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Our Director/Founder, Robert Greenwald is moderating a screening of “Safe & Easy! Vote By Mail In Florida” and a deep dive into the process with Marc Elias (Perkins Cole or Democracy Docket), Adner Marcelin (President, Florida NAACP), Bill Sauers (President, Florida Alliance for Retired Americans), Marcos Vilar (Alianza for Progress)
Join us and be a part of the discussion on voting safely during COVID-19!
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:22
and
00:23
we are live
00:26
good morning i’m robert greenwald
00:30
the president of brave new films and i
00:32
want to welcome everybody
00:34
joining this zoom premiere this morning
00:38
all over the country and welcome to the
00:41
press who are joining us
00:43
we’re being seen on facebook on twitter
00:46
on youtube on tick tock so wherever
00:49
you’re watching and wherever you’re
00:51
seeing
00:52
thank you for joining us and we look
00:54
forward
00:55
to presenting to you this morning
01:00
how to vote by mail brave new films is a
01:03
small non-profit
01:04
in the last couple of months as our
01:07
producers have talked to groups
01:09
all around the country we’ve had a
01:12
consistent
01:13
request from many different states and
01:16
the request has been
01:17
a video explainer how to vote by mail
01:23
they’re going to be millions and
01:25
millions of voters who have never voted
01:27
by mail before
01:28
and so for those people we want to make
01:31
sure
01:32
that there’s a simple and clear
01:35
explainer
01:36
that their votes are counted and they’re
01:38
able to vote
01:40
safely with the help of our friend rob
01:43
reiner
01:44
and many people from florida
01:47
who are part of and in the video they
01:50
will be explaining to you
01:52
how to do it for the purposes of the
01:55
press if you have any follow-up
01:57
questions we’ll be able to connect you
01:59
with the people
02:00
in the video also for press the full
02:04
zoom premiere and event will be
02:07
available
02:08
as well as the psa itself
02:11
so i want to first of all thank all of
02:13
the
02:14
amazing groups led by an alliance for
02:17
retired americans the tallahassee
02:20
naacp the florida afl-cio the new
02:24
florida majority
02:25
priorities usa democracy docket
02:29
public citizen and many more who are
02:32
doing the work
02:33
day in and day out to making sure
02:35
democracy is served
02:37
and that the elections are protected and
02:40
every one of you can vote
02:42
so with that i’d like to show the video
02:44
and then we will have
02:46
some speakers right afterwards renato
02:52
our country’s in danger we have a
02:55
president who denies science
02:57
who incites violence and
03:00
takes absolutely no responsibility of
03:03
keeping us safe
03:05
right now hundreds of thousands of us
03:09
are dying but it doesn’t have to be this
03:13
way
03:13
we have the power to stop this madness
03:17
and that power is at the polls but if
03:20
you’re frightened
03:21
of going to the polls you can request a
03:23
mail-in ballot
03:24
and it’s easy but make sure you do it
03:26
early and you get it in early
03:29
and there’s an organization that you can
03:31
and you’ll this video will show it to
03:33
you
03:33
it’s called vote.org it’ll explain it
03:36
all to you
03:37
it’ll make sure that you’re registered
03:40
it’ll you can request your mail and
03:42
ballot through them
03:43
and if we do this and we do this
03:45
overwhelmingly because we’re going to
03:47
have to
03:48
really overwhelm those polls and make
03:50
sure we get our voices out
03:52
we’ll win this and we’ll be able to stop
03:54
this madness so go to vote.org
03:57
and find out how you can vote by mail
04:01
[Music]
04:05
i’m yolanda russell and i live in
04:08
windermere florida barbara duvane
04:10
tallahassee florida florenzo canisares
04:13
south florida lorraine tuliano orange
04:15
county florida
04:16
stuart cohen sarasota florida i have 10
04:20
children nieces my mom wife grand nieces
04:23
and grand nephews
04:25
grandchild son two grandkids out in san
04:27
francisco
04:28
three in d.c five dogs my granddaughter
04:31
and her new husband hospitals here in
04:33
florida are really at the tipping point
04:35
the new coronavirus
04:37
epicenter numbers continue to rise i am
04:39
so scared i have a cousin whose husband
