October 19, 2020 • 11 mins
If you want to change, preserve, or build a better America, there’s one easy way to make your voice heard: Vote. This year, iHeartRadio is teaming up with over 20 incredible celebrities (plus a handful of our most popular podcasters) to get the country excited to go vote, broadcasting the personal, emotional and heartfelt stories behind why showing up to the ballot box means so much-- not just as individuals, but for our entire nation.
Thank you to our partners AXE, DoveMen+Care, Knorr®, Seventh Generation, Levi’s and Facebook
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Why I'm Voting, a production of I Heart Radio. Listen.
You already know this, but it's an election year. You
might already be tired of hearing about it. But here's
the thing. Democracy doesn't work without you. I'm Holly Frying,
and I'm sitting down with many of my fellow podcasters,
from Will Ferrell to Stephanie Rule, as well as other
(00:26):
luminaries to find out about their relationships with the ballot
box and ultimately just to find out why they vote.
I hope you're exercising your right to vote, and if
you're not, I hope that their stories inspire you. Hello,
and welcome to Why I'm Voting. Today. I have the
(00:48):
great honor of being joined by the delightful Anthony Ramos.
Hamilton's fans know Anthony from the original Broadway cast, and
he also has loads of acting credits on television and
film as well. He is also a recording artist, just
on his own when it is not part of a
stage situation. His album The Good and the Bad came
out last fall, and somehow, despite this wildly creative life
(01:09):
he's living, he has made time to join me to
talk about voting. Anthony welcome so much. What's up? How
are you doing? I'm so good and I'm really really
delighted to have you. I want to know, first thing,
if you remember when you learned about voting and that
this was a responsibility that would one day be on
your shoulders as something you would have to do to
(01:31):
help decide what happens in our government. I think a
moment where voting really felt pivotal and when I think
I was old enough to vote, was when Obama was
running for president, and I think that was the first
time I had actually voted. I think I was pretty
cynical before about voting, and you know, I think as
I entered into my young adulthood, nine friends were like no,
(01:56):
no, no no. Some of my older friends too were like, yo,
you have to vote, bro, like and I was like,
well why, They're like, you know, you know, I think
I was like, no, you know, my voice doesn't matter,
you know, it's my vote, even an account, like, you know,
it's not even worth it. And my my friends were
basically like, Yo, you're wrong, you're you're you're you're wrong,
(02:17):
and um. And that's how people get put in the
office who necessarily might not belong there. Is because of
that mentality in the public and in young people were
just in people in general, right, like my vote doesn't count,
my voice doesn't matter. No one's listening anyway. And I
think it was in that moment where I was like, oh,
I gotta vote, so I voted for the first time.
(02:38):
I love that you have had friends that educated you
on the matter and set you straight. That's kind of
fabulous if they did. Yeah, I'm grateful for them. You know,
my my friend Alan Green and Amy I was doing
the Radio City Christmas Spectacular at the time. I'll never
forget it, and they were like, yo, you need a vote, bro,
stop playing. We need friends like that. Do you remember
(03:00):
what it felt like that first time you voted, Like
once you had done it, where you like, yes, that
was the right thing to do. Yeah. I was nervous
for sure, because I hadn't done it before. And I
was like, you know, and you know, you wait on
the line, you go, you know, to your local school
or wherever it is, wherever you're you know, wherever they
set the polls up in your district or in your area.
And I was just like nervous, and I was like, man, like,
(03:24):
I hope I vote for the right person or people.
There are people on the battlet right, Like, it's not
people think when you vote it's just the president or
it's just one president. Like, no, there's senators on there,
the congress people. They're all types of depending on what
the election is, you know, but each one is so important.
That's another thing that I've learned over time. You know,
we think about, you know, why is my neighborhood being
(03:45):
taken care of it? Why is that pothole being there
for so long? And you realize, well, it's your local
officials that you need to vote for. And we have
to be paying attention to who are local officials are
and like do they care about our community? Right? Like yes,
maybe in certain areas those potholes get you know, they
get filled in more than others. So how can we
maybe try and find someone to put somebody in in
(04:07):
place in the New York City, right, a council member,
some someone who can speak on behalf of our person,
our community, to help get these things done. I was nervous.
