Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin on How We Ban Gerrymandering and Protect Voting Rights

Introduction welcome back to democracy dockets 2024 caned Q&A series uh my name is Crystal Hill and I'm joined today by Wisconsin senator Tammy Baldwin uh who is running for re-election in the Senate uh today we're going to talk about uh some important Wisconsin cases as well as Baldwin stance on voting rights uh Senator Baldwin thank you so much for taking the time today thank you for having me I'm really delighted to join you great um well just to start uh tell Why are you running for reelection us why you're running for re-election well I'm running for reelection because I want um to have somebody who's fighting for working wisconsinites not just the powerful and well-connected and um I feel like this is a time where we need to continue our work on uh first uh lowering the cost of things that's something that's on the minds of my constituents uh including the work that I've done to lower the cost of uh prescription drugs and Health Care generally um I'm trying to put wisconsinites back to work I've been a champion of apprenticeships and by America policies and we're seeing the results of those uh those efforts uh but we're also trying to secure rights and freedoms back that we've lost and I would look at uh numerous areas where we're trying to do that after the dobs decision especially in a state like Wisconsin with a a statutory criminal abortion ban that wased passed in the year 1849 we need to uh secure those rights and freedoms back for half of our state and we also need to uh defend our democracy you know we're one of the states that uh uh had a uh elected a state of fake electors a slate of fake electors um it was uh it's a state where the Republican Le legislature has tried to make it harder for people to vote uh in barriers not literal but uh in many ways just things that are uh make it very difficult for people to access The Ballot Box and we also need to restore the right to organize in the workplace and so I W winning back our rights and freedoms that have been trampled on uh is another key priority for me as I run for re-election you talked about uh The Freedom to Vote Act defending democracy and talked about you know certain barriers to voting um I wanted to talk about the legislation you introduced in 2023 the freedom to vote act uh which would among other things it would establish early voting guidelines um no excuse vote by mail um which is uh there's a case related to that New York so it's you know something that um other lawmakers are considering um but these are goals that many Democrats have had um and have pursued but really haven't um they really haven't been able to bring it to fruition so can you talk about how you plan to advance this legislation are you going to reach across the aisle how will you gain enough support for bills like this right so first of all I I just want to localize the freedom to vote act because as I said earlier on we've had uh legislature in Wisconsin over many years that has um passed certain measures to make it harder to vote and uh you talked about uh no excuse absentee ballots um you know that's certainly one of those areas making like even during the pandemic making it so difficult for somebody to get the witness to sign uh the the ballot uh uh envelope uh and making it easier for elected officials to throw those out uh there's certainly a lot of uh restrictions that have been placed on the type of photograph you have to show uh you know governmen issued ID and all the things that ID has to have on it so that it excludes huge uh groups of people who maybe don't drive or our uh uh University students who come from other states and have to get a voting ID uh so there's um there's a lot of things that have been passed we have a big uh issue right now over uh ballot Dropbox which were used so successfully during the pandemic to make it safe and efficient to vote uh but they've uh but we've had a big back and forth about those things and so it's really important to me that we have Federal guard rails to prevent States like Wisconsin the Republican Le legislature from uh making it harder for people to vote and making it easier for votes not to be counted uh which is so deeply disturbing so I really want to advance that you asked how do we do it well the last time we tried we had a majority of senators who supported uh the freedom to vote act which was tied together with the John Lewis voting rights um advancement act um it was all big one big package we had a majority on that but as you know in the United States Senate you have to overcome a filibuster filibuster um requires 60 votes to overcome one and so we had a simple majority to pass the bill but we didn't have the 60 votes we needed to get to the debate or close the debate on the bill all right so what do you do we proposed at that time to reform the filibuster and we thought when we're talking about such fundamental constitutional rights that in rare circumstances like that we should reform the filibuster we came short uh we weren't able to reform the filibuster but I hope that if we're successful in this election and if we um uh elect Kamala Harris as president if we have a democratic majority in the US Senate a democratic majority in the house that we will be able to finally Advance the um the freedom to vote act combined with the John Lewis voting rights advancement act and I'm curious do you think that Dropboxes removing the filibuster I mean it sounds like that could be the major obstacle that once that is reformed could provide a pathway for passing legislation like uh freedom of V act as you said yes indeed I think that is the pathway to do it and I think it may be the only Pathway to doing it um and you you mentioned the Wisconsin Dropbox case um definitely a big deal uh that the court uh reversed the 2022 decision that ban the broad use of dropboxes um but some detractors you know have said that dropboxes you know lead to fraud of course there hasn't been any evidence of that um but others like um Wisconsin election commission chair an Jacobs uh speaking to democracy Doc in an interview a few months prior you know said that uh dropboxes are a good thing because they allow for people in