Roundtable: The Voting Rights Debate Heats Up (VIDEO)

The Meet the Press political roundtable talks about the ongoing debate over Voting Rights in America and how both parties are approaching the issue.

Meet the Press Host David Gregory talks to Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) Kara Swisher, Re/code Co-Executive Editor, conservative political commentator Paul Gigot, and Republican political consultant Mike Murphy.

You can watch the segment below from NBC followed by a quick transcript:

TRANSCRIPT:

DAVID GREGORY: There’s another big issue coming up for the fall. And it’s a fight over voting and voting rights, and access to voting. We’re marking the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act under President Johnson. And at the L.B.J. Library, the president, the first lady were there, former presidents speaking as well. And the president, Congressman Edwards, was very strong on this point about efforts to restrict voting. Here’s what he said.

PRESIDENT OBAMA (ON TAPE): Voting’s not a Democratic issue, it’s not a Republican issue, it’s an issue of citizenship. It’s what makes our democracy strong. But it’s a fact. This recent effort to restrict the vote has not been led by both parties. It’s been led by the Republican Party.

DAVID GREGORY: Pretty tough charge, backed up Washington Post in the last 15 months, at least nine states have enacted laws, voting changes making it harder to cast ballots, despite very little evidence of voter fraud out there.

DONNA EDWARDS: Well, very little evidence, almost no evidence of voter fraud. And I think these states have reacted to a political agenda that’s about taking away people’s right to vote and their access to the polls. I think it’s backed up by a Supreme Court that’s done great damage to the Voting Rights Act.

Republicans still holding onto a bill that they won’t bring to the floor that actually could restore those protections. And I think the president is dead on on this one. And we’re not going to go into November with people not understanding the restrictions that are being placed on their right to vote.

DAVID GREGORY: Kara, as you look out, you look at the politics around the country at the grassroots level. It could be about marriage equality. It could be about just pure access to vote. And this is where past is prologue. This is not, you know, looking at 50 years ago. It’s looking about your ability to vote today. How powerful is the issue?

KARA SWISHER: I think it’s, you know, it’ll be interesting. Because I think one of the groups in this election that’s going to be very important are the young people, young women, especially. And how they get access to information and how they vote, and all kinds of things around politics.

And I think what’s interesting is how you reach those voters and how you empower them to do different things. And I think I see more about how voting’s going to be in ten years, in 15 years. This is not, you know, the Voting Rights Act, no matter how you slice it, is one of the greatest pieces of legislation in our history. And the question is how are we going to change voting.

Just the way we’re talking about Bitcoin or currency. All these things are going to change drastically. And it’ll be interesting around voting is how voters, you know, become empowered using, again, the phones, the digital means, and things like that. Because that’s how we’re going to vote–

DAVID GREGORY: But is it interesting–

DONNA EDWARDS: But understand that one thing that can’t–

MIKE MURPHY: Internet voting is a very interesting question. It’s now done in some small countries.

DONNA EDWARDS: We’re going to do it–

MIKE MURPHY: It’s going to come in time, and it’s going to increase turnout. And from my point of view, it’d be also in primaries. But for the market-based party, the more people who–

DAVID GREGORY: But you’re–

DONNA EDWARDS: But, it’d be good if this were a conversation about how we expand voting and voting protection.

KARA SWISHER: Right, exactly.

DONNA EDWARDS: But what’s going on in the country right now is about how to take those rights away.

KARA SWISHER: When you look at into digital, you do expand it, because you give access to people in a very different way. I mean, think about, I mean, swipe left, swipe right. It could be kind of an interesting thing.

DAVID GREGORY: And Paul let me ask you–

PAUL GIGOT: If voter I.D. were about voter disenfranchisement, why was African American turnout so much greater in 2012? I mean, it has had–

DAVID GREGORY: Obama–

PAUL GIGOT: – zero effect on turnout. Actually turnout was better.

DONNA EDWARDS: Because people were angry and they decided to exercise their right to vote.

PAUL GIGOT: That’s the point. This is about voter mobilization. This is about playing to the identity politics of Democrats who fear that the turnout won’t–

DAVID GREGORY: But Paul, but isn’t the opposite true as well? If that’s true, isn’t the opposite true that if you’re in a state where you want to discourage that same demographic from coming out, you try to raise the bar to what it takes to actually be able to vote?

PAUL GIGOT: It could be, but there is, and maybe the motivation of some Republicans, there is no evidence, that it does that at all. And I think that you want to make sure that the franchise is protected by making sure that it is actually an honest–

DAVID GREGORY: Can I ask one qu– a provocative idea is coming out this week, Andy Young, civil rights leader, former ambassador to the United Nations, had an idea about issuing social security cards with your picture on it. And Bill Clinton, Former President Clinton thought that was a good idea. The president’s taking it under advisement. Is this a civil liberties concern, or is it a good idea?

KARA SWISHER: Well, obviously that’s going to be the debate. But again cards, going, walking. I mean, you get your groceries delivered, you get your, you know, Amazon is suddenly going to bring drones some day, and I think they probably will actually. But the idea is how do you then create a voting environment that is easier for people to use the way they use other services. And I think that’s where it’s going to head.

And that’ll be really interesting, is how identify yourself you know, in a digital sense, and then get to do all kinds of civic things. And bring them together in an easy way. Because everyone, no matter how, everyone’s going to have these smartphones no matter what their economic path.

DAVID GREGORY: Right.

MIKE MURPHY: I think it’s a plot by LifeLock. Because if you’re going to be flashing your social security number everywhere, it’s going to be an absolute– it’s Miracle-Gro for identity theft.

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