Corryn G. Freeman (00:00)

Welcome back to another episode of the Future Coalition podcast. I am Corryn Freeman, your host and executive director of Future Coalition. And today I am very excited to be in conversation with my home girl and sister friend, Angela Peeples. is an organizer and narrative strategist.

 

She is the director of True History and Narratives for the Pop Culture Collaborative. She also serves as co-founder and CEO of The South, a creative firm where unapologetic black culture defines political power. They also have really fire clothes. Go check it out. She specializes in creative narrative and culture shifting campaigns and has led movements like

 

Angela Peoples (00:36)

Yeah

 

Corryn G. Freeman (00:42)

Black Momma’s March, Election Defenders, and Black Women 4. in this episode, we’ll dive into the historical and contemporary tactics of voter suppression, explore the ongoing fight for voting rights,

 

and discuss how listeners can take action to protect their rights to vote. Angela, how you doing?

 

Angela Peoples (01:00)

Hey girl, I’m doing great. Thank you for the lovely intro and thank you for the invitation. I’m so excited to be chatting with you today.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (01:08)

Of course, I’m super excited to be talking to you. You definitely are someone in movement organizing that folks should know. I remember we talked a little bit earlier today about how we met. We met through doing election defender work and election protection work, right?

 

Angela Peoples (01:22)

Yeah.

 

That’s right. Yep. In 2020, I was the leader of a campaign that was run through the fight back table, which is a coalition of national movement organizations. And my job was to help facilitate election defense campaigns and strategies in key states where we thought that there was going to be attempts to steal the election. The most wild thing that I think about often about 2020 is that so much of the strategy, the scenarios,

 

that we had all kind of planned for. They tried, right? It was a part of the strategy for folks who were intending to subvert democracy and the will of the voters. They tried it all. So it was such an honor and joy. I learned so much during that campaign, during that process of supporting folks in different states, the different dynamics that were coming up in different areas in different states, and also how to kind of weave a story nationally, a narrative.

 

nationally that could help kind of fight back attempts to confuse people, to, you know, kind of make things more complicated than they actually were in order to do some sneaky things.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (02:42)

Absolutely, and when it didn’t work at the ballot box, they tried it on January 6th, and it also didn’t work. So Angela, can you tell us a bit about your background and what led you to become an activist, and then how did you get into the voting rights space and storytelling?

 

Angela Peoples (02:46)

Right. Yes. Exactly. Yes.

 

you

 

Yeah, I actually started as a youth organizer. So I have so much love for the work that Future Coalition is doing to resource and inspire and activate young people. My very, very first campaign was in 2006. Shout out to the 80s babies that may be listening as well. But my first campaign was in 2006 and I was in college at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, I was a student and the campaign was to

 

a fight back against an anti-affirmative action ballot initiative. So, back affirmative, banning affirmative action is actually still banned in Michigan because that amendment passed in 2006. And for me, it was a really pivotal moment in my development as an activist and as an organizer for two reasons. One, because it was my first time knocking on doors. It was my first time organizing folks to sign petitions, to register to vote.

 

and having to do that as a, you know, one part of a broader campaign that was statewide, right? And then it was also a moment for me because I remember, I remember I have such a very vivid memory of election night in my dorm room, or my dorm in the lobby. They had a TV and all the results were coming in and it was like 2006 was a great year for people who were running for Democrats, right? This idea that the Democrats, won a lot of seats, they did lot of like really big things.

 

in 2006, especially in Michigan, but.

 

the anti-firmive action ballot initiative still passed. And so was this real moment of me of dissonance. This issue that seemed like it would be in line with all these other ideas that were small D and big D, democratically supported ideas, it didn’t pass. And so started me thinking about the difference between where issues aligned and what it means to be, as you were saying, around intersectionality. But fast forward, I was the…

 

After graduation, I was the legislative director for the United States Student Association. like I said, youth organizing and student organizing, campus organizing, organizing with young undocumented people, young queer people really was the foundation for how I learned about social change, how I learned about policy and advocacy and regulations on the state, city, and federal level. And so I used that foundation to propel me into a career of

 

Corryn G. Freeman (05:26)

Hmm.

 

Angela Peoples (05:35)

working around storytelling and direct action. I, when Mike Brown was killed in 2014, you know, my worldview really shifted away from thinking that if we could just get people access to education, that we could overcome things like racism and sexism and homophobia, and actually realizing that we needed some real structural, like big fundamental foundational shifts in how we all see each other and how we see the world in order to make things

 

Corryn G. Freeman (06:00)

Mm-hmm.

