Welcome to Pacifica Radio’s LIVE coverage of the October 17th No Kings Early Vote Mobilization from the studios of WBAI with reports from our affiliates from Maine to Alaska. I am Bob Hennelly and I am joined by my co-host Juilana Forlano who is just outside Philadelphia.
Early voting is already underway in at least 22 states including vote rich California and Ohio with over eight million ballots already cast nationally. Historically, voter turnout drops off considerably in mid-term Congressional elections as opposed to ones where the Presidential contest tops the ballot.
In the last 26 years, the turnout for a midterm highwater mark was just over 50 percent. That was in 2018 during President Trump’s first term when Democrats picked up 41 seats and outpolled Republicans by 10 million votes.
This mid-term comes as the Trump regime doubles down on their violent mass deportation campaign- which is on pace to detain and jail 50,000 US residents a month. At the same time, President Trump has tried to co-opt and control the US mail, a service vital to conducting a fair and free election. He pushed several states to gerrymander their House districts in order to purge Black members of Congress and insulate the GOP from losing control of Congress.
Although the national tide is turning against Republicans, big money is pouring into races across the country to help them at unprecedented levels, with Elon Musk alone reportedly spending at least $366 million dollars to boost GOP candidates.
Last week, Bishop William Barber and the national leaders of today’s No King’s Early Voting National Mobilization gathered in front of The Supreme Court which has played a central role in rolling back the 1965 Voting Rights Act that made it possible for tens of millions of voters of color to vote.
Beatriz Lopez, the Executive Director of Voto Latino describes what Latino voters now face amidst the Trump regime's anti-immigrant violence and having to justify their presence in the country whether or not they are citizens or here legally.
"We are standing in front of the highest court in the land talking about something that should be simple--the right to vote without fear," Lopez told reporters. "For too many families right now, that fear is real. In the last few months I've heard the same question from parents, from students, from my own family--is it safe to go out--is it safe to vote?
And every time I think of one story that I've seen--a young Latino man in Oklahoma stopped by ICE. A local police officer had the heart to step in and put him in his own car and in the back of that car all that he kept saying was 'I have papers--I am a US citizen. Why are they doing this to us?"
The No Kings mobilization, of well over 3,000 local events, is also aiming to enlist tens of thousands of voters to protect the local voting process, to non-violently counter any January 6th type disruption of the election. That includes the tabulation of the results and the certification of the results, all things we once took for granted.
Ezra Levin is the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Indivisible that originated the No Kings cycle of actions. Kevin contrasted how the nation’s elites responded to Trump 2.0 and the several millions of Americans that turned out at No Kings event across the nation.
"We have a fascist in the White House right now which means democracy is in peril but it is not dead," Levin said. “Twenty months ago, as this guy was coming into the Oval Office, elites from across America were bowing down--in media--in law firms--in universities--in business--in some parts of both political parties but you know what the people said? How many kings? No Kings!”