04:41
passed away we’ve lost several of our uh
04:44
state leaders
04:44
friend whose sister passed away he
04:46
passed away two weeks ago
04:48
this is their new hoax lost her mother
04:50
and her sister
04:51
members lost a parent they are dying
04:53
that’s true
04:54
it is what it is i think it’s under
04:56
control this misinformation going out
04:58
there
04:59
people don’t believe it’s as scary as it
05:02
is
05:03
people of color most black americans
05:05
latina americans
05:06
have had multiple people that they know
05:09
passed away
05:10
i’m 73 i’m 68 between cancer and heart
05:14
attacks we’re very cautious
05:15
because there’s no guarantees you’re
05:17
going to live we must preserve the
05:19
health
05:19
and functioning of our economy ease the
05:22
guidelines get it back
05:24
very quickly open things up after living
05:26
a long life
05:27
raising families trying to get a secure
05:29
retirement why are we being told that we
05:32
are
05:32
disposable makes you feel pretty shitty
05:34
because you’re disposable
05:36
in the middle of a pandemic everything
05:38
seems to be geared towards
05:40
opening an economy when the science says
05:42
otherwise
05:43
democracy is not about that kind of
05:45
sacrifice
05:46
thousands of people sacrificing them for
05:48
freedom not for the economy
05:52
sad angry hopeless appalled overwhelming
05:56
seniors being willing to die to save the
05:59
economy
06:00
they have seniors in their family they
06:03
don’t love their family
06:04
if all the consumers are dead there
06:07
won’t be any economy
06:10
i have my book here vote by mail vote by
06:15
mail
06:15
vote voting by mail because hey you’re
06:18
not going to go out
06:18
kobe we have no idea you don’t know what
06:21
they may be
06:22
carrying mail drop it in the mail open
06:24
it up
06:25
select your candidates mark them in fold
06:28
it back up
06:28
there’s a secrecy envelope in the
06:31
package
06:32
you put it in the secrecy envelope and
06:34
then there’s an outer envelope that you
06:36
put the secrecy envelope in
06:38
seal it up sign on the back date it and
06:40
you put it in the mail and send it off
06:42
two to three days later you can go
06:44
online to your supervisor of elections
06:47
office
06:47
then you can check the status of your
06:49
ballot get your voice heard
06:57
literally i believe that my life depends
07:00
on it vote like your life depends on it
07:02
because this time
07:04
it really does
07:20
all the groups that are participating
07:22
and the press that the video is
07:24
available
07:24
it’s free and we hope each and every one
07:27
of you will use it as a tool
07:30
to help spread the word to help protect
07:32
and preserve democracy in voting
07:35
and with that it’s my pleasure to
07:37
introduce although he’s
07:39
taped not able to be with us here today
07:42
live
07:43
one of the real heroes of the fight to
07:45
preserve the vote
07:46
mark elias who i’m sure many of you know
07:49
and have seen his name
07:50
in so many of the different legal fights
07:54
the efforts to protect the efforts to
07:57
make sure
07:58
that state by state the battle is there
08:02
that the rights are forefront and he has
08:05
been an
08:05
incredible champion for those fights all
08:09
over the country
08:10
many different courts including the
08:12
supreme court
08:13
renato if you could let us see mark
08:15
elias please
08:17
hi this is mark elias and i am pleased
08:20
to be talking to you today
08:22
uh about the alliance for retired
08:24
americans and the tremendous and
08:26
important work they have done
08:28
to support voting rights not just for
08:30
older americans
08:31
but for all americans this november uh
08:34
it’s no
08:35
uh secret that the country faces greater
08:38
obstacles to voting
08:40
this november than it ever has before uh
08:42
at least
08:43
in recent history we are in the middle
08:45
of a global pandemic
08:46
we have a president who is bad mouthing
08:49
and uh
08:50
and obstructing voting every day
08:53
we have a republican party that is
08:56
spending 20 million dollars in court to
08:58
make voting harder
09:00
and of course we have a u.s postal
09:01
service that seems more
09:03
interested in doing the bidding of the
09:05
president than in protecting voting
09:08
rights
09:08
and ensuring timely mail delivery
09:11
