for voting because people are misinformed and disinformed. You know, we see from Russian television that you can, you can tell them the Brooklyn bridges for sale or that the moon is made out of green cheese. And if you say it often enough, they'll believe it. Yeah. And that's the problem about misinformation and disinformation. Okay. Well, let me go to that. Let me go to that because, you know, we heard Joe Biden, President Biden yesterday, specifically talk about misinformation and how that correlated to the shooting in Buffalo at the food, the food market. And he said he was going to come out and address those who are making profit off of such conspiracy theories, specifically white replacement. But he's meek. He's not really addressing the source of the problem, which is Fox's disinformation. Doesn't he have an FCC that he can say, look, I want you to examine this? Isn't he the president of the United States that have some influence over his regulatory agencies? The FCC is run by appointed officials. Yeah. They're not all Biden officials. Correct. And they're going to have to make a decision. But doesn't the president have any influence over this agency? Sure, he does. And he could make some, you know, some bully pulpit statements about them. He can try to reappoint their people when he can. But I agree with you that we need regulation on this. The fact is, the movie theater is at great risk when people are making outrageous statements like this. And, you know, we are in an emergency. This is an informant to take Sandy's point. We are in an information emergency. And to go through those, you know, remarkable decisions that Republicans have made. And the fact that we have a cult, we have cult that's running the country, or at least running the Republican Party. This needs to be fixed. This needs to be reformed. We have to dig deep and reform this. So, yes, we have to protect the vote. But we also have to protect the voters. The voters, because voters are only mammals and people. And they make mistakes if they are fed that information. And if we want to save the country, we're going to have to stop that. So the First Amendment has to be changed. The problem here is that the federal courts are a slightly off kilter more than that. And you couldn't count on the Supreme Court to protect us from this. And so I don't know. I don't know. And I'll have to get back to you much later about it, what we can do. Maybe Sandy has an idea how you can combat misinformation and disinformation in the first place. Well, I've counted three now, three. I'll have to get back to you, Tim. Times you've said that. So you will have to get back to me. Let Sandy answer my question. Okay, go ahead. We are actually working on that. We are standing up a cyber suppression program right now. And the National Common Cause Office is working on that issue, trying to figure out what can be done. One of it is FCC thinking through the regulations that could be proposed on this very issue. Holding corporate actors accountable. That's another issue that we are looking at. That's really, really important because that is driving voters away from the polls. It is giving you fatigue, but it's also giving you confusion. So when you finally get there and assuming your vote is respected, you could be making some terrible mistakes, as Cynthia was mentioning. All right, we've run out of time. So I'm going to go around the virtual table here and get your last thoughts. Cynthia, with you first. I think the polls in that sense show a little bit so we have tangible proof of something we kind of already knew. And that is that apathy, right? That people, they don't want to do anything. Now that it didn't work, they went put themselves out and it didn't do any good. So now they're like, well, forget it. So we got to stay engaged. And that's the most important thing is just staying engaged. You can get to the truth and you can get past the misinformation. If you get your information from more than just one place, if you're getting all your news from Facebook, chances are you're not getting the whole story or even the right story. And same with Twitter or even any one news source, you have to watch them all. And I know that's who has that kind of time, right? But you can get them brought to your inbox and you can just read parts of them and use whatever time you've got. It's important to stay engaged. And I have a quote from Madeleine Albright and that'll be my closing thought here. She said, and Madeleine Albright was an amazing woman, right? She says, the temptation is powerful to close our eyes and wait for the worst to pass. But history tells that for freedom to survive, it must be defended and that if lies are to stop, they must be exposed. Great quote. Great points, Cynthia. Thank you so much. Sandy, your last thoughts or comments? You know, I thought the polling that you mentioned to him was showed hope for the nation that people, despite all the misinformation, despite all the disinformation, despite all this coming at us, people are still engaged and want to save our democracy. So that's my takeaway that there is still hope. People still want to fight for what they believe in. It may not be everything that I believe in, but it doesn't matter. People still care. So that's a good thing. Wonderful. Thank you, Sandy. Great points, too. Jay, my co-host, you get the last word. Thank you. Sandy, from your lips to God's ears, as they say. The same thing with you, Cynthia, but I leave you with this thought and it's this thought that comes up on the Washington Post and it always touches me every time. Do you remember? Democracy dies in darkness. We really can never forget that. True. And that concludes our time for today. I want to say thank you to Jay Fidel, Sandy Ma and Cynthia Lee Sinclair. Thank you for joining us on American Issues. Take one. I'm Jim Abachello, your host. And won't you join us next Wednesday at 11 o'clock and see us again. Thank you so much. Aloha. Thank you for joining us on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at thinktecawaii.com. Mahalo.