Today, Explained - The Voters

Episode Date: October 28, 2020

Election turnout is on track to be the highest in a century. Farmers, essential workers, prisoners, and two ladies named Ruth explain their 2020 presidential pick. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit connectsontario.ca. The United States presidential election is now less than a week away. It might take days to get the results. It might take a week. It might take a month. We don't know. But it could be over on November 3rd. And wouldn't that be nice? We've been talking about this election on the show since February of 2019. Seriously. I looked it up recently. We've come at it from any number of angles. But one thing we haven't done a ton of is just hear how people plan to vote, who people plan to vote for. So today, we're going to do that. We're going to hear from farmers, from frontline workers, we're going to hear from political organizers, and from a few voters who are named Ruth. But let's kick things off with someone who's voting for the very first time.

Daniel Simeon Gothier Sr., 48 years old, in Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston, Maine. I've already voted this year. It was a Wednesday morning. I got up out of bed, had breakfast, waited around, watched the news. And about 9.30, 10 o'clock, an officer called my name. So I went up to the desk, and I got my letter, which said, official ballot enclosed. So I took it, sat down on my bunk, and I filled out my ballot, signed it, put it back in the envelope, put a stamp on it, brought it back up to the corrections officer, gave it to him, and asked him if he would please mail my ballot back. I have never voted before. I got interested in it by watching the news and listening to the correction officers talking

and reading the newspaper, because we have a lot of time on our hands in here. And it's actually pretty interesting and kind of exciting to be part of something bigger than myself. I voted for President Trump because I think some of his ideas are actually pretty good, and Mr. Biden, I think within two years, he's not going to be very coherent. So we're going to end up having somebody else as president if he's elected. I'll be out of prison in six months so I believe that if given the chance the president could open the economy back up could open more jobs

make it easier for somebody getting out of prison to reintegrate into society to maybe get a job get a place to live, all that. Hi, my name is Alexi Reyes. I'm a Mexican photographer and artist. I'm 19 and I live in Texas. This year, I'm going to be voting for Biden-Harris. I think right now we really do need a change in leadership. I wouldn't say I'm an enthusiastic Biden voter. I would say that I want change. And I think the best way to have that is to elect Biden into office.

I'm passionate about things like making sure we get a cure for COVID and that it ends soon. I think same-sex marriage is super important and shouldn't be taken away. I also believe things like gun control are super important, especially as someone that just graduated. I think it's super important to feel safe in school because it's somewhere you need to go learn, not be worried about your safety. The Hispanic vote can definitely vary, but I think with younger people, we're focused on everyone rather than just ourselves. So we want to make sure that not just the Hispanic community, but the Black community, the Asian community feels safe as well. So we're voting for them, not just for us. My name is Armando Ibarra.

I'm the president of the Miami Young Republicans. And I'm very proud to be voting for President Donald Trump. Here are our Miami Latino community. We feel like he values us. And this goes for the Cuban American community, for the Venezuelan American community, for the Colombian American community, for the Nicaraguan American community. He came to Miami and he made promises to us. He promised us that maximum pressure against the Cuban and Venezuelan and Nicaraguan dictatorships. He promised that he would stand with the Venezuelan people. And he recognized Juan Guaó as a legitimate president of Venezuela. He indicted Nicolás Maduro.

He came here and he promised Colombian Americans that he would stand with President Álvaro Uribe. And that he would fight against Castro Chavismo that's trying to harm Colombia. So, you know, I think in all these cases, he came to our community, he made promises to us, but then he delivered on those promises. And our leaders in our community, we have positions of impact in the administrations and influence within the party and the administration. And I think this is a complete contrast with Joe Biden and the Democrats who, on the other hand, they relegate Latinos to a kid's table with nonsense like Latinx and Despacito. And so I think, you know, it's very clear that the Democratic Party wants our votes, but the Republican Party works to earn our votes. My name is Leslie Mack. I am 44 years old. I'm originally from Brooklyn, New York, but I live in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Janet Braden, 65, and I live in Crawford, Texas. The issue I organize most around is racial justice, social justice, and Black liberation. I've already voted for President Trump. Trump? I think what we're going to see is that a Biden win will be very directly connected to mobilization of progressive racial justice movements across the country. And so when we come out of this election, hopefully on the other side, these conversations are going to have to be around where the gaps exist between what we see as the direct needs and material needs of our communities and what the Biden-Harris camp might see as solutions to those issues. I relocated from California because I didn't like the taxation and all that was going on in California. My father was a manufacturer in East LA of architectural hardware. He sold his company

in late 70s because he no longer wanted to deal with all of the regulations and used to say if he ran his company like the government, he would have been bankrupt years ago. And I thought, you know, could a businessman do any worse than the idiot politicians that we've had for the last umpteen skillion years that it's just not ever getting better? They say they're doing something, but they're not. We are looking at a catastrophic tumble into fascism on one side and then the other maintenance of a flawed but certainly still democratic system. And so the attacks on birthright citizenship, on curbing immigrants and refugees here in this country, the significant amount of deportations, all of those things have directly affected my personal community.

