Are You a Target for Voter Suppression? With Nithya Raman + Aaron Thompson

Voter suppression is more common and insidious than you think - and the fact is, you've likely experienced it in one form or another. But there are ways to keep yourself from falling for tricks online and combat long lines at the polls.

In this episode of Let's Get Into It, we're joined by urban planner, former executive director of Time's Up Entertainment and LA City Council candidate Nithya Raman, as well as voting rights activist Aaron Thompson. Nithya shows us the massive differences we can make in our everyday lives by voting for in local elections - we're talking how much you spend on your rent every month and other things that directly affect you. She also tackles why it matters where a candidate's money comes from, and why being angry can be a powerful tool.

Aaron and Alex unpack the dark underbelly of voter suppression, why you might be a target, and how you may already have been impacted and not even know it.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Alex, and I've actually experienced voter suppression firsthand. No,
be all right, no, alright, no it will be alright forever.
No alright, No, well be all right for ever. All right.

(00:25):
So let's rewind the clock. We're about a few years ago.
I can't remember. It was a local election for here
in Los Angeles, and I remember it's a busy day.
But we were in a post Trump elected era, so
I knew the value of voting was even more than
it was before. And so I like carved out the day.
I knew I wanted to go and vote. Um, but

(00:46):
as my career does, you know, I had a session
that came up and I and it was a big session.
I really wanted to go to it. And you know,
work is work is work for me, and I gotta
go and I gotta you know, get the work in.
And so I remember getting in line, and I remember
when I pulled up, I was like, bro, this line
better go fast, like this line better be like in
and out fast. And at this point, my voter experience

(01:08):
was still very little, so I had no you know,
I didn't have a real big idea of like is
this something that takes a long time, and it did.
I literally felt like I stood in the same exact spot,
didn't even move, you know, it would be twenty minute
periods of time and I and I come to find
out now that it was because many of the polling
places had actually been shut down and they had started

(01:29):
having less polling places for my district. I actually had
to wait so long that my session was getting ready
to start and I couldn't wait anymore. So I got
out of line, got in my car, and went. And
it's interesting because literally, up until now, I just thought
it's not a big deal, Like the world didn't explode,
so it doesn't matter. But the thing about voter depression
that I've learned is that it happens to millions of people,

(01:53):
especially people in low income communities, and especially in the
black community. I found more realization in all of this
because Catherine, my producer, who's gonna get a lot of
shout outs in this episode, sent me a link to
a video on vox dot com and it's it was
called what Voter Suppression looks Like Online, and it was
all talking about targeting on social media, especially in the

(02:18):
tactics of the election, where Russian operatives were posing as
Americans on social media to discourage Black Americans from voting,
encouraging them to vote for even um third party candidates,
to dilute the vote for Hillary Clinton. Everything from you
know ads on Facebook that said text Hillary to a

(02:39):
certain number to cast your vote by text, or even
accounts posing as black political pages that people can turn
to and look to for guidance, talking about how the
election is rigged and it doesn't matter, and kind of
trying to influence people to not vote. So many things
that I never thought of for voter suppression and and

(03:01):
it's very shocking and it's scary and it makes you
hate politics. But at the same time it it reminds
me the importance to be a voice to stand up
and talk about the importance of voting, especially in this
election where it is so imperative that we make the
right decision as a country this election. I also have

(03:21):
been thinking a lot about something that we've touched on
quite a bit for the last episode in the episode
before that, which is the importance of the ballot even
past the presidential election. It made me so excited for
this episode because we're gonna have a candidate for the
l A City Council District for here as a guest today,
and it's just gonna be a good episode. This is

(03:42):
the last episode before the election, so I want to
do everything I can to for myself to stay educated
and the most educated I can, and also for you
as my listener. The reason why these last three episodes
were so important to me is because I look at
the news, I look at media, and I swear on
Renews outlet they're going to be trying to convince you

(04:02):
why the sky is a different color, and and there's
so much misinformation that's out there. And I just wanted
to use my podcast, which for the most part, and
we're gonna return to, is talking about personal problems and
fun stuff and happiness and positivity. For a moment, I
think I needed to use my platform to just give
facts and and share my thoughts um that are all

(04:26):
about inclusivity, acceptance and love across the board. So that
got me thinking, do you need to be worried about
voter suppression? And how important is it for you to
vote in your local election? What is up everybody? This
is let's get into it. I'm alex Ion Oh and
this is my podcast and we are proving every single

(04:47):
episode that we are not afraid to talk about anything,
even things that I don't know that much about, including
more pieces of politics that as I'm an adult who
is late to the politics party, U, I'm learning a
little bit more about. And I have some amazing guests
today with us. I have Nithia Rahman. She is a
Harvard and m i T trained urban planner. I had

(05:09):
to look up what urban planning was. I'm not gonna lie,
and it's very cool. Uh. She's fought to increase resources
for slum dwellers in India. She founded a homelessness service
profit nonprofit in Los Angeles, and she served as an
executive director of Times Up Entertainment. She's currently a candidate
for the Los Angeles City Council in District four and
lives in Silver Lake, California. And Nithia, how are you doing.

(05:31):
I'm doing I'm I'm doing well. I'm not gonna lie. Um.
In the preparation for this, for this episode specifically, I
wanted to do a little bit more research and I
am just I. I read through your whole bio on
your website. You are amazing. I'm excited to talk to
you I'm also excited because we have another amazing guest.
He is a technology litigator. He has been a voting

(05:54):
rights activists since college. Since then, he's worked in numerous
roles as a poll worker, poll monitor, and assistant camp
paiin director for the d n C and move on
dot org, as well as working in the Bernie campaign
as an election protection attorney. And not only does he
work to protect everything from voter suppression to just kind
of supporting campaigns in general, but he's also experienced, and

(06:15):
we're gonna find out through uh this podcast, he's experienced
voter supression firsthand. His name is Aaron Thompson and he's
here with us today. Aaron, how are you doing. I'm
doing great. I'm happy to be here. Great day. I'm
so happy you're here. Nobody can see our zoom call
right now. You've got an exercise bike in the back
behind you. I too have an exercise bike that I

(06:36):
keep in my room. It's the only way that I
haven't turned into job of the Hut during the pandemic.
So it's very, very exciting. We got a great episode today.
This is the third and final episode before the election,
and it's going to be talking about things that aren't
you know. The last two episodes we talked about who
to vote for or kind of mainly directing towards voting