against that backdrop uh in early march
09:15
before the pandemic really took hold
09:18
and became as deadly as we now know it
09:21
tragically to be
09:22
i wrote about four pillars to protect
09:25
voting rights with vote by mail
09:27
these four pillars have now served as
09:29
the basis for dozens of lawsuits some of
09:31
which i have brought
09:32
and some of which other organizations
09:34
have brought
09:36
and there is no state where the voting
09:39
laws are more important than in the
09:40
state of florida we all
09:42
know and it’s no secret that florida has
09:44
a long history of close
09:46
and hard-fought elections and as we
09:49
looked out on the landscape of states
09:51
that had
09:52
difficult voting laws florida
09:54
immediately jumped off the map
09:57
working on behalf of the alliance
10:01
and other allies we sued the state and
10:04
all
10:05
67 county supervisors of elections to
10:08
ensure
10:09
that there are fair and enfranchising
10:12
rules and practices
10:13
in place for this november as a result
10:16
of that hard-fought battle we entered
10:18
into a settlement
10:19
with the state of florida which will
10:21
lead to a massive voter education
10:23
campaign
10:24
uh uh more language access for voters
10:27
and perhaps most importantly
10:29
an increase in the use of drop boxes
10:32
as a way to have people securely return
10:36
sealed mailed ballots without having to
10:40
go through the us postal system so at a
10:42
time when
10:43
other states being pressured by
10:45
republicans or republican officials are
10:47
cutting back on drop boxes
10:48
as a result of the great work that the
10:51
alliance uh
10:53
led we will actually see an expansion of
10:56
drop boxes
10:56
in florida but this is not the end
11:00
um we still have 50 plus days before
11:03
election day
11:04
and i want to thank everyone uh uh
11:07
listening to this and watching this for
11:10
your hard work and perseverance and
11:12
standing up
11:13
to protect our democracy and to protect
11:15
voting rights and i particularly
11:17
want to single out the alliance for all
11:19
of its support
11:20
and great work in this area not just in
11:22
florida but throughout the country
11:25
i wish i could be there with with you in
11:27
person today but unfortunately the fight
11:29
uh has to continue but i promise after
11:32
election day
11:33
uh and our successes uh we will all
11:36
celebrate in person
11:38
thank you
11:43
what he has said florida once again is
11:46
at the forefront
11:47
of the fight around voting rights and
11:50
fair
11:51
voting and voting by mail which is why
11:53
we did this video first
11:55
break new films we’ll be doing other
11:56
states also
11:58
but we’re leading off with florida
12:01
and with that i’d like to introduce
12:03
barbara devane
12:04
who is a social studies teacher retired
12:08
and an active member of the alliance and
12:11
through the wonders of
12:12
technology and zoom we’re going to go
12:15
to barbara on location barbara
12:19
all right and you go good morning
12:23
thanks for joining us today this is such
12:25
an important
12:27
message for all retirees and seniors
12:31
all citizens in the state of florida
12:34
i’m barbara devane and i’m secretary of
12:37
the florida alliance for retired
12:38
americans
12:40
i’m here at the supervisor of elections
12:42
office
12:43
in leon county in fact mark earley the
12:46
supervisor was just
12:48
out talking to me he just cut a psa
12:51
on vote by mail it’s so important
12:54
i haven’t voted by mail for over 20
12:58
years
12:59
but i did this year when the virus
13:02
started raging
13:03
in florida and in tallahassee my
13:06
hometown
13:07
it was so easy you can either come to
13:10
the supervisor’s
13:11
office or you can call or you can do
13:14
like i did
13:15
as soon as mark early sent out an unlock
13:18
electronic message to
13:20
all of us i went right online clicked
13:23
that very day and up popped a
13:26
copy of what i’m holding in my hand
13:29
it is so simple you just fill in your
13:32
name your birthday your signature things
13:34
like that
13:35
very easy only a half page
13:39
so do this today it’s never been more
13:42
important than today
13:46
than this election seniors
13:49
are noted for voting in mass
13:52
but we have to vote even more this year
13:56
we have to vote like our very lives
13:59