 

Angela Peoples (06:04)

like college access even meaningful or make things like affordability even meaningful for people who look like me. So I’ve really been on a journey of starting as a young person, learning a lot about how the sausage is made, and then recognizing that we actually need to transform all of this. And so that’s what moved me to do more stuff around narrative and storytelling, because that’s also at the foundation of what’s informing the policies and the issues that we fight for.

 

and the terrain really with which that we are able even to push for new ideas.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (06:42)

appreciate that. And because you are so well-versed in the importance of storytelling and in articulating historical narratives, what do you think is the importance of the aspect of storytelling, specifically around election protection and voter suppression? Like, where do they intersect? And how does storytelling potentially have the ability to impact

 

Angela Peoples (07:01)

Mm-hmm.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (07:10)

the voter suppression that people are experiencing at the polls or to make things better for people.

 

Angela Peoples (07:18)

Yeah, I actually think voter suppression is a great example of how narrative and storytelling, I might use those words interchangeably, but how those things.

 

shape so much of what’s people’s reality. For example, I’m old enough to remember when a group called ALEC, the American Legislative and Exchange Council, right? They first introduced these voter ID bills back in 2010. And these voter ID bills were really about

 

Corryn G. Freeman (07:36)

Mm-hmm.

 

Yup.

 

I remember those too.

 

Angela Peoples (07:56)

They said it was to protect the integrity of the election, right? They said it’s to make sure that only the people that are supposed to be voting are voting. And the narrative that they gave is that if you can’t verify your identity, then you shouldn’t be voting. But what those of us who…

 

we’re ringing the alarm at the time, because this is like over 10 years ago, right? Those of us that were ringing the alarm at the time were like, this is a lie. They’re telling you the story that they’re giving you is about trying to protect the integrity of the election, but they’re actually trying to make it so that young people, so that poor people, so that people of color don’t get a chance to vote or that it’s harder for us to vote, right? And so if, because that story,

 

was allowed to like get was allowed to be seen as true the story that it’s just about protecting the integrity of the election then we see like people that would otherwise call themselves voting rights advocates being like okay well we could see how that yeah that’s not so bad and well sure you should be able to verify your identity to vote we don’t want people who aren’t supposed to be voting voting but that’s a that’s a red herring that’s all that’s it’s a lie honestly

 

Corryn G. Freeman (08:51)

Mmm.

 

This isn’t so bad.

 

Angela Peoples (09:17)

But they use that story, they use that narrative to make it seem as if they’re trying to be protecting the election when really they’re just trying to make it harder for young people to vote. Because the same bill that had the voter ID laws also had laws that removed polling locations from college campuses. They also had provisions that made it so that only specific types of identification were allowed to be considered to identify.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (09:38)

Mmm.

 

Angela Peoples (09:46)

identify yourself, right? And we know that undocumented folks might have different forms of ID than other people might have. Or, you know, if you’re, if you’re homeless or you don’t have a home or if you’re unhoused, then it’s harder for you to maybe get a license, but maybe you have another form of ID, right? And so, so it’s all just about how when you, the, the, power of storytelling, it’s true in all issues, but I think voting rights is a really great example where

 

Corryn G. Freeman (10:14)

Mm-hmm.

 

Angela Peoples (10:14)

If we’re not clear, if we’re not being proactive about moving our truth and moving our story and moving our narrative,

 

we’re fighting against these issues, if we just see the terrain of the story of the narrative to those that are in opposition, or if we try to pass a law or do our campaigns from their perspective, we’re going to lose every time because they’re not telling, one, they don’t usually tell the truth, but two, their version of the story leaves out so much. It leaves us out, intentionally so. So I think that the intersection of where storytelling and where narrative meet

 

voting rights is really at the space of who’s included and who do we actually want to protect, right? Who gets to be seen? Is it white men with land as it was back when the Constitution was written? Or is it all of us? Is it young people? Is it women? Is it black people? Is it immigrants? Is it disabled people? And those two things really, really matter.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (11:20)

I really appreciate this and to stick with storytelling because I think storytelling is something that I personally don’t think that progressives do the best job at taking control of narrative. I really want to know what are your thoughts here? Like, do you think progressives do a decent job? Where can they improve in storytelling? And why do you think that the opposition, the right, the conservatives have done such a good job at really dominating

 

Angela Peoples (11:30)

you

 

Corryn G. Freeman (11:47)

narratives overall beyond voting rights, but just the importance of storytelling to get an agenda passed and we see ourselves receding backwards.