(06:57):
in general, and it's more specifically voting for um, your
presidential candidate that you would like to to be the
president of United States. This episode is gonna be way
cool because we're gonna be talking about voter suppression and
why we should be thinking about it. That's what Aaron
and I are going to talk about, the nipia. You
and I are gonna be talking about local elections and
taking down the giant um. And then lastly all three
of us will be talking together about what else we

(07:18):
should know before November three. This is the last episode
of Let's get into It before the election. There's gonna
be two weeks, I guess of no episodes, and I
want you to just go back and really listen to
these last three episodes during that time. UM. But before
we get into this, this is now the third episode
of Politics. Usually I asked my guests what you're doing
to improve yourself this week? But with the politics leaning episodes,

(07:40):
I wanted to ask a different question that was leaning
more towards this election and it was why do you vote?
Like I said in my story earlier, I watched this
video that um Catherine, my producer, sent me, that said
what voter suppression looks like online, And I didn't even
realize that. For years I have been seeing acts of

(08:01):
of attempted voter suppression, and luckily for me, it never
processed as that, but everything from tweets to two you know,
paid posts and promotions. And so I want to vote,
especially this year, especially this election, I'm standing up against
voter suppression and really nailing it into the idea that

(08:22):
the power is in the people and we have to vote.
It is not only our our right, but it's actually
our duty as people to keep the power in our hands.
So that's why I'm voting. Eron, do you have an
answer for why you are voting this election? Uh? And well,
this election and almost every election, it's like it's just
one of the best ways to make sure that our
elected officials are really listening to us. When they're up

(08:45):
for election, it's one they're the most engaged and when
they're the most in tune with what the people that
they're supposed to represent want, and by by voting, you
show that you pay attention, you show that you know
what's going on, and you show that they need to
respond to what you want. And so it's just critical

(09:06):
on that piece. It's not the only thing you should
be doing, but it's it's absolutely one piece of a
whole puzzle and making sure our society works for us.
I love that. I love that, Niffya. Your answer is
actually gonna be interesting because not only are you even
are you allowed to vote if you're if you're running
for an office? Oh yeah, you definitely are. That's so cool.
Can I actually ask you a two part questions though,

(09:28):
and you can give me a short answer because we're
gonna really get in, Like, I have so many questions
that I just want to ask you because I've never
had like a candidate for any form of office on
my show before. But I would love to hear why
you vote, and then I would also love to hear
why you're running for a local office. Well, I vote
because I am an immigrant to America. I moved here

(09:49):
when I was six years old. I am a naturalized citizen.
I got my citizenship in America when I was twenty two,
I believe one or twenty two, So it took me
a while to get my green card and then to
get my passport and to be, you know, really be
an American. And so for me, voting is a really
important way of taking that responsibility seriously of being an

(10:11):
American and of trying to have an input into what
my life here looks like. And I take that responsibility
really seriously. I love that. I love that. Okay, now
I want to hear and and we might not even
put this in. I just want to know, like, what's
your one hitter quitter, Like what is your what is
your your single sentence that makes people just go wow?

(10:33):
That's all order for why you're running for for local
to be a local official? Well, can I be honest
with you, Yeah, of course I'm running because I'm really angry.
We have a really powerful city council and they don't
do enough to make our city better for everyone who
lives in it, especially the most vulnerable. And I know
I will try my hardest to do that. So that's

(10:53):
why I don't know if I want to do a
slow clap or do like ao. But that was that
was There's nothing more that like I think embodies especially me,
and I think a lot of US citizens right now.
It's like we're just mad, like nothing's working and we're
like we're old people on a brand new MacBook and
we're just like it doesn't turn on. If not, it

(11:15):
won't take a charge. Um, but I can't wait to
hear more because I'm really so excited and and this
is kind of for the last three episodes in general,
being somebody got into politics late. It's amazing that we
were able. And I give a big shout out to
Catherine and my Heart team for gathering amazing guests. Like
I feel like I'm Anderson Cooper. I don't even know,

(11:36):
like I'm like I really feel I feel like I'm
I'm heavy hit her out because I got some amazing guests.
So thank you guys for coming on. Let's let's get
into it. Let's go straight into it, and Iffia will
be with you in just a second. But Aaron, you
and I are going one on one right now. Let's go. Um,
we're talking voter suppression, and we typically think of like
I don't know, like I guess in my mind, I

(11:57):
only thought of voter suppression up until really until I
saw this video that that Katherine sent me. I only
thought of voter suppression is like a big kind of
like bouncer, as if it's like a bouncer at the club,
standing outside like a polling place and being like, nah,
you can't come, and that I thought that that was it,
Like I thought that that's what voter supresstion is. Ever,
we're going to find out, especially through this episode as
we're unraveling at all, voter suppression comes in so so

(12:20):
many ways. Um we usually think of voter suppression only
happening in underprivileged communities, black communities, and so I think
a lot of people can naturally be like, well, it's
not happening to me, so like I'm I'm good, I
should I don't have to worry about it. But why
does the average American need to be concerned about it?
No matter where they are, no matter you know, what
race they are, what what community they live in. Um So,

(12:44):
I mean, I think your first sort of instinct is
right that there's like the sort of notion of this
bouncer is for preventing people from voting, and that's what
voter suppression and actuality in this election. There might be
a little bit of risk in that, but as of
what Trump is doing with calling out the proud boys
and asking them to attend the polls and even uh,

(13:07):
just a few weeks ago, early voting started in Virginia
and there were some people, some Trump supporters with flags
standing out inside the polling place, really preventing people from
sort of getting in or feeling intimidated. But you're right
that it's also a concern for areas just where the
stereotypical view of voter suppression isn't what you really believe

(13:29):
what would happen. It's often times sort of willful neglect
or unintentional neglect. But sometimes this intentional neglect which where
you sort of get like suppression, which happens indirectly. It's
like closing polling places. And what happens is you try
to go vote and the line is three hours long.
And if you're a working person, uh, and you have

