“A Fire That Has Spread Across the Country”: Jelani Cobb on Voter Suppression in the 2020 Election

As tens of millions of people across the U.S. cast their ballots in early voting ahead of the November 3 election, we look at voter suppression efforts with journalist and academic Jelani Cobb. His new “Frontline” documentary “Whose Vote Counts” examines the long lines, record number of mail-in ballots and the legal fights that have marked voting during the pandemic, with a focus on Wisconsin. “This is a state where the presidency was essentially decided in the last election,” says Cobb, a professor of journalism at Columbia University and a contributor to The New Yorker.

He describes voter suppression as “a fire that has spread across the country.” Transcript AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! , democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report . I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Today marks two weeks from November 3rd, official Election Day. Amidst the pandemic, more than 30 million people nationwide have already voted through mail-in ballots or early voting — about a fifth of the total number of votes cast in 2016. It’s shattering all records for voting. Early voting begins today in Wisconsin and Utah. As voters in the United States choose their next president, we spend the rest of the hour […]

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