 

Angela Peoples (11:58)

Yeah, so I was just, I’m trying to think of a helpful like sort of analogy to really make it plain, but you know, at the Pop Culture Collaborative, we talk a lot about narrative oceans and like this idea that, right, it’s not just one story. It’s not just one message. It’s not even just one narrative. It’s an ocean that we’re all swimming in, right? And so I think the thing that trips a lot of progressives up are just people who want to push for

 

Corryn G. Freeman (12:09)

Mm.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Angela Peoples (12:28)

or ideas and resources or policies that are more forward looking and can include more of us. I think the thing that trips us up is that we try to swim in their ocean. We don’t recognize that the narrative ocean that is the dominant story is the opposition’s story. And so…

 

Corryn G. Freeman (12:40)

Ooh.

 

Ooh, preach preacher.

 

Angela Peoples (12:53)

So we’re trying to, it’s not that, it’s this. It’s not this, it’s that. Like we’re trying to like combat consistently, consistently. It’s almost as if you’re like, you’re the best, you know, volleyball player.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (12:54)

Say that!

 

We’re playing defense in that offense.

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Angela Peoples (13:12)

in the world, right? But you’re playing on a soccer field. Well, like, you’re never going to be able to win the game if you’re playing on a completely different playing field that is not in service of the things that you’re trying to do. so what’s important to Rick and like, you know, oceans are big, they’re expansive and there it is. But there’s a lot going on in there, right? And so it can feel overwhelming to try to like shift, right?

 

Corryn G. Freeman (13:34)

Mm-hmm.

 

Angela Peoples (13:42)

one ocean, like the big ocean of it, but that’s why it what matters is that we are recognizing that we’re sitting in a toxic ocean. we’re steeped in these toxic narratives all the time. They’re white supremacist narratives, right? That’s what that was at the foundation of this country. That’s what that was at. That is what has at the foundation of many of our institutions, whether it’s a college campus, whether it’s, you know, the City Hall.

 

and the structures, whether it’s our elementary schools, our high schools, the medical institutions. The whole thing started with white dominance as the, that’s where we’re starting from. And so…

 

The very first step is to recognize that truth and to then make your strategy with that in mind, right? And so if you have in your head, this is the narrative that we’re all sitting in. One, I don’t need to believe that those things are true. Like my solution doesn’t have to require, it doesn’t have to mean that their truths are true. My truth doesn’t have to, it doesn’t necessitate that I validate everything that they’re saying. And I think that that’s one of the things that trips us up a lot.

 

And again, back to the voting rights example, right? Instead of being like, you don’t need to verify your ID to vote. That doesn’t actually make sense. Or like, verifying who you are doesn’t have to require a photo ID, right? Also,

 

Corryn G. Freeman (15:14)

Mm-hmm.

 

Angela Peoples (15:16)

It’s actually not a problem if people who aren’t supposed to be voting, like who’s not supposed to be voting? What are we talking about here? Like, what does that even mean that certain people that want to vote shouldn’t be voting? What are we even talking about? It’s not even a thing. It’s not even a thing. So to even start your fight, your campaign by saying they think that voter fraud is a problem,

 

Corryn G. Freeman (15:28)

Voter fraud is so minuscule. It’s not even really, it’s really not a thing that happens like that.

 

Angela Peoples (15:46)

No, we’re not, nope, that’s not even, y’all are talking about unicorns and we’re actually talking about like things that are happening in real life. Like millions of people want to have a say in their democracy and that’s what matters. And we want millions of people to have a say in their democracy. Yeah.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (15:53)

Really.

 

But I think that’s what gets me. What gets me is that the left very much in marginalized communities really have real life experiences and data to back up the fact that we are being suppressed. It’s there in HD real time. And then I also think, when I think about narrative building and storytelling, it’s giving that collective memory of what happened.

 

Angela Peoples (16:17)

Mm-hmm.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (16:29)

during Jim Crow, like when black people did have the right to vote post-Reconstruction, we were outside, we were in every office, right? And then white men were upset and decided, okay, we have to slow this down. We’re going to do poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses. And so I feel like a part of that narrative is like that historical narrative and like the collective remembering of like, this is a real thing that actually happened. And it’s actually never really gone away.