(13:51):
to work that day, you can't stand in a three
hour long line. So maybe you go to vote before
you go to work. You stand in this line, you
can't get in in time, you have to go to work,
and you try to come back later and this another
three hour long line, and you have kids at home
to take care of, and so that also happens. And
it's not just in poor communities, it's not just in
marginalized communities. It happened here in l A, which is
not like a battle ground state and most instances for

(14:14):
these types of issues, but it happened through sort of
like wilful neglect. I don't know if you know this.
During the March two thousand election, we had a ton
of super long lines, three hour lines at polling places
in a place which we're a big, big county with
with resources that we should be able to put towards this,

(14:35):
and it happened places like u C. L A and
Santa Monica College, and that just prevents people from voting.
I mean, we don't even have to go back to
two thousand. I want to address something that I that
I came to my knowledge today, which is what's going
on in Texas right now. Um the governor of Texas
that narrowed drop vote drop off locations to one per county,

(14:57):
which he says it's for added security or out it
really does feel like voter suppression. UM. There's a lot
of counties that have such a large population. Harris County,
for example, has five million people in it, so for
having only one drop off location, it's going to be
exactly what you said. It's it's it's literally that's the
size of Rhode Island, and and some people are going

(15:19):
to have to drive hours just to drop off their vote.
Like you said, some people will still have real lives. Unfortunately,
election day is not government holiday, so you can't get
what you don't get work off. It's it's not a
day where everybody can dedicate their time solely to voting,
and so for situations like this, it can definitely be hard.
What do you what do you think is going on here?
You think it's just some some good old fashioned suppression. Yeah,

(15:41):
in in the case like that, usually what you're saying
is like literal intentional suppression. They know their base. They
know that their base are older Americans who are retired
and have lots of time on their hands. They know
that the people are going to vote for the other
party are usually younger. They're working class, they have jobs,
they have kids, they can't take off the time necessary

(16:04):
to get to the polls. And by making it harder
to go vote it there's nothing that you can might
point to on paper, although sometimes there is, but there's
not you can point on paper saying, oh, look, the
Republican Party is trying to suppress her vote, but they
know the impact of making it harder to vote, and
in those cases it's very likely to be it's sort

(16:24):
of intentional. Unfortunately. I want to I want to switch
lanes really quickly, and I actually want to talk. I
had mentioned before that you have experienced multiple instances of
voter suppression. I would just love for you to take
some time and tell us your story with it. All. Um, So,
I first sort of got into this back when I
was in college. I ran uh East here buying a

(16:46):
voter registration campaign. It was a non partisan campaign. We're
just trying to get students to vote. We want to
register them. We wanted to get them out to the polls.
And what Suite did was like nine months before the election,
we sat down with register voters and we were like
sitting down with him and we were like, Hey, we're
running this really cool voter registration campaign. We just want

(17:07):
to get new voters to the polls. We want to
get them involved. We think that this is gonna be
a super high interest campaign that Iraq wars happening. We're
registering people they're coming in droves. We don't think you're
going to have enough polling locations on campus or enough
machines to deal with the demand. And he wasn't interested

(17:28):
in hearing about that at all. His primary goal when
he met with us was like, oh, we get a
lot of students who moved into the dorms, they move out.
We got to get them off the rolls. That's all
he cared about. And lo and behold, when the polls closed,
they were students still in line and they were waiting
like three hours to vote, and we're begging them to stay.
We were ordering pizza and some drama friends who are

(17:50):
like cap dancing for them, trying like just anything we
could to keep them in line. But you know, there
were some students who had to leave. They're like a
finals or at the at the study. It can't stay
in line. And that has a suppressive effect both in
that election and just sort of prevents them from wanting
to go vote in the future. And it's amazing. This
happened again here in l A County in March two
thousand twenty when u C. L A and San Marco

(18:14):
College they're pulling locations were overwhelmed, and you had students
standing in line for hours and hours just trying to vote,
and it was entirely predictable. Like we knew that was
gonna be a problem. We had a switch in the
voting system here for that election. We went from five
thousand polling places to nine votes centers. And with that

(18:36):
sort of change is just inevitable that people are going
to be confused, they won't know where to vote, they'll
go to the closest location, and you'll have huge, huge lines.
All right, right, So can you talk about some more
ways that we might not immediately think of a voter suppression?
I have a list here for anything that you don't,
but I would like there are a few different ways

(18:56):
that I think of it. You sort of mentioned one,
but it sort of all comes down to, like you
have two politicians, and one politician knows that their base
is super solid and will like crawl across glass to
get to the polls, and then you have another politician
whose base is a little wishy washy. There may be
more people that want the second politician. But if you

(19:17):
can start generally suppress the vote, and and this usually
happens by just making it a dirty fight. You talk
about things which people don't want to talk about. You
make it ugly. People don't want to participate in the
ugly process, and that sort of overall sort of gets
people not wanting to vote. But the person with with
this base that's going to vote no matter what they

(19:39):
win in that sort of battle. Um, So it's sort
of like an ugly marketing sort of approach. You just
make it an ugly market and nobody wants to do
it except for the the people you know are going to
show up no matter what. We see that with Trump obviously.
The other thing is what you mentioned is sort of
reducing the trusts in the sort of election system, just
making it seem like the elections them isn't going to

(20:00):
be valid. The results are kind of be valid. So
people are more likely to skip voting because they don't
think that what they're doing counts. And we're also saying
that just like you said. And then there's just sort
of like straight misinformation. You've set up a robot call system.
You call people, tell them if you vote, Uh, you're
gonna get arrested for outstanding warrants. Um, if you vote,

(20:20):
you're going to pay your debts. If you vote, we're
going to investigate your family, and if any of them
are illegal immigrants, we're gonna arrest them and support them,
and that that also has a suppressive effect. Those are
the top three that come to mind. I don't know
if you have others. I mean, I just have some
other ones written down, you know, creating new rules, like
removing the right to vote for people who have been
convicted of a crime. We've already talked about reducing the

(20:43):
number of polling places, restricting early voting, enforcing and this
is kind of on top of what you said, like
enforcing more rigid I D requirements, restricting alternatives to voting
in person, like like voting by mail. And we're seeing,
you know, firsthand, uh, this mail in bad ballot debacle
that is that is happening, and new information is coming in.

