Subject: RE: DWA Call Script - to be reviewed
From: "Mohib, Laila" <[email-masked]>
To: "Crystal, Andy" <[email-masked]>, "Lykins, Tyler" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 11 May 2016 13:18:36 -0700

I know you have 1,000 things to do but I just wanted to ping you two on this. If you are working on this, thank you.  If you have any questions please let me know.

Thanks,
Laila

From: Mohib, Laila
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2016 1:27 PM
To: Crystal, Andy; Lykins, Tyler; Dillon, Lauren; Freundlich, Christina; Palermo, Rachel; Wei, Shu-Yen
Subject: DWA Call Script - to be reviewed

Below is the script for DWS et al for the DWA call tomorrow late afternoon on voter ID laws.  I've pasted the text for review  below and attached it to this email.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I apologize for the confusion on how this was supposed to be vetted and by who.  Apologies and thank you in advance!

Thank you,
Laila

Dejuana Thompson, Moderator

Hello everyone and thank you for joining us. My name is Dejuana Thompson , the Deputy Director of Community Engagement at the DNC. Community Engagement works to promote advocacy among various progressive political leaders and activists across the country. We work closely with key leadership of the DNC, state parties, external partners, and allies to ensure seamless integration into the larger DNC strategy and engage, inform, and mobilize specific constituencies.

I am proud to welcome the DNC Chair Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Chair of the DNC's Women's Caucus Lottie Shackleford, and Pratt Wiley the National Director of Voter Expansion at the DNC, to this call.
I would like to remind everyone that this call is strictly off-the-record, and is closed to the press.

With that, it is my pleasure to turn this call over to the DNC Chair Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz.

DNC Chair Representative Wasserman Schultz

Thank you Marilyn. I also want to thank everyone on this call for joining us today.

The right to vote is our most fundamental right, and the right by which all of our other rights are secured. No one should ever take for granted their right to vote, nor should anyone seek to take that right away.

But the GOP seems to believe their path to victory lies in restricting access to the ballot box, and Republican-led state legislatures are leading the charge in key battleground states across the country.

We see that most clearly in North Carolina, where the so-called Voter Information Verification Act, reversed a generation of electoral progress. Passed in the wake a Supreme Court ruling that invalidated a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, the bill eliminated same-day voter registration, rolled back early voting by a full week, and imposed new photo ID requirements for voters. This purely partisan law was passed without any support from Democrats because its intent was clear from the very beginning - to systematically limit access to the polls in order to sway elections.

It is deeply disturbing that as our nation moves forward, one of the country's major political parties is attempting to drag us backward. We should not have to re-litigate yesterday's battles or continue a fight we have previously won.
Yet this is playing out all across the country.

From North Carolina to Wisconsin to Arizona, we've seen a number of states pass anti-voter laws designed to limit access to the polls. Whether it's implementing restrictive photo ID laws, rolling back early voting, eliminating same-day registration, or changing polling locations without notifying voters, these types of tactics make it harder to vote.

When we limit the ways that people can vote, we are hurting the low-wage workers with two jobs, the recently married woman who hasn't changed her name on her driver's license, the single mother who goes to work early each morning and picks up her children late at night, and the widower without a car who relies on his grown children to get to the polls. And as you may have noticed, these types of laws disproportionately impact women, minorities, students, the elderly, and low-income people.

We're going to discuss how these laws hurt women voters in particular. And by the way - we've outnumbered male voters in every national election since 1964. In 2012, approximately 10 million more women voted than men, contributing to the largest gender gap in history. President Barack Obama won 56 percent of the women's vote in the last election and women voters made the difference in several high-profile races, helping Democrats retain control of the Senate that year. So it's easy to see why the GOP is taking aim at women voters - we're a key part of the Democratic constituency and we vote in large numbers.

Women face a number of "silent" obstacles on Election Day that I alluded to earlier.

Rolling back or restricting early voting hurts makes voting more difficult for those with limited flexibility in their schedules. Women have comprised 60 percent of early voters in 2012.

Women are more likely than men to change their name due to marriage or divorce. However, some voter ID laws require voters' government issued identification to exactly match their name at their local polling place. So if you haven't had time to go to the DMV for a new license, then you're penalized at the polls.

And some states now require documented proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport, just to register to vote. If citizens don't provide sufficient evidence, then they are not allowed to vote in state and local elections. It is estimated that 32 million eligible women voters may lack proof of citizenship that matches their current legal name.

I cannot emphasize this enough - women are an important voting block that the Republican Party has largely alienated. We cannot allow them to continue to silence our voices.