depend on it
14:01
like our social security depends on it
14:04
thank you so much get your vote by mail
14:07
ballot
14:08
today very easy
14:11
thank you and thank you barbara
14:15
and as i was always taught always listen
14:17
to teachers
14:18
and a retired social studies teacher
14:21
helping us lead the way
14:23
with that i’d like to introduce the
14:25
president of the tallahassee branch of
14:28
the naacp
14:29
and a leader in the african-american
14:32
community
14:32
in central florida and throughout
14:35
florida
14:36
thank you so much for joining us this
14:38
morning abner marceline
14:42
good afternoon everybody my name is
14:43
abner marslin and i am president of the
14:45
tallahassee branch
14:47
of the naacp but i heard about this
14:49
documentary and the premiere i knew that
14:51
i had to be a part
14:53
uh the black vote is very very important
14:57
in our community
14:58
and elections in florida that have been
15:00
very very close
15:01
have proven time and time again of how
15:03
important it is
15:04
that we get out and we vote and that our
15:07
vote is not suppressed in any way
15:09
every single vote in florida matters and
15:11
so what i am encouraging
15:13
everybody to do with me today is to go
15:16
out to the supervisor of elections
15:18
office and request that you get one of
15:20
these your mail-in ballot
15:22
and that you sign up and that you return
15:24
these ballots early
15:26
because the key is that they’re trying
15:28
to suppress the vote
15:30
in any way possible and if you do not
15:32
get to the polls
15:33
early enough and you do not return your
15:35
ballots you may
15:36
be suppressed and your vote may not be
15:38
counted so please join me
15:40
during early voting like barbara said
15:43
and we need to get in there and get our
15:44
votes in
15:45
early the elections are critical and
15:47
that is the only way that our voices
15:49
on critical issues that affect our
15:51
community is going to be heard
15:52
and so again i implore everybody to
15:54
request an absentee ballot
15:56
if you requested it and you did not
15:57
receive it please go to vote.org
15:59
or contact your local supervisor of the
16:01
elections office and they’ll be glad to
16:03
get you your ballot
16:04
but please make sure that as soon as you
16:06
can that you get your ballots in
16:08
that you actually go out and vote and
16:10
that you do it in a very early fashion
16:13
join me in early voting here in florida
16:15
thank you
16:16
and thank you and thank the naacp for
16:19
the work that they’ve done
16:20
historically over the years in fighting
16:23
for the vote in organizing for the vote
16:26
and making sure that everybody in every
16:28
state
16:29
has the opportunity to vote and have
16:31
their vote
16:32
counted and with that i’d like to
16:34
introduce bill sauers who is
16:36
president of the florida alliance for
16:39
retired americans which you’ve been
16:40
hearing about a lot this morning
16:42
it’s an organization which has more than
16:45
197
16:46
000 members statewide hopefully before
16:50
the election it’ll be 200 000 members
16:52
and with that bill thank you robert
16:56
uh i am bill sauer is the president of
16:59
the florida alliance retired americans
17:01
and it’s important to make a plan on how
17:04
you will vote this year
17:06
we want to keep you safe you can vote by
17:09
mail
17:10
you can vote during the early voting
17:13
periods
17:14
in person or you can vote on election
17:16
day however you vote
17:19
i urge you to make a plan today
17:22
to make sure you know the deadlines and
17:25
the rules
17:27
if you are going to vote by mail you
17:29
need to request your ballot
17:31
today and return it as soon as you can
17:35
the united states postal service has
17:37
warned that voters who wish to vote by
17:40
mail
17:40
should request their ballots at least
17:42
two weeks
17:43
before the deadline to ensure your
17:46
ballot is counted
17:48
i’m going to put my request in right now
17:52
you can also return your ballot via the
17:54
ballot box
17:55
rather than the mail your county
17:57
supervisor of elections can tell you
18:00
where they will be the pandemic has
18:03
changed so many things
18:04
about how we live and it is important
18:08
that it doesn’t change our right to fair
18:11
election results
18:12
that truly reflect the voices and the