(21:04):
And I love what Ashanti Golar said about mail in
ballots two episodes ago, where she said, it's important too,
and we'll talk about this a little later, but important
to understand every single rule that makes your mail in
ballot fair, whether it's the color of the ink, whether
it's you know, making sure you only put it in
one envelope and not two in a lot of different
of different ways. But I think all of those ways

(21:26):
are just situations that I have written down here that
are also forms of voter suppression. Yeah. Related to that
last one, UM one one that's actually had a really
big impact, and I think it was in Georgia. There's
now a signature match requirement where if you do a
mail in ballot, your signature has to match the signature

(21:47):
in which you read sure to vote. I don't remember
how I signed my signature. I just scribble, and I
don't even use a signature these days. I just sort
of scribble, you know. And so that in Georgia that
there was a huge effort by the then secretaries it
now governor which actually impacted the results, where they were
purposefully challenging those signatures to throughout votes. And some people

(22:08):
think that they were like looking for names that looked
African American or black to challenge those and keep those
out so that he would win. I mean, I actually
have that exact It's crazy that you brought that up,
because I have that exact situation here. And fifty three
thousand registrations were thrown out, and of those, fifty three
thousand were black voters. So it's it's one of those

(22:31):
things where I hate claiming something before it's proven, but
it's hard to deny statistics like that and say that
it isn't, you know, targeted suppression. Like I mentioned in
my story before, my producer sent me this video for
that Vox posted up a few days ago. It was
explaining basically that in the election, black Americans were the

(22:52):
number one target for Russian operatives looking to influence the election.
They were posting pictures of black women saying text Hillary
to I have blank blank blank blank to send in
your vote through text. And there was a lot of
Russian bots that were posting from fake accounts like Black
Divist and Politics for Blacks and all of these things,

(23:14):
and they were basically trying to denounce voting and saying
it's not worth it, You're gonna waste your time, our
votes don't matter. I think the thing that's interesting, and
it's a statistic that I saw, which was um that
for the last three elections, the black vote has equated
to less than ten percent single digit percentage of black
people's votes go to the Republican side. Uh. And so

(23:36):
it's extremely powerful, and it makes sense why especially the
Republican side, could want to suppress that vote because even
though they would suppress that six percent, there's also suppressing
on the other side. What else should people of color
in their communities be aware of as they're getting ready
to vote, as they're getting ready to mail in their ballots, um,
as they're just getting ready for this election. Yeah, I

(23:59):
have a few thoughts there. There are voting protection organizations
that if you have any questions about the Lawyer's Committee
for Civil Rights under Laws one and they have this
right potline running right now. They should know that number
and if any questions come up, they can call UM.
That's the first thing. And these are good organizations. They're
just out there to protect the vote. But we we've

(24:20):
talked about this our idea a little bit. You have
the start of dract Conian voter identification rules which are
popping up in many states. They'll have to learn those
and figure out what they need if they need anything
to to go vote. Since mail and ballots are really
big this year, know the rules for that as well,
including the signature rules and the wedding rules and who

(24:41):
can turn them in. Plan ahead. States are closing pulling
places that we've been talking about which are gonna make
the lines long. COVID is going to make polling places fewer.
There's gonna be fewer poll workers, so they'll have tact
full fewer polling places. Like figure out when pulling places open,
make a rock solid plan to get there. You have

(25:03):
to be there. You need to know how you're going
to get there, plan for it to be a long line,
and then plan for it to be a worse than
long line, and so don't let them win and getting
you to not vote. And then one lass sort of
key point is almost every state is again state by state,
almost every state has like provisional ballot rules, which are
ballots which you can fill out if you're not on

(25:25):
the voting registration list or something like that. You should
almost be able to always walk away from a polling
location having filed out a ballot, which you should build
always lead with with at least having the opportunity to vote.
But in some places you'll get turned away by somebody
who doesn't know what they're talking about, and but you
should try to insist on that. But again, if you
run a problems, call one of these election protection hotlines

(25:45):
and they will help you, and there's huge interests in
the legal community, this cyclone particular, that are staffing these
lines like crazy, So there's help out there. I think
that's an amazing place to to end this. To end
this segment, Aaron, thank you so much for doing all
of this work. You know, as as somebody who is
learning more about politics. It's people like you who are

(26:06):
dedicating their time and donating their energy to making this fair.
And that's the weird things like you're not you're not
fighting to upscale the left side or upscale you know,
the votes against. You're just going for a fair We
just want the fair election. So thank you so much.
We're gonna be talking with you in just a bit.
We're gonna take a break. When we come back, i'll
be talking to Nathia Rahman about local elections and taking

(26:30):
down the Giant. Will be right back. Al Right, we
are back. This is let's get into it. I'm alex
Iono and I have Nathia Rahman here with me. Nidia,
how you doing today? I'm doing good. I before we
talk about anything at all, you have two children, they're young,
you're running for local office. Do you sleep? Is When

(26:54):
was the last time you slept. Is that a thing? Well,
they're almost five. I have five year old twins and
so they sleep through the night pretty well now. But yeah,
I end up working a lot. I have no I
don't think I could even fathom the amount of work
that you've put in, especially this year. But I think
to help me learn a little bit more, I would

(27:15):
love to understand what made you so passionate about running
for local office, So, like, what experience has led you
to understand the importance of local government in our daily lives. Well,
this is particularly true in a city like Los Angeles,
but this is a fact about local government that is
actually true for every city in town across America, which

(27:37):
is that local government is a really powerful place. It
impacts so much of our day to day lives, and
in a city like Los Angeles, it controls so much
of what shapes the city we live in, the houses
we live in, our rent, whether you get to stay
in your house or lose your home to eviction, the

(27:59):
air we've reade is dependent on the rules that are
put in place by our local government in many ways.
So it is really really powerful, and I think it
impacts so much more than what people think local government
is really responsible for, which is like picking up your
garbage or fixing your sidewalk. Actually, our local government is
incredibly powerful, and so for me, the reason I wanted

(28:20):
to get involved with it was because I cared deeply
about social justice. I care deeply about housing and homelessness.
I've done a lot of work in my own community
to try and address homelessness, and I kept hitting up
against a wall, and that wall ended up being my
local elected representatives who just were not willing to take
the kinds of actions that we needed to take in