My main reason for voting for who I vote for are taxes, obviously the safety of this country. We've always had borders. Why can't we continue to have borders? All other countries seem to have borders. I've had to go through a lot of hoops to get in to just go into Mexico for vacation, yet we allow people to just pour into this country and then we're supposed to take care of them. I don't have a problem with bringing people into this country, but they need to play by the rules. We have the rules. Let's follow them. Otherwise, why even have stop signs? My name is Sana Heber. I am 26 years old and I live in Lyle, Illinois, and I am a kindergarten teacher. I'll be voting for Joe Biden this year.

Something that's very important to me is that everyone should feel comfortable in the space that you're living in. So I am a Muslim who wears hijab. I never felt like I stood out in a negative way. And I've never experienced this in my life where I feel anxious walking down the street because of the stares that I get or what people might say. And I have never felt more self-conscious than in these past four years. So on a personal standpoint, that's where I'm at. As a kindergarten teacher, one thing right off the bat that myself and a lot of educators were not happy with when Trump got elected was that he chose Betsy DeVos as his secretary for education. And she is an individual who has absolutely zero experience in education and in public education.

And a lot of what she is promoting under the Trump administration is to cut federal funding and take that money and spend it towards private schooling. You have to understand that the majority of our population in this country, our kids are receiving public education. And if they're not getting the services that they deserve because of the area that they live in or because they come from a different background, that's an extreme disservice to them. My name is Terrence Wise. I am 41 years old. I'm a McDonald's worker and a leader in the

Fight for 15 in the Union, living in Kansas City, Missouri. When I think about the upcoming election and so much at stake, and when you think about what the working class has been going through, even before the pandemic began this year, the lack of union, the lack of health care, the lack of a living wage all across the board, all across the country, it's clear that the working class best interest has not been upheld in this current administration. So I think from a personal standpoint, it's clear that I'm on the Biden-Harris ticket. And my plan for election day is to vote in person. You know, I'm going to be there at the ballot box with my fiance and my daughter, who's 18, and this is her first year voting. So I think we got to go to the ballot box, not as an individual, but as a community, as a family and as a working class if we want to make change.

I promised you'd hear from some voters named Ruth. They're coming after a quick break on Today Explained. Support for Today Explained comes from Ramp. Ramp is the corporate card and spend management software designed to help you save time and put money back in your pocket. Ramp says they give finance teams unprecedented control and insight into company spend. With Ramp, you're able to issue cards to every employee with limits and restrictions and automate expense reporting so you can stop wasting time at the end of every month. And now you can get $250 when you join Ramp. You can go to ramp.com slash explained, ramp.com slash explained, r-a-m-p.com slash explained. Cards issued by Sutton Bank, member FDIC, terms and conditions apply. Bet MGM, authorized gaming partner of the NBA, has your back all season long. From tip-off to the final buzzer, you're always taken care of with a sportsbook born in Vegas.

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Well, my name is Chris Peterson, and I live in Grantsburg, Wisconsin, and I will be 68 years old. We have a dairy farm in northwest Wisconsin, about 70 miles north of Minneapolis-St. Paul, and I'm going to be voting for President Trump in all my time on the farm. I grew up in Minneapolis. I was a city slicker, and I married this really cute farmer in Northern Wisconsin. And in all my time as a farmer, I was so struck by how difficult it was that agriculture was and how hard it was to get milk out of cows and worry about the crops and blah, blah, blah. And President Trump talks about agriculture and his farmers. He talks about them all the time. And he values what we do, and he keeps his promises. Agriculture is the backbone and strength of our country. And for some reason, this city slicker from New York City gets that, President Trump. And that's why we think

he's just the best thing since sliced bread. Matt Russell, 50 years old, Lacona, Iowa. I'm a farmer, and my husband and I farm here in South Central Iowa. We're voting for Vice President Biden and Senator Kamala Harris. I think this administration has invested tens of billions of dollars. I think we could be approaching $100 billion in this administration to try to just keep the farm industry or the agricultural industry in the United States in a status quo position. And that's not good for us. Instead of thinking about how do we invest to make our systems more resilient, we just kind of doubled down on what we've got. So more of the same crops, more of the same livestock, more of the same processing facilities, and more of the same crops, more of the same livestock, more of the same processing facilities and more of those same people involved.

So I think the Trump administration has used rural America for political purposes. And in terms of farmers, they've unleashed an unbelievable amount of subsidies in compensation for the trade war and in failing on COVID. And I really feel like Biden and Harris have put plans together to invest in farmer, rancher, and rural American leadership for the 21st century. My name is Ruth Malhotra, and I live in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm 36 years old. My name is Ruth Little. I live just outside of Orlando, Florida, and I'm 61. I've been involved in Republican politics for a very long time, actually going back to 1996. I was only 12 years old, and ever since that time have taken a real interest in politics and the presidency.

