Restrictive voting laws ’undermine' purpose of democracy: NextGen America

Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, NextGen America Executive Director, joins Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous and Kristin Myers to discuss Texas lawmakers advancing with restrictive election bill.

Video transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: Georgia is feeling more economic pain as a Will Smith film called "Emancipation" backs out of filming in the state over their passage of restrictive voting laws, and Georgia is not the only one that has considered this voting restrictive legislation. Texas is also considering some similar moves as well, including ones that come with criminal penalties. Let's talk about this more with Cristina Tzintún Ramirez, executive director of NextGen America.

So Cristina, the boycott efforts seem a little bit slow, at least when it comes to Georgia. We did have the Major League Baseball moving their all-star game. Now we have this Will Smith film pulling out of the state. I'm wondering if you think the efforts, at least this economic effort, is going to be picking up any more steam inside the state of Georgia.

CRISTINA TZINTZÚN RAMIREZ: Well, you know, we've seen in Georgia good corporations want to be good citizens and good community members, and that they understand that silence is complicity with these sweeping packages of voter suppression bills, whether they be in Georgia or Texas, that, really, there is a choice corporations have. They can continue to support efforts to make us a country that's fearful and divided, or we can choose, as a country, to live up to our promise to guarantee all people the same rights and responsibilities.

So these are just beginning efforts, and we've already seeing them spread here to Texas where you've seen companies like American Airlines, Dell, step up and call out the legislative body and our governor and say, this kind of legislation does not belong in a modern democracy, that it threatens the economic and political health of the second largest economy in the country here in Texas, and you're seeing that happen in Georgia. So I think we're going to continue to see this spread because it is such an outrageous effort and power grab that undermines the entire purpose of democracy.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Cristina, let's dig a little bit into this Texas proposal, this bill that's trying to make its way through the local legislature there. What are some of the most concerning aspects of that bill to you as it is written right now?

CRISTINA TZINTZÚN RAMIREZ: Well, first, I want to say that, you know, in Texas, our legislature only meets every other year, and no package of bills has gone through as fast as these bills. You know, we just went through a historic freeze where thousands of people are still suffering and have astronomic electric bills. We have the highest uninsured rate in the country.

Nothing has gone through as fast to address those needs, but this sweeping legislation that would actually even allow for felonies for local officials that are simply doing their job and trying to increase voter turnout, it would make it more difficult and hard to vote from everything from reducing the number of hours that people can go and vote, trying to reduce the numbers of days that people can vote early, and, of course, things like-- we've also seen where, here in Texas, even making it illegal to register other people to vote, trying to get rid of our incredible deputy voter registrar system where thousands of people volunteer and do the good work of registering other people.

The last thing I want to say is that I'm incredibly concerned by the people that are saying that there is voter fraud. I want to be clear. There is no voter fraud, especially not being perpetrated by Black and Brown voters. The fraud is being committed against us. And in 2018, the same people that are proposing this legislation supported an effort to purge 100,000 citizens from the voting rolls here in Texas, and they said they were all illegal votes.

Well, it all turned out to be a big lie, and the Texas governor and the Texas Secretary of State had to admit that there was no voter fraud. And in the time period, they sent thousands and thousands of letters to many new voters, telling them that they would be prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law for voter fraud. And again, it all turned out to be a big lie, and they actually had to admit that all of those people had the right to vote.

KRISTIN MYERS: Cristina, you're working with local lawmakers right now. A two-part question for you here, one, how confident are you that, through your work with some of those politicians, that these bills will face defeat, at least in the Texas legislature? And how concerned are you that Texas might follow in the footsteps of Georgia and pass some of these bills? Especially, as you say, they are moving faster than any other legislation that the state has seen so far.

CRISTINA TZINTZÚN RAMIREZ: So I think, whether you live in Texas or Georgia, we should all be concerned about this kind of legislation, and we've seen this kind of legislation pop up state by state, and it's also why we need federal action so desperately. We need to support H.R.1, which is one of the most comprehensive bills I've ever seen in my lifetime to protect the franchise.

What we have to remember in this country is that democracy has always been a threat to the powerful and elite, and that they will oftentimes do anything they can to try and suppress the voice and vote of Americans, especially when it comes to communities of color that want to determine a different direction for our country. What I can say is we are going to work incredibly hard.

There are organizations across the state and across the country battling in the state houses, trying to work behind the scenes to stop this legislation. We are also aware that, you know, for someone like me in Black and Brown communities that we won the right to vote because people mobilized, marched, and some even died so that we could have this right, and we are not going to give it up without a fight, and we're going to bring our fight to courthouses, into the streets, and into every single election moving forward because we know that we have the numbers. We have the power on our side.

And long term, we will ultimately win, but it's so critical that we take our fight to every single level that we can, not just leave it up to the legislature to decide our fate but also work at legal avenues and continue to organize and register and mobilize voters and remove any elected official from office that thinks that they can pick their voters instead of their voters picking them.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: And lastly, I just want to get back to that one part of the bill talking about how volunteers who are helping people fill out these ballots could actually be held for criminal offenses. What is that going to do? I mean, that certainly wouldn't incentivize me to want to go out and volunteer. What's your fear there?

CRISTINA TZINTZÚN RAMIREZ: Well, you know, we've seen that the whole voting process has become not just politically charged, but now there's these criminal elements that are trying to layer on top. So, in the state of Texas, we've historically had some of the lowest voter turnout in the country, and that started to change not because of state-level elected officials but because of local elected officials that have taken it upon themselves to work extra hours, work extra hard to make sure that people have ballots, that people are registered.

And now the state legislature wants to hold local elected officials and say that they will bring felony charges against them if they help folks do very simple things like fill out ballots or send people absentee ballots, that that will become felony charges for local elected officials. And not to mention some of these bills also allow for increased poll watchers and take away much of the protections for people to feel protected at the ballot box.

And if you look at the state, there's been very, very, very few cases where people have even been prosecuted. But in Texas, 75% of the people that have been prosecuted for a supposed voter fraud, 75% have been Black and Brown voters.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, definitely something that we're all going to be keeping our eyes on. Cristin Tzintún Ramirez, NextGen America executive director. Thanks so much for stopping by and chatting about this with us.