(28:41):
order to address our housing and homelessness crisis. And I
started thinking about local government and their power, and I
realized it wasn't just on this issue that they weren't
taking the actions that I wanted them to take. It
was on the environment that I care so deeply about.
It was about you know, racial justice issues and policing
that I care so deeply about. It was about so
many of the issues that I care deeply about. I

(29:05):
volunteer my time on, I vote on at the national level,
but at the local level, I was letting these local
elected reps slide. You know, they had all this power
and they weren't doing what they could with it. And
so that's why I think it's really important. You know,
I'm running, that's a really deep form of involvement, But
even if you're not running, to get engaged, to get informed,
to get involved, and to make sure you take action

(29:28):
at the local level because those decisions matter. And I
think that's it's really important for people to start understanding that,
and I think a lot of people have, especially in
recent months. That was amazing. I mean, honestly, like you,
you brought up such a great point, Like I think
we underestimate the power of local government. You know, like
I think in my mind, I just think about like
potholes in the street, and I'm like, who's going to

(29:50):
fail those potholes? You brought up, there's so much more
importance of local government. And John Olds actually, last we
brought up the importance of voting not just for the president,
but for everything else on the ballot, and especially your
local representatives, your local elected officials, because they, like you said,
they hold a lot of that power of your day
to day lives. Um, what made you though, want to

(30:11):
run for city council versus something else? You know, I'm
trained as an urban planner. So I have long thought
about cities and their powers and how they operate to
help people. You know, I've done a lot of work
on urban poverty, So for me, you know, the role
of our city and helping people who have lower incomes

(30:32):
to be able to thrive, that was a really important interface.
And so when I thought about what would be the
best use of my time and my energy and my
skills and improving the conditions for Angelino's who were facing vulnerabilities,
I felt like running for office was really the best
place that I could intervene and use my time. But

(30:52):
I also think that, you know, we were just talking
about local government. I was making a case that people
should care about it. That was part of the reason
and I decided to run, was because I think you
do need people out there making the case that it's important,
you know. And I'm I'm good at talking about things,
and I think I'm good at communicating the importance of
the issues that I feel passionately about. And I felt

(31:12):
like this was a really important moment in Los Angeles.
So even before the protests around racial injustice and police
brutality that we saw, even before all of that, this
moment in l A was a really exciting one. So
you guys were just talking about voter suppression. Well, another
way that voters don't turn out for important elections is
when they don't. They happen at times and nobody hears

(31:33):
about them, and you know, nobody knows about them. That's
what's been happening in l A for a really long time.
So we had these municipal elections which were held in
off years. Most people didn't know that they were happening.
Most people don't know the name of their city council person,
and so we have these enormous council districts and tons
of voters in each of them, and nobody came out
to vote for them. Right, But for the first time

(31:54):
this year, our municipal elections in our federal elections were
overlapping in l A. Which meant that we were going
to see a lot more people at the polls voting
for their favorite Democratic primary candidate and in November hopefully
voting against Trump or whatever you want. You know, um,
but that's what I'm going to be doing. But that
means that we had a real opportunity, right, We had
a real opportunity to get out there and tell people

(32:16):
this race matters too, and it's on the same ballot.
So the challenge of getting people out to vote for
these local elections becomes a little easier because they're already
going to be voting for these big races. You just
got to let them know that the local stuff matters too.
So that was another reason why I think I decided
to step up and run at this time, because right
now in l A, there was just this incredible opportunity

(32:39):
to expand participation, expansivic education, and get people pumped up
to do something that they hadn't necessarily done before. Mm hmm.
That's you are, literally the I would call I'm gonna
call you the face of local election importance, and you fight.
I think your history shows that you not only fight
for your local to where you live, but also local

(33:02):
to your culture. Um, you've spent a lot of time
fighting to increase resources for slum dwellers in India. I
would love to hear just a little bit more behind that. Yeah,
I you know, I moved to India after college, and
when I was living in Delhi, I was working with
a human rights nonprofit and kind of just you know,
I was doing all kinds of things. I just graduated college,

(33:24):
you know, I was finding myself. But I saw in
the papers that there was this massive slum eviction that happened.
It was a you know, a huge slum on the
banks of the Yamena River, which is a big river
that winds its way through the city of Delhi. And
this this community was one of the largest slums in Asia.
And the government of Deli demolished that slum over the

(33:48):
period of a couple of weeks. And after the first
couple of days of coverage in the English press, people
stopped covering this issue. And I couldn't believe it. A
hundred thousand people lost their homes almost overnight because of
actions taken by the city and state government, and I
I couldn't believe that it wasn't getting the kind of

(34:08):
attention that it deserved. I couldn't believe that people weren't
paying attention to what was happening to people when they
lost their homes and and where were they going afterwards?
And so I went to the eviction site. I tried
to look for organizations that we're getting involved and trying
to help people who had lost their homes. And that's
how I started getting involved in issues facing slum dwellers
as a whole. And I did work in Delhi and

(34:30):
in the city of Chennai. And you know, in in India,
a lot of people who live in these slums, they
don't have even the most basic services. They don't have
running water, they don't have toilets, they don't have underground sanitation,
and the city really denies them those services. And so
what I did in my work was to try and
give people the tools to advocate for those services, to

(34:51):
make sure that they had access to those basic needs.
And I worked initially I worked in organizations that were
led by slumd allers and informal sector workers like street
vendors and flower sellers and fishermen. And then I started
a little nonprofit of my own and worked with them
to use my urban planning tools to actually create that

(35:12):
data and to push the city governments to taking action.
And it was incredibly rewarding work and it taught me
a lot about what happens when people come together and
they fight for their rights, how much positive change can happen,
how quickly that change can happen, and how inspiring it
can be to be a part of it. It's it's
crazy to me that that you're talking about fighting for

(35:36):
these these increases of resources on the other side of
the world. When if I took out the concept that
you're talking about India, I would be like, oh, yeah,
you're talking about l a like it feels like it's
it's it's relating so deeply to the homelessness situation that
we have here in Los Angeles. And you're on your website,
you talked about it that Los Angeles is spending over

(35:57):
a hundred million dollars on homelessness, with almost of that
money going to convicting and jailing people who are experiencing homelessness. Yeah,
so that that that was work I did in at
city Hall and it was really shocking when I found
those numbers. Can you tell us a little bit um,
I want to talk about the freeze and rent price
increase and and evictions in Los Angeles. Can you tell