With that, I would like to turn the call over to my dear friend, the Chair of the DNC's Women's Caucus, Lottie Shackleford.

Women's Caucus Chair Lottie Shackelford
Thank you Debbie.

I started my career in politics back in 1978, and I have witnessed many "firsts." I was also the first women elected Mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas, and I have tried to open the doors of opportunity for other women.

Women must - we can and we must - amplify our voices and values at the ballot box. To echo Debbie, women have outnumbered male voters in every national election since 1964. Our voices are powerful when we go to the polls.

Let me take a moment to talk about this year's race. Donald Trump is dangerous, and he lacks the judgment and the temperament to be president.

I wouldn't want him to take a tour of the White House, let alone live there. He has a long history of denigrating women, and the vile, sexist comments he's made on the campaign trail are beneath the dignity of the office he seeks.

Trump would take away a woman's right to make her own healthcare choices. He has said that women who had abortions should be punished - but not the doctors that performed them. He's even opposed exceptions for health of the mother because he thought women would use a cold as an excuse to have an abortion.

Trump said that ensuring equal pay for women should just be left up to "the marketplace," and once suggested family leave policies should actually be scaled back. He's also called pregnancy was "an inconvenience for a business." Trump even complained that when he employed mothers, they were not giving him "100 percent."

This is about our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, and ourselves. That's who he's referring to. He's talking about us. And we must hold him accountable.

Our vote is our voice. Let's use it this fall. And let's register and encourage others to vote. Here's what I am asking you to do:

Know the Law. In order to successfully vote, you need to know the rules of the road. Make sure you check with your local board of elections.

Engage Your Community. Women are most likely to register to vote if someone they know and trust asks them to vote and engages them in a discussion about the issues. Keep in touch with the people you registered through email, events, town hall meetings, candidate forums, et cetera. Invite them to attend registration or other events that will engage them more deeply in the political process.

Register to vote, plan to vote, and then vote. Ensure you ask the three most important questions: 1) Are they registered to vote 2) Have they voted? 3) What is their plan on or before Election Day to vote?
There's too much at stake this election. We can't look back, and ask ourselves what more could we have done. We need to go out there and do it!

I would now like to turn this call over to Pratt Wiley, the DNC's National Director of Voter Expansion.

Pratt Wiley, National Director of Voter Expansion

Democrats believe that we solve our nation's problems with more democracy, not less. The Democratic National Committee's Voter Expansion Project reflects our commitment to ensuring every eligible citizen is able to register, every registered voter is able to vote, and every vote is accurately counted.

But the opposite seems to be true for the Republican Party. Republicans have been following the same playbook - in North Carolina, Arizona, Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida and beyond - to tilt elections in their favor. Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country are passing restrictive voting laws that make it harder for women, minorities, and students to vote. These groups are not only the Democrat's core constituency - they are also the majority of Americans.

Voter impersonation - the type of conduct that photo IDs are supposed to eliminate - is virtually non-existent. A comprehensive study found only 31 instances of voter impersonation in over 1 billion votes casts - that's twice as rare as a shark attack. These facts, however, are not stopping the GOP from seeking a solution to a problem that just doesn't exist.

Former Senator Jim DeMint, who now leads the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation, recently admitted that voter ID laws help elect "more conservative candidates."

In April, students at the Marquette University polling station faced two hour wait times to vote. Many still stood in line well after the polls official closed and the race was called. At the same time, a Republican Wisconsin Congressman bragged to reporters that the state's restrictive photo ID law would help the GOP defeat Democrats in the fall.

In Texas, Senator Ted Cruz filed an amicus brief in support of Texas' restrictive photo ID law. Cruz wears his opposition to voting rights as a badge of honor. In 2012, he voiced his opposition to a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. He also led the fight as Texas Solicitor General to limit voter registration efforts in communities of color, vigorously defending a discriminatory law against a civil rights lawsuit.

And we all remember just four years ago when the Pennsylvania Republican House Leader announced that the state's restrictive photo ID law was 'gonna allow Governor Romney to win the State of Pennsylvania.'

It's not hard to see that this is a part of a cynical political ploy to boast the Republican's electoral success this fall.
While Democrats have gone to court in Arizona to reverse the culture of discrimination and disenfranchisement, Republicans are going to court to defend laws designed to decrease voter turnout - because that is their only path to victory.

As mentioned by our distinguished speakers, the DNC and Democrats across the nation will not waver in defending the right to vote - the most fundamental of all of our rights.

Again, I want to thank everyone for joining us and I would now like to open the call to questions.