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Your Call

Record Early Voter Turnout Despite Long Lines, Limited Dropboxes & Fewer Polling Places

Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle
People wait in a long line outside in Houston during the first day of Texas early voting Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020.

  On this edition of Your Call, we’re discussing record early voter turnout. Nearly 34 million Americans have alreadyvoted, compared to just 1.4 million at this time in 2016.

Georgia, Texas, Ohio and Illinois have setrecords. Texas now leads the country with nearly 4 million early voters. In Georgia, over 128,000 votes were cast in early voting last Monday, a more than 40 percent increase from 2016.

We’ll also discuss how voter suppression is playing out with hours long lines at polling places, machine glitches, and fewer ballot dropboxes.

Guests:

Ari Berman, senior reporter at Mother Jones covering voting rights and author of Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America

Tory Gavito, co-founder and president of Way to Win, a national progressive donor collaborative in Texas

Stephen Fowler, award-winning reporter and photographer for Georgia Public Broadcasting, covering state and local politics, and host of Battleground: Battle Box

Web Resources: 
The New York Times, Reid J. Epstein, Stephanie Saul and Manny Fernandez: Eight-Hour Waits. Machine Glitches. Why Early Voting in Some States Has Had a Rough Start. 

Texas Tribune, Shawn Mulcahy: High turnout, sporadic problems reported at Texas polling places as early voting begins 

The Washington Post, Beto O’Rourke & Tony Gavito: Joe Biden can win Texas if he invests there 

ProPublica/Georgia Public Broadcasting, Stephen Fowler: Why Do Nonwhite Georgia Voters Have to Wait in Line for Hours? Their Numbers Have Soared, and Their Polling Places Have Dwindled.

NPR, Anastasia Tsioulcas: Georgia Voters Face Hours-Long Lines At Polls On First Day Of Early Voting