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. 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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? 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 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 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, 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 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 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, 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, 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 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 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 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, 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, 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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. 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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. 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. 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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. 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 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. 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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 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 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. 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, 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, 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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, 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. 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 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 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 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 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 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