MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
In Atlanta, capital of a state that it looked like Donald Trump had locked up just a few months ago. Then Joe Biden dropped out, and Kamala Harris jumped in. And this state is very much in play. Now, Black voters make up about a third of the population in Georgia. Their votes will matter. So we have rolled in. We're just at the headquarters of Black Voters Matter. It's right up against the Atlanta airport, in case you can hear planes going overhead. We're going to go inside and find Latasha Brown. She's co-founder of Black Voters Matter.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR CREAKING)
KELLY: Latasha.
LATASHA BROWN: How you doing?
KELLY: Glad to see you.
BROWN: Nice to see you.
KELLY: Nice to see you. Thanks for letting us stop by here.
Inside, we pull up seats, start talking about what these coming days will look like and what she views as the challenges ahead.
Are you frightened about efforts by activists trying to remove voters from the voting rules...
BROWN: Oh.
KELLY: ...In Georgia?
BROWN: Absolutely. Yeah. There...
KELLY: Things like there aren't as many drop boxes...
BROWN: Oh, absolutely. I think...
KELLY: ...As there were last time.
BROWN: ...That, you know, we saw this passage of this bill that we call - it was the blueprint of voter suppression. You know, what that bill did is it restricted the number of drop boxes. What we know is in the 2020 election, that was a very effective tool for people to be able to participate, that everybody does not work a 9 to 5 job. People have different schedules. It provided additional access for folks to vote.
You also have this process that I'm deeply concerned about now. In the last month or so, there has been these two rules that have been changed around the certification of election results. And so now you can have an election official to say, I don't really like - I think something is wrong. They don't have to show any proof, so they can actually delay the certification process.
And so why are we, this late in the game, creating these new processes of saying whether you certify and giving so much leeway for an election official to say, I just don't think I trust these numbers, so we should certify, so much so that there has been inquiry from both parties to the courts to say, is this legal in that?
KELLY: Let me ask you. Are you confident that Georgia will hold a free and fair election?
BROWN: I am confident that I believe we have a solid election process. What I'm not confident is that those who are the leaders of the state - i.e., in this state, the Republican Party - that they will work expeditiously to make sure that those votes are, in fact, certified as they should be.
KELLY: Are you talking about the...
BROWN: That's my concern.
KELLY: ...State election board? - because...
BROWN: I'm talking about the state...
KELLY: ...In Georgia...
BROWN: ...Election board.
KELLY: ...Elected officials who famously held the line in 2020...
BROWN: Yes, I'm...
KELLY: ...Against a lot of pressure.
BROWN: I'm speaking specifically. And even that, you know, while they held the line - because I do think that there's a split in the Republican Party. Let's also - those are the same election officials, now, that purged hundreds of thousands of voters in this state as well. What I think is they're far more sophisticated than I think Trump and some of the other folks. But I also believe - will the election be ran in a certain way that it has integrity? I do. My concern is, will the certification process be unchallenged? That's probably my biggest concern at this point.
KELLY: Last thing, and I'll just make it personal. As a woman of color, how are you thinking about the significance of having a woman of color on top of a major party ticket and possibly being elected to become president?
BROWN: I am personally not only excited. I'm really humbled by the possibility that we've gotten here. What I know is that this road has been paved for a long, long time - people like Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth and Ida B. Wells and Dorothy Height. And I can go on and on and on.
But I also believe that if she wins this election, as I have been unapologetic in my personal capacity of saying that that is my desire, I think every single sector of our society will be impacted as well. And so in a nation where the majority of the citizens are women yet we pale in comparison in terms of representation, any time, I think, there's an expansion of representation, it's like when you put a little light in a dark room. It changes the character of the room.
KELLY: Latasha Brown. She co-founded Black Voters Matter, and she is one of many voices we are hearing from here in Georgia as part of our series We, The Voters, covering swing states through the rest of this election season. Latasha Brown, thank you.
BROWN: Thank you for having me.
KELLY: And elsewhere in today's program, we head to the state Capitol to speak with Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's secretary of state. He is a Republican, and he, too, is concerned with recent changes to how state election results will be certified. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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