I'm still undecided. I'm not happy with either of the choices, honestly. Trump is just not a nice person. I just think he's problematic in a lot of ways. I think the fact that he's had so many cabinet positions, people rotating in and out. But Trump is tougher. I think he's kind of known as a negotiator. And while you might disagree with some of the details, the work that he's done with our relations to China, I think there was adjustments to our trade agreements with China that were easy to ignore. And I think it was high time that we addressed some of the trade issues and the way that China sees intellectual property rights. When 2016 rolled around, I was really shocked and disillusioned in many ways to see how

President Trump sort of took center stage. It seemed like he came out of nowhere. And the policies he was promoting and the promises he was making, I just didn't trust that he would follow through with that. I thought, you know, maybe a lot of this is just pandering to these different constituencies, especially to myself as an evangelical Christian. I thought, well, maybe he's just telling us what we want to hear. So I voted independent four years ago, my first time to not vote Republican. Joe Biden, honestly, his age is part of my concern. Trump really seems to be pretty sharp, whether you agree with him or not. My perception is that the Democrats tend to have a slightly softer position on international matters. And I think there's certainly a time for diplomacy,

but I think there's also a time for strength. You know, the number one issue for me is dignity of human life, starting with life at conception. And so he made a lot of promises to the pro-life community four years ago. Again, I was somewhat skeptical, but he has championed the pro-life cause from day one in his administration. For instance, the heartbeat bills were prevalent throughout the country. Other issues of importance are religious liberty, free speech, you know, the whole category of First Amendment issues. As I followed those actions and seen tangible results, I do feel that it's the same intellectual honesty that compelled me to oppose his candidacy last time is actually what is compelling me to vote for him this time. I'm frustrated with the machine that, again,

has given me two choices that are not good. I would have liked to have had two completely different choices in 2016, and I really wish that we had different choices now. I'm puzzled and dismayed that the collective we came up with these two candidates. You know, I still do have serious concerns about President Trump, and it's not an easy decision for me. And as a friend of mine says, you know, sometimes you're given a menu of undesirable options and you have to choose from that. And so I just pray for wisdom and realize that it's the people who make America great, not any one person in political power, but all of us doing our part to contribute to a healthy and hopeful society.

My name is Arthur Longworth. I'm 55 years old, and I am in the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe, Washington. And contrary to people in Washington State, I'm not allowed to vote. In the presidential election, if I could vote, I would vote for Biden. I don't end it on Biden because, you know, I have to believe in redemption as possible. Why is the concept of remorse and redemption so important to me? I guess I have to believe it. As a young person, I killed somebody.

I was sent to prison for murder. I've spent my whole adult life locked up in prison. I have a sentence that never has an end until I die. If I don't believe in those things, I don't believe in myself. And I think where Biden comes in on redemption is important. He's a hard choice. I mean, he is a guy who was an ardent backer of the 1994 crime bill, one of the biggest contributors to the mass incarceration state we have going on. But where the possibility of redemption comes in is, you know, I've heard Biden admit he was wrong.

I mean, that's big for me. I'm aware Kamala Harris is his running mate, but that's actions, at least a determination to move forward and look more deeply into those things. I'm conscious that Trump, before he was president, used his money, his power in this country to take out a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the death penalty against the Central Park Five, those people who weren't even 18 years old, for a crime that turns out they didn't even end up committing. And he's never apologized for that. And now he wants to portray himself as a prison reformer? He's not showing any signs of redemption.

Arthur Longworth. You might remember Arthur from a previous episode of Today Explained. He was on our show about COVID-19 in American prisons back in April. We wanted to hear from Arthur again because he's one of many American citizens who don't have the privilege of voting this year. There's about 5 million of them out there. Anyone who's incarcerated outside of Vermont or Maine, most people who have been convicted of felonies, people on probation, our friends in American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico. And let's not forget voter suppression. Like every other year, votes won't be counted this year. People will be turned

away from the polls because their names aren't on the rolls, because they don't have ID. As we covered on our show yesterday, the Supreme Court just overruled an effort to extend voting deadlines on mailed ballots in Wisconsin, deadlines that were extended because we're in a global pandemic. And finally, let's not forget people who just can't get Tuesday off to go vote. People who have to work. In spite of all of that, American voters are already breaking records this year. There have already been something like 70 million votes cast by some counts, and some forecasters say 65% of the country will show up to vote in this presidential election, the highest number since 1908. And that is during a global pandemic. I'm Sean Ramos-Firm. The Today Explained team includes Halima Shah, Will Reed, Muj Zaydi, Amna Alsadi, and Noam

Hassenfeld, who contributes music to. The rest of our music comes from Breakmaster Cylinder. Extra help this week from Bird Pinkerton, Cecilia Lay, and Paul Mounsey. Afim Shapiro is the show's engineer. Golda Arthur is our supervising producer. And Liz Kelly-N Nelson is Vox's editorial director of podcasts. Today Explained is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.