You know, these are all things that were really and
still are to a certain degree, intimid dating, you know,
like trying to get educated and continuing to just try
and learn right. I mean again, I said it probably
(04:28):
five times, but I was nervous. Yes, You're not the
only person that I've interviewed for this show. There have
been like dozens at this point who has mentioned being nervous,
particularly early on in the process. And I'm glad that
you also mentioned like your local elections, because I think
that sometimes takes new voters by surprise. So I wonder
if you have any tips you mentioned staying on top
(04:49):
of who the local politicians are that are really going
to impact your neighborhood and your immediate community. But how
do you go about making sure you know who is
on that ballot, what they stand for, and who the
right candidate for you is. You know again, I think
it's talking to people who have been voting for a
while and like maybe you know and unfortunately sometimes some people,
(05:10):
like I'll be honest, I didn't always have a network
of people who I could go to and be like yo, like,
because I'll be real, I'm like, sometimes I don't know
who to vote for, and I'm like, but I go
to someone I trust and I'm like, hey, look, who
are you voting for and why are you voting for
that person, and you know, like and there'll be people
who like Alexandro Kasca Cortest wasn't in my district, but
I was like, yo, we all gotta everybody, even if
(05:33):
she's not in your district, we gotta get behind her
because she's doing amazing work. Like Mark Traeger is a
council member who deals with Coney Island and whold different
set of neighborhoods right that I don't live in, but
still he's someone who cares about the people. So you know,
he was a history teacher at my high school turned
into a councilman, you know. And it's just kind of
like finding resources, you know, just kind of like I mean,
(05:55):
you can even go online. I'm sure you know you're
go online and you type in where you live and
who are my local officials? Google is amazing, you know
what I'm saying. Like, so I think, you know, and
this is something that I'm still learning, right, Like I'm
you know, I'm not gonna sit here and like try
and rattle off who each council member is for every
(06:15):
district and because I can't do that, right, but I
just know like that there's certain folks who like Mr
Trigger and you know Alexandro Kazukot who are doing you know,
amazing work that you just like follow and you're like, yo,
like whatever I can do to support their cause, you know,
you know, I'm gonna try to do that, and then
you just try to find people who are like minded,
(06:36):
you know, like there's also like what are some local
nonprofit organizations that are doing work too? You could always
look up like I found one essential for public democracy,
you know cp D who a friend of mine has,
sus Gonzalez from Bushwick, you know, from the neighborhood that
I grew up in. Those guys are doing amazing work.
Those guys are fighting to get the potholes filled and
(06:58):
to get the light fixed on what of our avenue
that has been broken for a while and causing traffic,
and you know, so it's like it's just kind of
just given that a little more effort, you know. I
mean it does take effort, takes effort to care about anything, right,
It's very easy to not care, but I think it's
worth us at least giving it a little bit of effort.
(07:18):
You know, even just a little bit of effort can
go a long way. Imagine if a hundred thousands, you know,
tens of thousands of us gave only a little bit
more effort. That equals a lot of effort. Pandemic has
changed the way a lot of people are looking at
voting this year. But normally in a year where we
are not in this strange time we're in, would you
(07:39):
normally opt to mail in your vote or are you
you usually an early voter or do you like to
go into your precinct on the day of the election. Well,
I've done it both ways. I've gone into the school
two elections prior, but the last one I did absentee
ballot because we were in the middle of this pandemic.
And the last one I gave him my ballot that way.
But yeah, it's just you. You you figure it out.
(07:59):
I have a lot, so absentee is usually the way
to go for me, which I think, you know why
we need to really fight to keep the post office around,
because I'm seeing pictures of mailboxes being taken off of,
you know, curb sides, and I'm like, what is going
on here? Like this is crazy? You know, I'm seeing
on the news and you know, folks talking about they're
(08:21):
afraid of the election being rigged because it's easier to
have misinformation or to miscount votes, you know, or people
can can make things up easier if if they're mailing
things out of people faking their addresses or this and that,
And I'm like, yo, like this is crazy. You're denying
people's rights to vote, you know, like you know, I
do absentee ballot most of the time, which is why
(08:42):
I'm like, we have to fight for the postal service
because such a huge way for people to get out
and vote, especially now, people do not want to be
at a school, they don't want to go to, you know,
wherever it is, right to any place with a bunch
of people where they can be susceptible to being in
a large crowd of people. So it's it's a shame
that we're not taking that into consideration when election day
(09:03):
comes around. What is your personal ritual like on that day?