(36:19):
us a little bit more about that. Yeah, So, you know,
I talk a lot about homelessness. I talk about how
the city of Los Angeles has really had a misguided
approach to homelessness for a really, really long time, an
approach that's focused on policing and criminalization, instead of care,
instead of doing the work to try and get people
out of homelessness and into housing, into services. But another

(36:39):
thing that we don't do very well in l A
at all is to keep people who are in their
housing housed right. We have had a really big problem
with people either leaving l A because the prices are
getting too high and they moved to other parts of
l A County really far away from their homes from
communities where they grew up, or losing their homes and
ending up in their car or on the street in

(37:02):
you know intents. These are huge, you know, and these
are huge processes. Annually in l A. They estimate that
they have about thirty thousand evictions a year. That's a lot.
And if you were to do really simple interventions in
the city of Los Angeles, we could actually do a
lot to help people stay housed, to be able to
continue to afford their house. And one of those things

(37:24):
is a rent freeze. So we have in Los Angeles
as a city of majority renters, and we actually, through
the city's Rent Stabilization Ordinance, control rents in eighty percent
of apartment units in the city. That's a huge number
of apartments, and for years, what we did was to
set a floor on that rent increase, on that rent

(37:47):
stabilization increase, that allowed apartment owners to raise rents by three,
four or five percent every year. Right, what we could
have done when we saw that prices here we're going crazy,
was to have put a rent freeze in place. We
always had that power, and we chose not to use
that power to make that a zero percent rent increase
on most of the apartments in the city. And so

(38:08):
that's why I've been through the primary and even to now,
I've been advocating for putting in a rent freeze on
that huge number of apartments over which the city does
have control. Well, guess what. So before the pandemic, when
I was running and I was talking about this, people
said that this is radical, Like, oh, this is crazy,
this is off the table, We can't do stuff like this.
When the pandemic started, when people started really facing economic crisis,

(38:32):
the city did this. The city actually did institute a
temporary rent freeze on units that were covered by the
rent stabilization ordinance. That's great, but you know what it
told me. It told me that they had this power.
The whole time, and they chose not to use it
to help people keep rents lower and stay in their homes.
And you know, I think they could have been doing it.

(38:53):
That's why we talked about these powers. It's funny how
I love especially that story specifically, And it's funny how
people's minds can shift as quickly on the dime once
it starts affecting them. Actually, and a radical idea can
become uh, not only a totally acceptable thing, but also
a needed thing, especially amid the pandemic. A needed thing. Absolutely.

(39:15):
But to me, when I look at what has been
happening in Los Angeles, I keep asking, why do we
wait and let people suffer for so long before we
choose to use the city's immense powers to take action.
I find that continuously frustrating in Los Angeles, And so
one of the things that we've been talking about throughout
the campaign is really to say, well, how can the

(39:35):
city be a force for good? How can we intervene
in people's lives before they spiral into crisis? You know,
And that's that's really where I'd like to push us
in terms of thinking about the powers of the city
government and its role in our lives. And by the way,
if you go UM, you can go to nydia for
the city dot com uh, and you can learn that
as important as homelessness is as important as rent freezes

(39:58):
and I guess rent I don't know, maybe a mental assistance,
rental assistance there we go UM are important to you
in your campaign. You also are very very much so
a vocal person for preventing climate crisis, achieving racial equity, UH,
and making city hall work for us. That includes if
you are to win, you so like you'll also be

(40:20):
I I just I love that. As I was reading that,
I was it was really you know, you have I
feel like when I look at people running for office,
it's always I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that,
and very rarely like, hey, I want to get into
office so that you can tell me what you want.
You know. I think you're a great example for people
who are not in l A as well that that
helps get ideas for their city. Also, UH, you're running

(40:40):
against an incumbent city council person and I think you're
doing very very well despite his campaign having outspent you tenfold.
What do you think, um, What do you think is
is so important for people to know about where campaign
money comes from because I also know that and and
I really appreciate it as somebody who is a fan
of the organ nick kind of grassroots style, that you

(41:02):
are not taking any donations from companies, especially companies that
work in fossil fuel, and um, what's the big real estate?
Big real estate than what? What do you think is
so important for the people to know about not only
your decision to not accept the money, but what's important
for the people to also know about people who are
accepting money and where that money comes from. So for

(41:25):
a really long time in l A I said this before,
but very few people voted in municipal elections and very
few people actually donated to city council candidates. And for
the most part, if you look at donation receipts from
city council candidate in the past, it's all on the
city's ethics website. What you realize is that the people
who are donating to campaigns are people who are really
looking to make a profit off of the city and

(41:47):
looking to make a profit off of people who live
in the city. Right, So this includes people who are
involved in the fossil fuel industry who want to keep
burning those fuels and you know, getting city contracts to
do that. People who are building big buildings and want
to charge the most they can for them, landlords who
don't want to protect tenants who want to keep you know,
increasing rents. All of these are the kinds of people

(42:09):
who are donating to city council campaigns. And I think
we would do much better in l A if we
had a city government that wasn't depended on forces that
want to profit off of us in order to get elected.
I would want my elected representative to be beholden only

(42:30):
to residents, to the people, right, And so for me,
it was very very important to say, I'm not going
to raise any money from corporations. I'm not going to
raise any money from people who are big developers, and
I'm not going to raise any money from people who
are involved in the fossil fuel industry. We're also not
taking any money from police unions or packs or anything. Right.
All of these people have shaped city hall policy making

(42:52):
in ways that have been disadvantageous for residents. And I
think if we make sure that we are raising money
from people, or even better, publicly financing elections, so you
don't have to think about raising money at all. Then
I think we could have a city government that's really
responsive to residents needs, and that's what I want to
push for. I love that. I really love that. And

(43:13):
if you thank you for coming on this podcast. I
think it's it's so refreshing hearing somebody who's running for
office that I can identify with in the sense of like, oh,
you're not just with no disrespect. Meant, you're not just
an old white man, Like you're not just like somebody
who's so far away from who I am as a person.
You know, you have a family, and you you know

(43:36):
you you are fighting for the causes that that we
are actually talking about. I have no idea what even
to say about the debate that happened a few days ago,
But I at the whole time, I was just like,
none of this. As much as I care about the
topics and specific things, you guys are just rambling about
things that have no relation to me. So thank you
for coming on my podcast. I'm so excited. I'm very