 

Angela Peoples (16:31)

Yep.

 

Yeah.

 

Mad, big mad. Yes.

 

Yep.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (16:59)

but that the right gets away with crafting invisible stories that don’t have factual data really to back it up. But it’s, we enacted into law and we adopted. I don’t understand like where, how are they able, is it just that their story is so good and believable that they’re able to get away with this?

 

Angela Peoples (17:13)

Yeah.

 

No, it’s that, no, it’s that they’re, it’s that, it’s like they are, they’re already starting with a couple of points on the board. You know what I mean? Like because we’re already swimming in their ocean.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (17:29)

Yeah.

 

Angela Peoples (17:31)

Right? They get to, we’re already, we’re already all swimming in the white supremacist, racial capitalist, patriarchal ocean. Right? That’s the one that we’re in. That’s the one that we were born into. Right? And so we’re trying to change the ocean, change the story, shift it, create our own oceans. Right? We’re trying to create our own ocean, narrative oceans to be swimming in. So then we can change the policy and it requires many things, right? It requires activism, it requires arts and culture, it requires entertainment, it requires

 

Corryn G. Freeman (17:32)

Mm-hmm.

 

Angela Peoples (18:01)

political thought leadership, all of that, right? But the reason why they don’t need the facts is because they already have the like sort of common sense as their foundation. It doesn’t mean that it’s, and by common sense, I don’t mean that everybody believes it or majority of people believe it. I mean that it is just, it’s just sort of so, if that makes sense. Like,

 

Like, it’s almost as if there is a…

 

because there’s such a dominance through the institutions, whether it’s a religious institution, our government institutions, our schools, right? Our schools are really where a lot of this stuff is put forward. And unfortunately, the version of, because you’re exactly right, Corinne, history does have a lot of examples of just this very thing, voter suppression. has happened every time more people, we increase the franchise, as they say, and every time more people get a chance

 

Corryn G. Freeman (18:46)

For real.

 

Angela Peoples (19:04)

to vote, the voter suppression happens every single time. It looks a little different, right?

 

In Jim Crow, it was the poll tax and the the literacy test, etc. In the 2010s, it was voter ID and we’re removing polling locations and so on and so forth. Now we have these election certification challenges and maybe in or or vote by mail challenges or you know, maybe these type of things, right? So there’s every generation has this story, but because our

 

Corryn G. Freeman (19:24)

Yep.

 

Angela Peoples (19:42)

history is also not being told from a fulsome way, it’s being set in the context of the dominant narrative, which is white male capitalists, then we don’t get to hear about one.

 

how this thing has been done before time and time again and two how we’ve all come together to overcome it time and time and time again Right how we’ve come together to pass laws that present prevent people from using poll taxes and literacy tests And how we’ve or how we’ve helped each other overcome the poll tax and literally to let’s raise money for each other to pay this stupid ass tax right or or how we have Supported people to get the new information that they need. So I don’t know if we’re allowed to cuss on your on your podcast

 

Corryn G. Freeman (20:09)

that part.

 

You

 

Angela Peoples (20:31)

That’s crazy. You know, but, how folks come together, community organizations organize to get the right information to people, to polls, or how groups come together to make polling and voting sexy and exciting. Like one of the organizations that the PopCollab supports is called Joy to the Polls. And for the last like,

 

Corryn G. Freeman (20:31)

You’re allowed to cuss, baby. You’re allowed to cuss. You good. You straight. You straight.

 

Angela Peoples (20:55)

four or five years, four years maybe, Joy to the Polls has, has been showing up at election locations and with, with entertainment, with energy, with enthusiasm to make, to try to counter, one, to try to counteract the efforts that are about, making voting seem hard and complicated and trying to prevent more and more people from doing it, but also to change the narrative about voting. Voting is not just this thing that only a few elite people should be able to do.