18:15
will
18:16
of the people seniors have so much at
18:19
stake this fall
18:21
that we will need to protect our health
18:23
while we vote
18:24
i urge florida voters to plan ahead and
18:27
not wait
18:28
until the last minute it’s already time
18:31
to make sure you are registered to vote
18:33
and if you plan on voting by mail
18:36
request your ballot
18:37
today thank you
18:41
thank you so much bill and um
18:44
our fi final speaker will be marcos
18:46
delar
18:47
who has a long and extensive record of
18:50
social justice
18:51
working for the good things from high
18:53
school teacher to seiu to heads of
18:56
organizations
18:58
goes on and on and on thank you so much
19:00
marcos for the work you’re doing
19:02
and for joining us today if you will
19:04
unmute yourself then
19:06
and marcos will now speak
19:11
thank you robert um it’s certainly a
19:13
pleasure to be here among such great
19:15
company this morning
19:16
uh talking about an important subject of
19:18
vote by mail
19:20
alias for progress my organization was
19:23
one of the plaintiffs
19:24
that brought the case against the state
19:26
of florida
19:27
uh around fixing some of the problems we
19:29
have with vote by mail
19:31
we did that because more than 150 people
19:33
who we
19:34
turned out to vote in 2018 uh
19:38
did not get their votes counted 150
19:41
people
19:41
and we knew that with the covet pandemic
19:44
there would be a lot more people seeking
19:46
to vote
19:46
by mayo and so we thought it was very
19:48
important to work
19:49
towards uh getting folks to go by mail
19:52
particularly in the latino community
19:54
which is a community that’s not used to
19:56
voting by mail
19:58
and so we have done a
20:02
concerted effort calling voters
20:05
texting voters and i’m very proud to say
20:08
that during the primary
20:09
leading up to the primary elections in
20:11
august here in florida
20:13
we were able to talk to more than 300
20:16
000 people
20:17
about signing up to vote and of those
20:20
300
20:21
000 people uh 25 percent about 80 000 of
20:24
them
20:25
uh signed up to vote by mail and the
20:27
best news of all is that 78
20:30
of them voted by mail so we had an
20:32
incredible result
20:34
all latino voters many of them voting by
20:36
mail for the first time
20:38
and that’s sort of the dry run for what
20:39
we want to do
20:41
come november so we’re all in
20:44
uh voting like all the speakers before
20:48
me voting by mail is easy
20:50
it’s secure it’s safe it’s the best
20:53
alternative
20:54
during the pandemic to get your vote to
20:56
count you can also track your ballot
20:59
as has been stated before which is a
21:02
great way to make sure that your ballot
21:03
gets from
21:04
your home to the supervisor of election
21:07
and you can track that ballot
21:09
by uh going to your supervisor or your
21:11
local supervisor of elections website
21:14
so it’s a pleasure for me to be here
21:15
this morning uh we will continue
21:17
uh getting those people uh our our
21:20
people
21:20
our community uh to uh sign up to vote
21:24
by mail
21:24
and ultimately vote in november to make
21:27
sure we bring back this country into a
21:29
better direction
21:32
thank you so much and you know there’s a
21:34
saying slogan i’m not sure where it
21:37
started democracy is not a spectator
21:39
sport
21:40
and we’re seeing that today with all
21:42
these inspiring groups
21:45
people who are doing the work day in and
21:47
day out
21:48
and with that commitment to work and to
21:51
effort
21:51
and democracy and to each and every one
21:54
of you
21:55
watching this video watching this
21:57
premiere
21:58
seeing the work that’s being done take a
22:01
minute
22:02
spread the word use social media
22:06
use it to reach your friends your
22:08
colleagues your relatives
22:10
and let them know how to vote when to
22:13
vote
22:13
and that it’s simple and easy and they
22:16
can go to vote.org
22:18
for any of the press as i’ve said before
22:21
this will all be available to you
22:23
afterwards if you have further questions
22:25
for any of these inspirational leaders
22:27
and their organizations
22:29
will be able to arrange to put you in
22:31
contact and with that
22:33
thank you everyone go to work the time
22:36
is now
23:04
you
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video
