Shut Out

The unintended consequences of voter suppression. Really. Alarming news out of Georgia made national headlines: 53,000 voter registrations were on hold. Black voters didn’t take it lying down. What if voter suppression is beginning to backfire? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Five years in prison for voting. That’s the time Crystal Mason will serve for unknowingly voting while on supervised release. In this episode we explore how felons do the time, but are second-class citizens on election day. Americans are comfortable with shutting out felons from democracy. Why? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We take a 1960’s literacy test, designed to keep black people from voting, and learn more about how America made it hard, and continues to make it hard, for the black voter to get to the polls. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We don’t make it easy to vote in America. A citizen can be disenfranchised for a typo, a scrawled signature, or for a felony. Then there are the politicians who tout “voter fraud” when it’s a proven myth. Reporters Catherine Saint Louis and Sam Levine examine why we should be worried about the weakening of our democracy with 2020 on the horizon. Shut Out is a three-part podcast series produced by HuffPost.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.