Do you like to watch things all of the information
come in as it on spools or do you like
to wait and look at it when everything is said
and done. Do you have a lucky outfit you like
to wear that day? What is that they play out
like for you? I usually watched like when it comes
down to the wire. The last presidential election, I stood
(09:25):
up like it was crazy. I was at a friend's
house and I stood up the whole time and watched
it all unfold. I like to watch and see, you know,
what's going on, to see who's getting elected, and see
how the people react in certain states. Right, you know,
we see different states react. We see you know, the
newscast and they're they're reporting all day long. So yes,
(09:45):
I do. I check my phone. I'm checking, you know.
On election day. I'm usually just like taking a peak
seeing what's going on, and when it comes down to
the wire, usually in the evening, I like sit in
front of the TV and watch and see what's happening.
All right. Final question, You have had this done for you,
so I imagine you have an idea in mind already.
(10:06):
But if you could tell someone who is not using
their right to vote one thing in the hopes of
getting them to actually use this right that we have
as citizens, what would it be. The right to vote
is something that we shouldn't take for granted. So many
people fought to even have the right. People have lost
their lives for us, you know, especially people of color, women,
(10:28):
for us to have the right to do this and
to to actually like be able to go to a
poll freely and cast our vote. Right. So, I think
in honor of those people, and in honor of ourselves
and our families and the people we love, we should
take that right. We should use it, and I would
encourage people to not take it for granted. It's a
(10:48):
blessing that we get to vote, it's a blessing that
we get to voice our opinion, and I think we
should we should use that and we should take advantage
of that. You know, there's power in numbers and the
power with the people. I mean, that's the that's the
same right powers to the people. Right, Let's let's take
our power back, right, let's vote. Let's make sure we're
always aware of that power, and we'll use it. It's
(11:09):
a superpower to vote, so let's use it. Hey, are
you not registered to vote yet but you think it's
something you want to do. You may still have time.
Voter registration deadlines vary by state, so to find out
the scoop for where you are, check out a nonpartisan
registration voting site like head count dot org or fair
(11:31):
vote dot org. Why I'm Voting is an I heart
Radio production. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit
the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever it
is you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Why I'm Voting, a production of I Heart Radio. Listen.
You already know this, but it's an election year. You
might already be tired of hearing about it. But here's
the thing. Democracy doesn't work without you. I'm Holly Frying,
and I'm sitting down with many of my fellow podcasters,
from Will Ferrell to Stephanie Rule, as well as other
(00:26):
luminaries to find out about their relationships with the ballot
box and ultimately just to find out why they vote.
I hope you're exercising your right to vote, and if
you're not, I hope that their stories inspire you. Hello,
and welcome to Why I'm Voting. Today. I have the
(00:48):
great honor of being joined by the delightful Anthony Ramos.
Hamilton's fans know Anthony from the original Broadway cast, and
he also has loads of acting credits on television and
film as well. He is also a recording artist, just
on his own when it is not part of a
stage situation. His album The Good and the Bad came
out last fall, and somehow, despite this wildly creative life
(01:09):
he's living, he has made time to join me to
talk about voting. Anthony welcome so much. What's up? How
are you doing? I'm so good and I'm really really
delighted to have you. I want to know, first thing,
if you remember when you learned about voting and that
this was a responsibility that would one day be on
your shoulders as something you would have to do to
(01:31):
help decide what happens in our government. I think a
moment where voting really felt pivotal and when I think
I was old enough to vote, was when Obama was
running for president, and I think that was the first
time I had actually voted. I think I was pretty
cynical before about voting, and you know, I think as
I entered into my young adulthood, nine friends were like no,
(01:56):
no, no no. Some of my older friends too were like, yo,
you have to vote, bro, like and I was like,
well why, They're like, you know, you know, I think
I was like, no, you know, my voice doesn't matter,
you know, it's my vote, even an account, like, you know,
it's not even worth it. And my my friends were
basically like, Yo, you're wrong, you're you're you're you're wrong,
(02:17):
and um. And that's how people get put in the
office who necessarily might not belong there. Is because of
that mentality in the public and in young people were
just in people in general, right, like my vote doesn't count,
my voice doesn't matter. No one's listening anyway. And I
think it was in that moment where I was like, oh,
I gotta vote, so I voted for the first time.