 

can take the day off and if you have time and you know you you know I’ve all the states it’s something that’s joyful it’s something that’s exciting it’s something that many of us want to do and we can turn up while we’re voting right and so we can change the story make it more about us

 

Corryn G. Freeman (21:42)

I appreciate that. There’s so many gems in what you said that I just want to emphasize. Needing to talk about the stories of the overcoming and how we have defeated these historical ills that we continue to face day after day. I find that so many people feel, I know I feel, I’ll speak for myself, I know sometimes I can get overwhelmed with what feels like the massive oppressive attacks that seem to continue to happen, but

 

Angela Peoples (22:09)

Yeah.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (22:12)

anchoring in the stories of our own collective liberation, how we’ve shown up for ourselves, how we have overcome in the past to let us know that like, yeah, these attacks will happen, but we are more than capable and equipped to meet the moment to defeat them and to overcome them. And when I also think about voter suppression, I can’t help but think about Florida, right? More than 60 % of Floridians voted to restore

 

Angela Peoples (22:29)

Yes. Yes.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (22:41)

voting rights eligibility to returning citizens that’s formerly incarcerated felons, Floridians were like, yes, we want to re-enfranchise these more than two million voters, right? We passed that, right? And then we witnessed an administration say, okay, but you have to pay your fines, fees, and restitution first, and then go on a literal witch hunt of returning citizens who voted, who just exercised their right to vote without.

 

Angela Peoples (22:44)

It’s beautiful. Yeah.

 

Yeah.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (23:10)

knowing so that we see it. We see it to this day. It just changes its face. It goes back to in history and puts on the same old clothes, but it always evolves.

 

Angela Peoples (23:23)

Yeah.

 

I think the story of the, I think it was Amendment 4, the right restorations, well there’s many Amendment 4s, but that one, when it would pass was in Florida, is such a beautiful and powerful one because it not only, it’s a great example of a good storytelling campaign, right? Because the truth is that, and also it’s a good example of,

 

Corryn G. Freeman (23:30)

Yeah.

 

Angela Peoples (23:50)

creating your own ocean, right? Creating your own ocean, right? The folks really, whereas many people say like…

 

These are the people that shouldn’t be voting, right? These were the ones when you think about like, have to have an ID, you have to have a, it all your fines and fees and so on and so forth. These are the people that the Alex of the world would say, these folks should not be voting. And so we’re passing laws to say that they shouldn’t be voting. And the folks were like, well, why shouldn’t we vote? know, you know, we can put the, I’ll put my abolitionist aside for just a second. And they said like, I did my time. I served my time. I did my, you know, what I was supposed to do.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (24:01)

Mm-hmm.

 

Angela Peoples (24:28)

Why am I not able to, why don’t I have my full rights? And also, I should have my full rights. I should deserve my dignity, right? They’re not fighting about, what’s the, whether or not they should have, like, no, I deserve, these are my rights, I deserve these rights, regardless of what you think I did, regardless of what you think about me being a felon or a former felon, regardless of what you think about incarceration, period. The story is that,

 

Corryn G. Freeman (24:36)

Absolutely.

 

Angela Peoples (24:58)

ocean. The truth is these are my I deserve I have these rights and they moved people to believe that right. And so it didn’t matter that this other side was trying to like demonize them or say all these things about felons. It’s actually like this is the truth and and that’s really important to say in it. And yes, you know that the rights got rolled back by the administration’s and by folks who were again trying to make it harder for people to vote. But I think that I will say that I wish I feel like if

 

If we could, if those of us who are for voting rights and for many, many more people had started and accepted the truth that the people who are trying to push voter ID laws, people that are trying to do voter suppression period are doing it for racist and sexist reasons, right? If we were just clear, instead of trying to avoid the R word, instead of trying to be like,

 

Corryn G. Freeman (25:44)

Mm.

 

Come on Angela.

 

Angela Peoples (25:58)

They just don’t want people who don’t agree with them to vote. No, friend. They don’t want black people and women and disabled people to vote. They don’t want young people to vote. It’s not just, it’s about Rs and Ds or this party or that party or this issue or that issue. It’s about not wanting people who don’t look like the white male Christian sort of foundational identity of this country. They don’t want us.

 

to vote. And if we were able to be clear about that and let that story be the story, it would change all of the math. It would change all of the conversation that we’re having instead of trying to have a conversation about whether or not you need, should, whether or not you should have to show an ID to vote or whether or not you should, you know, this place needs a polling location or that place needs a location. They don’t want us to vote because they’re racist. Period. The end.

 

And like, let’s move forward from that truth.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (27:01)

The truth is the truth, and I think that we feel it. I don’t think. I know that we feel it, and we see it every single election cycle. So what would you say to young people who might be first-time voters, or this is maybe their first big general election, and of course every election is the most historic election of all time, what would you say to them about protecting their vote and ensuring that their vote is counted? How would you tell them,

 

Angela Peoples (27:15)

Thank

 

You’re right.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (27:31)

being aware that voter suppression is a real thing to go about navigating the electoral process this cycle.