rural areas for example to uh be able to vote um what is your stance on dropboxes are they a good thing for Wisconsin voters dropboxes are a great thing for Wisconsin voters and you know of course widespread use of them in Wisconsin uh began during the pandemic uh where it was um you know people were encouraged to distance people were encouraged to not be in crowded spaces to and so on Election Day you know if you were vulnerable uh to covid uh it would not be a good idea to stand in a long line with uh hundreds of other people uh to vote in person uh it would be you know so was a public health issue then but it works so well and a lot of the dropboxes now I'm talking about my home community in Madison Wisconsin a lot of the dropboxes uh were put at fire stations which of course are staffed 247 and they had cameras uh focused on them and so they were really safe uh in terms of an effective way of allowing people to access um uh you know to access one of the dropboxes and to uh vote uh you're right that it's also very useful in places where there are much longer distances that people have to travel um and and so I think they should be encouraged my opponent in this US Senate race has um has been crying falsely uh that these are going to lead to some sort of fraudulent activity and he was saying they should be uh guarded 247 well as I said most of the ones in Madison are at fire stations that are staffed 247 uh but uh you know there's um there's just no uh there's no truth to that and uh it's people trying to seow doubt in our Democratic process uh like the former president uh and and we need to stand up to that and say uh you know we should be making it easier for uh people to vote that's a great segue actually to my Message to Wisconsin Voters next question um you kind of alluded to it with you know your mention of the fake elector scheme uh Trump um 2020 was obviously a very tumultuous time um in the country and especially in Wisconsin which was and is a critical State um in 2020 and in this upcoming election um but even in even since 2020 you know there have been a lot of there's been a lot of doubt and confusion and Discord surrounding elections um I'm curious what is your message to uh Wisconsin voters who maybe they're reluctant to head to the polls maybe they believe that this election might not be fair uh what would you say to them yeah well first of all our vote is our voice in our democracy and let's go back to the basics we are a government of by and for the people if the people don't participate that makes that less so you're giving your power to someone else um and so don't do that but secondly um recognize misinformation and disinformation when you see it uh just uh in April uh Donald Trump was holding a rally in Green Bay Wisconsin and from that uh stage he claimed that he had actually won Wisconsin and 2020 there is no truth to that um my opponent joined Donald Trump on the stage at that same rally in Green Bay in early April and he was asked afterwards did he agree with um uh with Donald Trump and uh and he said well uh I think I I think uh Biden won Wisconsin but there was a lot of funny business a lot of shenanigans and he was impressed well what what do you think uh was wrong and he said oh the nursing homes well during the pandemic we had to take steps to make sure that people could safely vote during Co and um he said people in nursing homes should not be allowed to vote it's outrageous to disenfranchise whole groups of people uh and so we need to step up to misinformation and disinformation when we hear it um I think that uh in a state like Wisconsin where the votes are counted by locally elected um uh Clerks of towns of villages of cities uh and then reported uh there's no there's no way to um uh to well we should trust these officials we elect them and they do a darn good job of making sure every single eligible vote is counted and we should have faith in what they're doing I also wanted to ask about um Voter Accessibility voter accessibility um there is a pending lawsuit um against the Wisconsin election commission um that essentially wants to allow uh individuals with disabilities to be able to access uh absente ballots electronically um and that case is still ongoing um but I wanted to ask uh you know how you will uh if you're reelected how you'll you know fight for people um who you know might be differently abled and you know want to have um easy uh access to the ballot um how will you uh sort of work to um establish those uh protections for people with disabilities yeah so some of some of that could be Advanced and achieved by passing the freedom to vote act because there are Provisions there um that would be very important but I think at the federal level here's one of the things I think about the most you know we have Innovative new technologies um you know creating accessibility uh for people with a whole range of disabilities um we're finding new ways all the time but oftentimes the the um the problem for a local community is they can't afford that technology and so making sure that we team up with localities to assure that they can access um the type of Technologies needed to um help uh uh allow access whether that's electronic or te technological advances um you know I know again in some of our bigger cities they have more funding to have uh uh voting um you know consoles or whatever that are are interactive that allow people who are blind or people with hearing impairments or people with physical uh disabilities um we should have also those guidelines that make sure that any building in which voting is taking place is accessible to those with physical um disabilities so all of that I think is um important but one of the things we can do at the federal level is make sure that uh that small communities uh L even large communities um can afford uh the equipment and Technology especially as Advance it advances yeah that's a really Affordability great point about um how this technology is available but sometimes it just comes down to affordability um that's something that I haven't really heard a lot of people um raise uh so that that's an interesting point I did a story about um the Wisconsin the upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court race uh just kind of