(43:58):
happy that we got to have you on here to
talk to my listeners, especially the ones who are here
in Los Angeles. In Los Angeles County. Who will be voting.
I hope if you're listening, you better be voting, So
good luck to you. We're gonna take a quick break.
When we come back, we're all going to be talking
about what else there is to know because this is
the last episode before the election. Don't go anywhere, We'll

(44:18):
be right back. All right, we are back. This is
let's get into it. And this has been an amazing episode,
an amazing episode, especially right before the election. And since
we're leading up to the election, I figured we have
Nithia here, we have Aaron here, two very very strong minds.
Nithia running for um City Council, l A County District
four l A l A City Council District four l

(44:41):
A City. Okay, there we go, we got it. But
because we're leading up to this election, I figured we
use this last segment a final send offs. Are our
listeners can go and vote. I guess the have the
most educated vote that they can. So this segment we're
gonna call what else do you need to know about
the election? And so yeah, I just have a bunch
of questions that I'm gonna ask that I that I

(45:02):
you know that we have pre set here based off
of your guys expertise. Um, so, Aaron, you worked as
a poll monitor and a poll worker. Why was that
so important for you and would you actually encourage other
people to do it? Oh? Yeah, totally. I mean when
you're a poll worker, the people come in, unless there's
like a three hour line, the people who come in
are really really jazz to come in and vote. People

(45:24):
are really really excited for the opportunities for are like
weigh in on what's going on. And uh, they're super
super thrilled to do it. And it's just a super
rewarding experience. I'll tell you it's a long day because
you get up reallyally. You say, they're really late. But
that's why it's actually really perfect for young people to
do and they need young whole workers. Most poll workers

(45:47):
are older. Poll workers usually retire these with lots of
time on their hands, but there's usually technology bearriers. More
of these machines are very very like techy touch screen
machines and things like that. Young poll workers are key
and I would definitely recommend people get go on Vaulter,
you hear that listeners. Is it too late? Can you
still volunteer for this. I'm pretty sure they're still taking volunteers.

(46:10):
I heard. I'm most familiar with that A county. I've
heard that they're doing pretty decently with their numbers, but
I think that there will always take more poll workers.
But they definitely need them. And not that it matters.
But do you get paid? Actually it depends again, it
depends on your location. In La County, there is some pay. Yeah, right,
all right, So then if you're listening to this, I

(46:30):
advise everybody who's listening to this, just see. It might
be too late, you might not be able to get in,
you might not get paid, but just see. Well, thank
you for that information. If your turn, you've been campaigning
for whopping fifteen months, you haven't been able to work
at that time. Um. You actually talked to Katie Stole,
who was on last week's episode, about what has to
fall in place just for somebody to even run for office.

(46:53):
Can you speak about that? Yeah? Well, I was telling
her about how lucky I am, how privileged I am
to be able to run for this seat, and I
wanted to acknowledge that privilege here today. You know, I
have a husband who has a full time job, and
so he was able to support me through this whole endeavor.
I left my paying job to do this, and because

(47:14):
I got further than most people who are challenging incumbents
get in l A, by the time November three rolls around,
I will have been running for a full fifteen months
of my life, which is crazy, but you shouldn't have to,
in my opinion, be able to afford not working outside
of the home for or not making money for fifteen

(47:36):
months to be able to run for office in Los Angeles.
That seems absolutely crazy to me. And so one of
the things I talked to Katie about was the fact
that I think, you know, we should think about making
changes to our local political system that make it possible
for a whole range of people to be able to run.
I want to talk about one change that I'm really
excited to think about going forward, which is offering childcare,

(48:02):
you know, subsidized subsidies for childcare for candidates who meet,
let's say, a certain threshold of interest, or meet a
certain threshold for participation from other voters who are interested
in their campaigns. I wonder, you know, Ruth Bader Ginsburg
died recently, and we have so few women who are
in public spaces who are politicians in America, And I

(48:22):
wonder how many of them have been kept out of
this space because they can't pay for childcare while they're running.
They can't pay for childcare when they're at their peak
and their professional careers when they when they're able to
step up and run. And I think we should really
make sure that we don't make that a barrier for
people to be able to participate in public office. I
think that's super meaningful, not only in the in running

(48:44):
for office, but I mean we've talked about, especially in
this episode in Los Angeles, and that's close to home
for all of us. We're in a very very high
cost of living situation when you live in Los Angeles,
and so for more reasons than just the cost of living,
you very often have families with both the husband and
the wife um working at the same time and having

(49:05):
kids and having a family. So as somebody who's voting
here in Los Angeles, and during the break, we found
out that I'm actually in the in the district I'm
in district for and that's something that means a lot
to me. So if you live by me, I'm not
gonna tell you where I live. But if you live
by me, that's something that's super meaningful. So I really
love that that that's something that you are you're pushing for. Yeah. Absolutely.

(49:25):
The next question I have is how are you both
planning to vote? You plan to vote by mail or
in person? And what is your reasoning behind that? Yeah,
what I was planning to do was to fill out
my vote by mail ballot and drop it off at
a polling place. Um when they open. Polling places are
going to be open for not just on November three,
but for a few days before then. We have a

(49:46):
lot of details about how you can vote on our
website if you want to look it up Nitia for
the City dot com and it says how to vote
on top. But I want to go drop it off
so that I know it's going to get there. I
know that I trust, I still trust our postal service,
and you know, I still think that if you send
it in via the postal service, I would just recommend
that you send it in early. I still think it's
going to get there. I just don't want any delays

(50:08):
or any errors to affect my vote being counted. Um. Yeah,
I think that that's absolutely important to note if you
are planning to vote by mail to mail in your ballot,
the USPS actually said today, the day that this episode
is airing, October twenty, is the day that you should
be sending it all and that it should be all
done and sent in by So if you're listening to
this podcast, hopefully on October twenty, if you're planning to

(50:31):
vote by mail, make sure that it is sent in,
and again, make sure that everything in terms of the
rules for where you live, whether it's the UM the
signature match that Aaron talked about, whether it's the color
of ink that you use, your ballot being put in
one envelope versus two. Uh, there's so much information. So

(50:51):
if you're listening to this and you're planning on mailing
in your ballot, make sure you follow both of those
things and make sure you get it done. Aaron, what
about you. My approach is going to be similar. I'm
gonna double check my registration. I just checked it a
little bit ago. I am registered to vote UM. There's
a tracker in l A County where you can track
your mail in ballot and see where it's coming. It
should be mailed out to me in a few days

(51:13):
as soon as I get it. I'm going to do
this as soon as I can. I'm going to fill
it out. And um, just a couple of blocks away
from me, l A County has a drop box that
that that they've put in. There's gonna be like four
locations around l A County where you can drop off
your ballots there. So there's voting centers where you can
also drop them off, and they'll be these separate, big
giant metal boxes that you can drop them off home.