 

Angela Peoples (27:40)

I mean, I would say…

 

that to vote and I think as many if as many of us vote as possible that’s the best way to protect our vote if that makes sense right because so so so on an individual level like don’t vote by yourself vote with your homies vote with your sister vote with your your family vote with your your roommates or whatever vote with your co-workers I feel like everybody’s got eight jobs now so vote with your co-workers but and and the reason I

 

Corryn G. Freeman (27:52)

Mm.

 

Look.

 

Angela Peoples (28:12)

say that is because one, you know, it’s hard to silence a wave. It’s hard to crush like a wave of people, a wave of energy, right? The other thing is that, you know, and this is on like a very practical level.

 

I think it’s important to vote early, especially because there’s attempts to like, know, like there’s a lot can happen when you go to vote. like the last two major election cycles, 2020 and 2022, I ran election defense campaigns. And one of the things that we recognize is that people were, you know, they would go to their polling locations and someone say, you’re at the wrong location or, you, you have to cast a provisional ballot. Okay. Well, what’s a provisional ballot?

 

and how do I get it cured as they say. You remember, Corinne, all the ballot curing that we have to do. But ballot curing is basically, ballot curing is basically if someone has to cast, a provisional ballot is like.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (29:06)

I sure do. That was wild.

 

I sure do.

 

Angela Peoples (29:18)

We think you can vote, but we’re not 100 % sure. So cast this ballot, we’ll verify a bunch of stuff, and then we’ll make sure that happens. the curing is the verifying the bunch of stuff that happens, right? So the reason I say to vote early is just in case all of those shenanigans happen. If you have to cure your ballot or if you have to vote at a different location, you won’t want that information to come to you at like five o’clock on.

 

November 5th. You don’t want that to be the time when you realize things are a little you had to go get a piece of mail and you or you have to like Go to your hometown instead of voting where you are living now, right? So try to vote early is the biggest thing that I would say and like vote with your friends vote with your community and then I will also say like

 

Don’t be afraid to like, I mean, this depends on different places, because now they pass these laws where like you can’t hand out water at a poll while people are in line voting, or you can’t like only people can’t congregate for a certain amount of time, or a certain number of people can’t be together masses, which is, all of it is suppression, period. All of it is trying to suppress activism and organizing and people, know, flexing their power, organized people flexing their power.

 

But I would say like get involved and get engaged with the election protection efforts one because it’ll make sure that you Know what’s up like that you can be there are a lot many people in our communities that are they’re like, know I’m the one for my like me and my my my line sister is like, okay, what do I do? How do I do this? What do I got who do I vote for? Who do I where am I going? What’s it like? That’s the person I’m many I’m sure many of your listeners are that person for their their friend group or for their family the one that gets the call that’s like

 

Corryn G. Freeman (31:02)

same z’s.

 

Angela Peoples (31:03)

You know, like, hey, wait, what’s the election? And like, what do I gotta do? And like, so, so the, if you’re that person, shout out to you, appreciate your effort.

 

But if you get involved with the election protection efforts in your community, then you’ll know, you’ll have all the tea, you’ll know all the deets, right? And you’ll be able to support your people doing that. And you’ll also get a chance to like live in a different story, live in a story that’s empowered, live in a story that’s exciting, that’s joyful around voting, around elections, that’s celebratory instead of this like…

 

oppressive, suppressive ideas of limiting access to the franchise.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (31:48)

Love

 

Corryn G. Freeman (31:49)

All right. So going back to set the table a little bit, how would you define voter suppression?

 

Angela Peoples (31:55)

I would define voter suppression pretty broadly. think there’s voter suppression that happens through legislation, right? So passing things like voter ID laws, policies that change where voting locations can be, making it so that like, whether you used to vote for the last 10 years or 10 elections, you and all of your neighbors voted at the same church, the same all the times, and then

 

Corryn G. Freeman (32:06)

Mmm.