recapping how the last race was super politically charged and some experts I spoke to said you know they think that voters um are primarily driven by abortion rights but also that Jerry mandering was kind of a key issue and so can you talk about uh just how important the issue is I know Wisconsin's kind of um distinct with sort of the Divide uh you know between the legislature and Governor yeah so I I Wisconsin in recent years the last 14 years has been one of the most gerrymandered states in the country you know most of our Statewide elections are 5050 uh you may recall you know uh president uh president Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 by less than a percentage point and um Joe Biden won in 16 by less than a percentage point so we have these razor thin margins our legislature is 2third Republican onethird Democrat how can this be the same electorate well that's Jerry mandering you pack all the Democrats in this you know these districts and then so um we've been fighting the Jerry Mander for a long long time but during this uh last year um we finally got Fair maps and so what I'm seeing around the state you know and I'm running for re-election so I'm campaigning everywhere in Wisconsin we have contested races where we haven't had in certain districts for years because people look at such a deeply red deeply Republican District that no Democrat even thinks about running and conversely in the deep blue districts we have contested races we have voters with real choices um down ballot this year and it's very very exciting because I think it's increasing the enthusiasm about being involved um you know there's places where uh voters have not had um anybody knock on their door uh running for office for years because the incumbents just going unapposed that's changed and I have to tell you I just think that's so exciting and it wouldn't have changed if it weren't for um our state supreme court taking up the Jerry mandard uh a challenge to the Jerry J Mander map and determining that it was a Jerry Mander under our state constitution it was unconstitutional and they had to go about the process of uh creating a new map that was fair and so now we have that and I'm very excited about uh how that will increase voter participation yeah that's another point that I had not really thought about uh with Jerry mandering um and I am uh familiar with the case but um just this the possibility of Voters being more excited because you know they feel like maybe they have more of a say this time because it's not you know these set the same politicians winning and exactly they have a reason there's a contest there's a choice let's get out and do it and they're having you know I was once in the State Assembly in Wisconsin and the way I campaigned was door too uh with you know a little pamphlet that I'd leave behind if somebody wasn't there I'd stick it in their door if they're if they were there I'd hand it to them we'd have a conversation about what their concerns were uh what do they care about what do they want their representative fighting for and if you don't have those conversations or you haven't had one for a decade yeah maybe you do think well what really what difference will it make if I get out and vote um there's no choice anyways um and that kind of leads Kamala Harris to my last question uh speaking of Voters being energized um you know we all are um still reeling from the announcement that um vice president kamla Harris you know has entered the race um you know it seems like she really has energize the party um energize voters from what I'm hearing and seeing um have you thought about a potential Harris Administration do you think that you know you might be able to get more voting measures uh or that voting measures might have a better chance uh in an administ you know with the backing of an Administration that is you know very Pro voting rights uh Harris STS uh she has a record of supporting voting rights uh how will you I guess capitalize on some of the momentum that I think is coming from Harris's campaign yeah well first of all it's palpable in Wisconsin I mean just to be totally Frank uh as I was campaigning um in the last couple of months I would have people whisper to me I'm I'm worried I'm worried about uh our whole ticket I'm worried about the top of the ticket and um and when uh when President Biden did what I think is one of the most patriotic things I've ever seen um put country ahead of self uh which he's always done um he stepped aside and then endorsed kamla Harris I endorse kamla Harris I will just say uh because I'm represent Wisconsin we were thrilled that her first stop at the top of the ticket was in west Dallas in Milwaukee Wisconsin um yeah I've never seen a more energized crowd people are just um so so excited about you know it's new energy A New Beginning uh and you know one of the you're asking about um how she would approach the issue of um voting rights and um uh democracy well we've seen how she approaches that because she really took the lead when the dobs decision came out and roow versus Wade was overturned and half of America now has fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers she took the lead in fighting to restore Ro V way and I think she will take the lead as president to do the very same thing but she will add to the list of things that need to be restored and that is just full voting rights and um and you know all sorts of other really important reforms that are in the freedom to vote Act and the John Lewis voter uh voting rights advancement act um there's no question uh that these are all fundamental uh constitutional rights are are vote is our voice and um and row has to do with our bodily autonomy right these are incredibly important rights and freedoms that have been peeled back that we need to restore and she's going to be at the very lead that seems like a great note to end on um Senator Baldwin thank you so much for taking the time I know you're super busy with your re-election bid thank you and with legislative duties of course yes juggling that's what they call juggling thank you for tuning in today to democracy dockets candidate Q&A series to stay up to date on all voting rights news please subscribe to our free newsletter thank you so much [Music]