(51:34):
So I'm going to do it. Do it that the
mm nice. I'm happy that you both said that, because
being a neighbored to you both, I needed to know.
So I'm planning on getting my mail in ballot and
I was planning on dropping it off as well, and
you guys just both gave me some more information I
want to talk about. This is another fun word that
I learned what urban planning was today. I also learned
about this word jerrymandering. It's like, it's very fun to say,

(51:58):
it's not fun to see happening jerry mandering. For anybody
who doesn't know, is here we go. Jerrymandering definition. Jerrymander.
It's a verb and it means to manipulate the boundaries
of and then in parentheses and electoral constituency so as
to favor one part of your class. It seems like
both sides are doing it right now. It really does,

(52:18):
and I don't like I gotta call it as I
see it. Can you guys talk a little bit about
whether or not you think that that counts as voter suppression?
What are your guys thoughts? Yeah, so, I mean, I'm
a lawyer, so I'd like to be precise with my terminology.
Jerry Mandering for me, is has voter suppressive effects, is

(52:39):
the way I would think about it, because it makes
it so that your own certain populations of people their
vote feels like has less impact, so they'll be less
interested in the election, and that suppresses the vote itself. Um,
so I'll view with its like having voter suppressive effects. Well,
you know, and I think I think the bigger issue
is make king sure that young people's voices are heard,

(53:04):
making sure that young people are raising up their voices
are are showing up at the polls. And so for me,
I'm concerned about jerrymandering. I think it's a big issue
in America in general, we should definitely talk about it more.
But what I want to do with my energy and
with my time is get as many people pumped up
to get engaged as possible. And and that's why I

(53:27):
love what you're doing with this podcast. I think it's
so great that you're doing that because I think young
people we give up our power when we don't vote.
Not that I'm as young as you, but you know,
in general, you're younger, You're younger. You really, I really
do appreciate that. But it's very important. And and throughout
these last three episodes, we've talked about everything from why

(53:49):
it's important to even just vote in general, who you're
voting for, voting with your heart, and then now especially
in this election, talking about voter suppression how to combat it,
and also talking about the importance of local elections. We've
touched on so many things, and I think I have
one last question for both of you. I think the
biggest reason why I vote also, and I think both

(54:10):
of you guys, once you start having kids, as you
vote for the future. You vote so that your kids
have a have a world that is as best as
you can leave it for them. What's one thing that
you both hope changes right now and by the time
that they are eligible to vote. I really hope that
we can take really drastic action on climate issues, and

(54:31):
I hope that we are able to elect the kinds
of people who aren't susceptible to the roadblocks that the
fossil fuel industry has put in the way of rapid
action on climate change. I think that is the most
important thing that I want to see, because that that
is the world we're giving to my kids, and I
want to make sure it's as beautiful and as green

(54:54):
and as lush and as livable as the world that
I grew up in, you know. And I re really
hope that we can get there. That climate change is
definitely there, and I've and I've actually recently come to
the view that climate change plus wealth inequality together are
super super key because as there's more wealth and equality,

(55:15):
also people who are super wealthy are gonna have more
influence in the political process, and we have to solve
both of those things as quickly as we can, otherwise
we're going to have disenfranchise people who are facing this
sort of climate catastrophe. And I really hope that that
we can turn that around well again, thank you both
so much for coming on this podcast. We're gonna close
out with my favorite segment. It's called not So Shameless Promo. Literally,

(55:39):
I just want you to plug your would plug your
projects you're working on, where people can find you on
social media, um, anything else. Aaron, if you want to
go first, because I got we gotta go. We gotta
give Anthea some real big time here to to talk.
I'll use this time to say if you have an
issue voting, you can call eight six six our Vote
and that's the Lords Committee for Civil Rights into the Law.

(56:01):
They have an Electric Protection hotline that they are using
to help people vote and call them if you have
any issues at all or just have questions, they'll help
you off perfect well. Thank you so much, Aaron. Nythia,
you're running for l A City Council district for Where
can people find you? How can we support and how
can we help you hopefully win this election? Find me

(56:22):
on Instagram at Nythia for the City and I T
h y A on Twitter at Nythia v Raman and
I t h y A v r A m A n.
And on my website at Nythia for the City dot com.
Follow me, share the message lifted up. Tag twenty of
your friends. It's a crazy district. If you live in
l A. I'm sure you know people who live in

(56:43):
the district. Tag them, tell them about the race, and
tell them to go and vote. Yes, yes, yes, Well
you know you can always find me at alex ion
O A I O n oh. It's the best part
about having a weird last name. I am alex Iono.
I'm voting for Joe Biden Kamala Harris for presidential election,
and I'm voting for Niffia Rahman for l A City

(57:05):
Council district for Please please please go vote. I literally
I cannot stress it enough. Please go vote, Vote with
your heart. Vote in your local elections. Make sure you
are educated before you get in there and vote. I
love you. I'll see you guys on the other side.
Hopefully it looks good. Please rate our podcasts and subscribe

(57:26):
if you've got some time. It's how we grow and
we'll talk to you later. Peace. We really want you
to get the help you need, so if you need help,
please seek independent advice from a competent healthcare or mental
health professional. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast
are solely those of the podcast author or individuals participating

(57:47):
in the podcast, and do not represent the opinions of
my Heart Media or its employees. This podcast should not
be used as medical advice, mental health advice, counseling, or therapy.
Listening to the podcast does not established dr patient relationship
with hosts or guests of alex i Own Let's Get
Into It or I Heartmedia. No guarantee is given regarding
the accuracy of any statements or opinions made on this podcast.
Who if That's a Doozy