 

Angela Peoples (32:25)

all of a sudden it’s different, right? And so that’s one way to do it. Another way of voter suppression is something that we’re seeing a lot in states where they’re purging folks from the roles, right? So maybe you haven’t updated your address in a little while, or you haven’t voted in the last two election cycles. It doesn’t mean that you’re not registered to vote. It doesn’t mean that you’re not a voter. It just means that you haven’t voted in the last few election cycles. And that could even be like local election cycles, right? So like here in

 

Florida I feel like we have an election every six months or something like that I’m like what or like there’s a time there’s a thing to vote for and if you don’t vote

 

Corryn G. Freeman (32:55)

Mmm.

 

Angela Peoples (33:05)

on that regular cadence, in some states they will purge you they’re up. And you’re like, well, I didn’t even know that there was an election to vote for. Like, what are you talking about? So, you know, those are like, you know, sort of legislative voter suppression. There’s voter intimidation. There’s voter suppression that looks like voter intimidation where, you know, there’s different campaigns, like you might see towards the, get close to election day and it’s like, you know, you hear about reports of people getting a mailer that’s like, election day is,

 

Corryn G. Freeman (33:09)

You’re out of here!

 

Mm-hmm.

 

Angela Peoples (33:35)

on this day instead of it actually being the day that it is like that’s a form of voter suppression trying to you know confuse people and it or or also say like

 

This happened a lot in in 2022 when I was working for the election defenders and shout out to the frontline and Working Families Party and their work for the election defenders program. But when I was working with them, they they we got a lot of reports of like XYZ militia is showing up to polling locations to like watch people make sure there’s no illegal voting. Well, first of all, that’s not y’all’s job. Second of all, we don’t need a militia for that.

 

And third of all, like, is it even really happening? You know what I mean? Like, is it even a thing? And it doesn’t mean that it’s not a thing, because there are, there were definitely some cases in some places where people who were trying to like literally be intimidating at a polling location were there. But also the news of it, right? And that’s also why you have to be mindful about social media and news that you get on the internet, because it can be,

 

Corryn G. Freeman (34:21)

Is it even a thing?

 

Angela Peoples (34:46)

It can be overblown. can be like, actually, this is not happening anywhere near you. So like, don’t worry about that. know, voter intimidation is another way that it happens is another form of voter suppression. And then I and then, yeah, I think that like gerrymandering, I would also say is another form of voter suppression. And by that, mean, organizing the voting maps or organizing districts to mean that like to basically like limit the power of

 

certain communities to have control over who they elect or be able to say like, you know, for a while, if let’s just say like on a really simple level, like all of Fort Lauderdale included like this one big circle and that big circle was mostly black. And then like, they, or they mostly cared about one set of issues. Then they were able to vote. They could concentrate and elect the same, the person that cared about their issues from that community.

 

Well, if you make it now a half circle then and like they cut out the half or a part of the half of that cares about this issue then the voting power of the people in that other half is gonna be a lot less. So those are all examples of voter suppression. It can look like, you know laws, can look like, you know, ideas that are spread. It can look like even, you know, some of the the podcasters that are like your vote doesn’t matter. That’s voter suppression. Telling somebody that their vote doesn’t matter.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (35:49)

Mm-hmm.

 

Angela Peoples (36:15)

is voter suppression somebody saying that exactly exactly somebody saying that like

 

Corryn G. Freeman (36:16)

Hello. We just talked about narrative and story building. Yes.

 

Angela Peoples (36:25)

you know, nothing’s gonna change no matter who’s elected, is voter suppression because you’re telling, you’re putting an idea out there into the world that makes it so that people, maybe it’s not worth voting. And that’s just not true. So all of those, can be legal, it can be legislative, it can be narrative, it can totally be narrative.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (36:33)

Come on.

 

And what would you say, like tie this even closer, because I think that you kind of are, but what is the tie between voter suppression and social justice? Like who are the targets of this and how do they intersect?

 

Angela Peoples (36:58)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I mean, the goal of voter suppression is, because we know that voting is one tactic of many that we have to use, right? Voting is not the beginning or the end of our work to change our communities, to change the world, to change this country. And so the idea of, know, one, if you tell someone the idea that your vote doesn’t count, well then like,

 

Corryn G. Freeman (37:10)

Yes.

