Real ID, Real Consequences: How Bureaucracy Could Silence Your Vote

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A Black Executive Perspective.

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Now presents need to know with

the award-winning hyphenated Dr.

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Nsenga Burton, Dr.

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Burton.

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What do we need to know?

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Dr. Nsenga Burton:

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Good afternoon and welcome

to Need To Know with Dr.

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Nsenga Burton.

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I am she.

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I hope that you're having

a wonderful day today.

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I wanna talk to you about

these voting rights issues.

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So in case you have been enjoying

your holiday, your, uh, Easter Holiday

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or Passover, um, you may not be.

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Paying attention to what day it is.

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But by May 7th, you will

have to have a real id.

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This is what you need to know.

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Uh, you'll have to have what is called

a real ID in order to verify that you

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are, um, a US citizen in order to travel.

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So, for example, uh.

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If you have a driver's license

or if you're old enough to have a

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driver's license, you have to have a

driver's license that has a real ID

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on it that is indicated by a star.

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It's a black star or silver

star, or gold star, sorry.

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Uh, and is indicated by one of

the one or two of those things.

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If you look at your driver's license

and you do not have one, you need to

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go to your local Department of Motor

Vehicles, which we call the DMV.

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And go ahead and get an

updated driver's license.

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Otherwise, the only way that you'll

be able to travel within the United

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States and beyond is with a passport

or another id, military ID or

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another ID that has been verified

with your, uh, birth certificate.

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If you do not have a copy of your

birth certificate, just contact, um.

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Your, uh, oh, I'm having a

brain fart on the agency that

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has the birth certificates.

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Oh, no.

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Okay.

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So, uh, every municipality has

a place where you can go, it's

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usually city hall and you can

get your, um, birth certificate.

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Um, but you need to have a

copy of your birth certificate

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in order to gain the real id.

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So these things are important because

you have all of these initiatives that

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are in play based on some of the things

that the Trump administration wants.

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So for example.

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Your ID has to match

your birth certificate.

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They're trying to get that

passed through right now.

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That doesn't sound like

a huge deal, right?

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We've been talking about this for

voter, uh, id, um, and voter suppression

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and all of that for decades now.

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But this is why it really matters

now because most women who are

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married have changed their names.

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The majority of us women who get

married change their last names, so

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their name is not gonna be the same

as it is on the birth certificate.

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Thus, and so if the requirements that you.

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Identification for your voter ID

must match your birth certificate.

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Exactly.

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That means it's going to disenfranchise.

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Millions of women voters.

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All right, so these are

what we call workarounds.

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This is what people do who can't

outright steal the right to

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vote, even though they've tried

valiantly and have succeeded.

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Like in my home state of Georgia,

um, where we have the architect of

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voter suppression as our current

governor, who's probably gonna run

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for national office at some point.

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Um, and you know, if you need an

example, you only need to look at the 1.5

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million people who were purged

from the roles based on the fact

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that their IDs didn't match.

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Exactly.

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And so what they mean by that is, um, or

what they meant by that back then was, uh,

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let's say if my middle initial is K and

it's not on my id, they would purge it.

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The name had to be exactly the same.

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If you had, let's say your middle name

completely spelled out on your id and,

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um, on your voter registration, it

has the initial of your middle name.

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Uh, they would purge it, uh, if there

was a spelling error of some sort.

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Let's say my last name is Burton,

and maybe, you know, somebody was.

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Doing something, it was

Barton, it wasn't a big deal.

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Um, and you've been making it so far.

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They purged you, like you

got out, you had to go.

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Um, and then even in terms of

the identification that they

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accepted, that was changed.

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So people who have been working,

even in the government governor's

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office, um, for decades, were now

no longer able to vote even though

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they knew who those people were.

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So when we think about this coming from

the federal level or the national level.

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We have to think about, um, what

that means and what that looks like.

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And we have to go into, we have to take

all measures so that we can have the

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right to vote and the right to travel

and the right to do things that, uh,

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looks like, uh, maybe more problematic

because we are leaning into fascism and

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that we being our current administration.

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Um, because this is not really

democratic ideals or practices.

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This is something you would find in

a fascist or a communist country.

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Um, or even I would say a socialist

country to some extent, where

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everything has to come from, um, the

government, uh, you know, the people,

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but the government has to prove it.

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Um.

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And so this is what's happening.

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Um, so I want people to, also,

what I need you to know is that you

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need to have a real ID by May 7th.

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What I need you to know is voter

suppression is real and the women in

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your lives, and maybe you don't care.

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'cause I know there are a lot of people

who are online talking about, you know,

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oh, I want my husband to vote for me.

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I don't need the right to vote.

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My wife doesn't need the right to vote.

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'cause.

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I have her best interest at heart,

but women fought long and hard, uh, to

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earn the right to vote and to have it

this close to becoming, um, to, to be

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this close, to becoming disenfranchised

over literally a technicality.

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Um.

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A workaround to disenfranchise women

voters, um, particularly when he won

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based on white women voters is nuts.

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So that's how much he

trusts you, white women.

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He, he's like, thank you for your

votes and now let's disenfranchise you.

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So, um, that's what you need to know.

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Get your stuff in order, get your

paperwork in order, and make sure

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that you protect yourself and your

right to vote and your right to

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travel in this country and beyond.

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Um, because.

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We live in a democracy and we have

to fight to make sure that our rights

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exists and continue and that they

are protected even when people are

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trying to run work around around us,

um, to disenfranchise us as we watch.

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Okay?

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All right, so without further

ado, join us next Thursday.

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Definitely.

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Join, uh, Tony Franklin and Chris on

A Black Executive Perspective podcast,

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the award-winning, uh, podcast.

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Join them next Thursday and join me again.

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Have a wonderful day,

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BEP Narrator: A Black

Executive Perspective.