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Want To Suppress The Vote? A New Documentary Shows How It Can Be Done

Jeffrey Wright narrates the documentary, "Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook."
Jeffrey Wright narrates the documentary, "Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook."
Jeffrey Wright narrates the documentary, "Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook."
Credit Michael Kasino
Jeffrey Wright narrates the documentary, "Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook."

Host Frank Stasio speaks to filmmaker and activist Jeffrey Wright about his new documentary 'Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook.'

The American Issues Initiative’s new documentary “Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook,” wants to alarm people. It shows the myriad tactics that states, including North Carolina, used to suppress citizens’ right to vote leading up to and during the 2016 election.

“Many people don’t understand that a whole series of laws have been passed in over 20 states with the intent, and effect, of making it more difficult to vote,” says Mac Heller, co-executive producer on the film.

Footage in the film includes one Cumberland County woman, who had been displaced by Hurricane Matthew, being turned away from voting after finding out she was purged from the list of registered voters.

Host Frank Stasio talks with Heller about making the film, and his appearance at a Halifax County field hearing on April 18 to discuss the ways voters in North Carolina have had their rights suppressed. The American Issues Initiative is an independent production company with a progressive bent. "Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook" can be viewed on multiple platforms. It will be screened by the the Chapel Hill/Carrboro NAACP at the Varsity Theater in Chapel Hill at 7 p.m. on May 6. It will also be screened by Neighbors on Call at the Orange County Library on June 12 at 6 p.m.; at the Chapel Hill Public Library on June 19 at 6 p.m., and at the Southwest Durham Regional Library on June 25 at 6 p.m. You can also request a screening. May 6, 2019 at 7:00PM

Copyright 2019 North Carolina Public Radio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
Jennifer Brookland is a temporary producer for The State of Things.