 

Angela Peoples (37:28)

What does that even mean about me and my power to change, to have an impact, period? Right? Like there is an ability of us to, part of what we have to recognize is that we can do one of, this is one of many, many steps. And so I think that like voter suppression is used to, one, we vote to set the terrain for the justice fights that are ongoing and that we’re going to partake in into the future. Right? So we’re voting to inform who are

 

targets are, who we have to work with, where our champions are, and so on. But if you use voter suppression to limit who’s voting, then you don’t get to inform the terrain. You don’t get to say where your champions are. You don’t get to have a sense of even what issues come on the table. Because the other thing that, not to get too in the weeds here, but…

 

The way that if you’re talking about either this issue on the federal and the state level, whichever party has the most control or the most seats or the most votes in any given body, they get to decide what issues come forward, right? So if we all care about climate change and trying to like stop the impact and stop the harm of it,

 

If we don’t have people and if we don’t even have like enough people in the federal or the state legislator that are even willing to bring issues of climate change related to climate change to the floor to be discussed, nothing’s going to happen, right? And so we don’t, we can’t even push them to do better if we don’t even have folks in office that are going to put the ideas on the table, right? And so that’s a huge part of the,

 

the why voting and our social justice issues and the effort to solve voter suppression is all so, connected. They don’t even want, and also…

 

One of the things that happens during, you vote, the candidates that come to you, they have to talk about the issues that you care about in order to get your vote, right? And so again, it’s all about, to me, I always say I’m a big proponent, particularly around narrative that like, can’t bring, once you put an idea out into the terrain, it’s very hard to take it out, right? It’s very hard to remove it. And so…

 

It’s so important for us to like vote and to push back on these voter suppression narratives because voting is a way to put ideas into the ether, right? It’s a way for us to say like, not only is this, not only is…

 

protecting access to affordable homes or making sure that people can have abortions when they need to. Like that’s not only an idea that’s out there in the world. Millions of us agree with that idea and we’re showing it through our vote.

 

And so the more and more people that put these new ideas, not new, like that kind of stake their claim out for an idea, the harder it is to pull it back, the harder it is to pull back. And that’s one of many ways that we can start to shift those toxic narrative emotions.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (40:23)

Absolutely.

 

really appreciate that. what I hear to kind of synthesize it is that voting is not necessarily the tool that will liberate us, but it is the tool that creates the conditions that allow us to make more strides toward that collective liberation even easier. We make it much harder on ourselves when we aren’t in the room where it happens, where we’re not pushing candidates.

 

Angela Peoples (40:59)

Absolutely.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (41:05)

to be more progressive in order for us to make those liberatory wins beyond the voting booths. So we must vote in order to get there. And Angela, no, please, please, please, yeah.

 

Angela Peoples (41:12)

Yeah.

 

Yeah, and I will, I was just gonna say, I do understand like a frustration that I think many people have. It’s like every couple of years, we put so much energy and resources and like, just all of it into these elections, and then we don’t do as much on the back end. And so I get it that people are like,

 

Corryn G. Freeman (41:28)

in

 

Angela Peoples (41:36)

You put all this energy and enthusiasm into voting, but it’s not really bearing out to have the most significant impact, which is why I say that it’s important to do many. It’s not just both and it’s this and all of that, right? It’s not just this, both and it’s this, it’s all of it, all of it, yeah.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (41:49)

all of the above.

 

thanks Angela. If you could leave our listeners with one key message about protecting their right to vote, what would it be?

 

Angela Peoples (42:06)

I wish I had something a little more like sexy and lofty to say, but I’m really just gonna tell you to vote early. Vote early and vote with a group.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (42:14)

Simple, easy, you can do that. Those who heard it, you can vote early and you can go vote with friends. Love it.

 

Angela Peoples (42:23)

I’m also saying that to myself because I’m like, I need to make sure that I have my ish together so I can get up vote early. because I recently moved and have all sorts of, and we live in Florida, you know, they like to do shenanigans around here. So definitely talking to myself too, and all of those listeners. And I appreciate y’all so much for the voting and everything that you’re going to do afterwards.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (42:46)

And Angela, let’s make our vote plan together. We live up the street from one another. We can absolutely hit the polls together. So we can make a plan to hit the polls early together. And y’all will see it. We will follow up. Okay?

 

Angela Peoples (42:50)

Yes!

 

Facts.

 

Yes, we could do a little follow-up clip.

 

Corryn G. Freeman (43:04)

Yes. All right. Well, thank you so much, Angela, for talking with us about the importance of narrative building storytelling in particular around voter suppression and protecting our right to vote. I appreciate having you.

 

Angela Peoples (43:16)

Absolutely. Thank you for having me, Corryn.