(02:38):
I love that you have had friends that educated you
on the matter and set you straight. That's kind of
fabulous if they did. Yeah, I'm grateful for them. You know,
my my friend Alan Green and Amy I was doing
the Radio City Christmas Spectacular at the time. I'll never
forget it, and they were like, yo, you need a vote, bro,
stop playing. We need friends like that. Do you remember
(03:00):
what it felt like that first time you voted, Like
once you had done it, where you like, yes, that
was the right thing to do. Yeah. I was nervous
for sure, because I hadn't done it before. And I
was like, you know, and you know, you wait on
the line, you go, you know, to your local school
or wherever it is, wherever you're you know, wherever they
set the polls up in your district or in your area.
And I was just like nervous, and I was like, man, like,
(03:24):
I hope I vote for the right person or people.
There are people on the battlet right, Like, it's not
people think when you vote it's just the president or
it's just one president. Like, no, there's senators on there,
the congress people. They're all types of depending on what
the election is, you know, but each one is so important.
That's another thing that I've learned over time. You know,
we think about, you know, why is my neighborhood being
(03:45):
taken care of it? Why is that pothole being there
for so long? And you realize, well, it's your local
officials that you need to vote for. And we have
to be paying attention to who are local officials are
and like do they care about our community? Right? Like yes,
maybe in certain areas those potholes get you know, they
get filled in more than others. So how can we
maybe try and find someone to put somebody in in
(04:07):
place in the New York City, right, a council member,
some someone who can speak on behalf of our person,
our community, to help get these things done. I was nervous.
You know, these are all things that were really and
still are to a certain degree, intimid dating, you know,
like trying to get educated and continuing to just try
and learn right. I mean again, I said it probably
(04:28):
five times, but I was nervous. Yes, You're not the
only person that I've interviewed for this show. There have
been like dozens at this point who has mentioned being nervous,
particularly early on in the process. And I'm glad that
you also mentioned like your local elections, because I think
that sometimes takes new voters by surprise. So I wonder
if you have any tips you mentioned staying on top
(04:49):
of who the local politicians are that are really going
to impact your neighborhood and your immediate community. But how
do you go about making sure you know who is
on that ballot, what they stand for, and who the
right candidate for you is. You know again, I think
it's talking to people who have been voting for a
while and like maybe you know and unfortunately sometimes some people,
(05:10):
like I'll be honest, I didn't always have a network
of people who I could go to and be like yo, like,
because I'll be real, I'm like, sometimes I don't know
who to vote for, and I'm like, but I go
to someone I trust and I'm like, hey, look, who
are you voting for and why are you voting for
that person, and you know, like and there'll be people
who like Alexandro Kasca Cortest wasn't in my district, but
I was like, yo, we all gotta everybody, even if
(05:33):
she's not in your district, we gotta get behind her
because she's doing amazing work. Like Mark Traeger is a
council member who deals with Coney Island and whold different
set of neighborhoods right that I don't live in, but
still he's someone who cares about the people. So you know,
he was a history teacher at my high school turned
into a councilman, you know. And it's just kind of
like finding resources, you know, just kind of like I mean,
(05:55):
you can even go online. I'm sure you know you're
go online and you type in where you live and
who are my local officials? Google is amazing, you know
what I'm saying. Like, so I think, you know, and
this is something that I'm still learning, right, Like I'm
you know, I'm not gonna sit here and like try
and rattle off who each council member is for every
(06:15):
district and because I can't do that, right, but I
just know like that there's certain folks who like Mr
Trigger and you know Alexandro Kazukot who are doing you know,
amazing work that you just like follow and you're like, yo,
like whatever I can do to support their cause, you know,
you know, I'm gonna try to do that, and then
you just try to find people who are like minded,
(06:36):
you know, like there's also like what are some local
nonprofit organizations that are doing work too? You could always
look up like I found one essential for public democracy,
you know cp D who a friend of mine has,
sus Gonzalez from Bushwick, you know, from the neighborhood that
I grew up in. Those guys are doing amazing work.
Those guys are fighting to get the potholes filled and
(06:58):
to get the light fixed on what of our avenue
that has been broken for a while and causing traffic,
and you know, so it's like it's just kind of
just given that a little more effort, you know. I
mean it does take effort, takes effort to care about anything, right,
It's very easy to not care, but I think it's
worth us at least giving it a little bit of effort.
(07:18):
You know, even just a little bit of effort can
go a long way. Imagine if a hundred thousands, you know,
tens of thousands of us gave only a little bit
more effort. That equals a lot of effort. Pandemic has
changed the way a lot of people are looking at
voting this year. But normally in a year where we
are not in this strange time we're in, would you
(07:39):
normally opt to mail in your vote or are you
you usually an early voter or do you like to
go into your precinct on the day of the election. Well,
I've done it both ways. I've gone into the school
two elections prior, but the last one I did absentee
ballot because we were in the middle of this pandemic.
And the last one I gave him my ballot that way.
But yeah, it's just you. You you figure it out.
(07:59):
I have a lot, so absentee is usually the way
to go for me, which I think, you know why
we need to really fight to keep the post office around,
because I'm seeing pictures of mailboxes being taken off of,
you know, curb sides, and I'm like, what is going
on here? Like this is crazy? You know, I'm seeing
on the news and you know, folks talking about they're
(08:21):
afraid of the election being rigged because it's easier to
have misinformation or to miscount votes, you know, or people
can can make things up easier if if they're mailing
things out of people faking their addresses or this and that,
And I'm like, yo, like this is crazy. You're denying
people's rights to vote, you know, like you know, I
do absentee ballot most of the time, which is why
(08:42):
I'm like, we have to fight for the postal service
because such a huge way for people to get out
and vote, especially now, people do not want to be
at a school, they don't want to go to, you know,
wherever it is, right to any place with a bunch
of people where they can be susceptible to being in
a large crowd of people. So it's it's a shame
that we're not taking that into consideration when election day
(09:03):
comes around. What is your personal ritual like on that day?
Do you like to watch things all of the information
come in as it on spools or do you like
to wait and look at it when everything is said
and done. Do you have a lucky outfit you like
to wear that day? What is that they play out
like for you? I usually watched like when it comes
down to the wire. The last presidential election, I stood
(09:25):
up like it was crazy. I was at a friend's
house and I stood up the whole time and watched
it all unfold. I like to watch and see, you know,
what's going on, to see who's getting elected, and see
how the people react in certain states. Right, you know,
we see different states react. We see you know, the
newscast and they're they're reporting all day long. So yes,
(09:45):
I do. I check my phone. I'm checking, you know.
On election day. I'm usually just like taking a peak
seeing what's going on, and when it comes down to
the wire, usually in the evening, I like sit in
front of the TV and watch and see what's happening.
All right. Final question, You have had this done for you,
so I imagine you have an idea in mind already.
(10:06):
But if you could tell someone who is not using
their right to vote one thing in the hopes of
getting them to actually use this right that we have
as citizens, what would it be. The right to vote
is something that we shouldn't take for granted. So many
people fought to even have the right. People have lost
their lives for us, you know, especially people of color, women,
(10:28):
for us to have the right to do this and
to to actually like be able to go to a
poll freely and cast our vote. Right. So, I think
in honor of those people, and in honor of ourselves
and our families and the people we love, we should
take that right. We should use it, and I would
encourage people to not take it for granted. It's a
(10:48):
blessing that we get to vote, it's a blessing that
we get to voice our opinion, and I think we
should we should use that and we should take advantage
of that. You know, there's power in numbers and the
power with the people. I mean, that's the that's the
same right powers to the people. Right, Let's let's take
our power back, right, let's vote. Let's make sure we're
always aware of that power, and we'll use it. It's
(11:09):
a superpower to vote, so let's use it. Hey, are
you not registered to vote yet but you think it's
something you want to do. You may still have time.
Voter registration deadlines vary by state, so to find out
the scoop for where you are, check out a nonpartisan
registration voting site like head count dot org or fair
(11:31):
vote dot org. Why I'm Voting is an I heart
Radio production. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit
the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever it
is you listen to your favorite shows.
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