- Did you see that pothole in the middle of our road?
It's super unsafe, we need to do something about it.
- Honestly I cannot believe the Pentagon
hasn't done anything about it yet.
- Yeah, I think, wait, did you say the Pentagon?
- Yeah, I mean, it's their job to keep us safe, right?
- Yeah, like nationally, but this is our town road,
we can just call public works.
- Pentagon refuses to fix my road.
- Okay, apparently the school board is planning
all these budget cuts for after-school programs.
There's gonna be a meeting at the district office
tonight, if you wanna go.
- I would, but Russia's interfering with our election,
so there's really nothing I could do.
- Russia is not interfering with our afterschool programs,
you know that right?
- Russia hates jazz band.
- This is our school board, that we elect,
we actually have a say in this.
- Alright, well let me guess then you're gonna tell me
that I actually have like way more control
over the issues that impact my life?
'Cause so it's like, a civic duty to engage
in local government?
- That's exactly what I would say.
- Oh, you should probably go to that meeting.
- Great idea.
So you care about getting involved with local government,
great, me too.
Now what?
Confession time, but the majority of my life,
I've had little to no idea who held office in my city.
What's the big deal?
It's not like it impacts my life that much, right?
Wrong, believe it or not,
state and local officials are making decisions,
that affect our lives, every single day,
I know what you're thinking, "What?
no way."
Yes way babe.
These folks are making decisions about;
police and fire departments, water sanitation,
streets, and roads, property tax, cemeteries,
senior citizen programs,
and that's not even the whole list.
Knowing the names and faces of the people who are making
these decisions every single day for us,
is kind of a big deal.
That's why we're going to talk to
Evan Wayne Malbrough today.
Change maker Evan Wayne Malbrough, was a research fellow
at the Pentagon, and a member of the
Clinton Global Initiative,
a train cellist and founded multiple youth led initiatives
on polling in his home state of Georgia.
Who is going to catch us up on how to get these local
officials working for us?
Evan, I'm so excited to be having this conversation
with you today.
- Of course, thank you for the invite
I'm really happy to be here.
- You are our expert local government guru today.
So if you are talking to a young, aspiring activist
who wants to get more involved in local government,
what is the first step that you would recommend they do?
- This is kind of like the zero step I would say, vote,
and then go to local government meetings.
Many of the laws that we see passed,
they are passed in public.
There's either recording or there's an actual meeting forum
where people can attend,
during COVID they're happening online.
- Wow, I didn't think about the fact that
during the pandemic, I could just be in my living room,
but going to a local government meeting.
- Absolutely, you sure can, I've done it many of times.
- And when you say vote,
is there a way to become a more informed voter for your
local elected officials?
- Absolutely, it takes some work though,
before every election, I would say take one to two hours
to just look at what the candidates in your area
are doing and what they wanna do.
You can follow them on Instagram,
where you can get snapshots of what they're doing
in the community, and what they plan to do
when they are elected.
- Are there other ways that you would recommend people use
their social media to become engaged with
local government issues?
- Absolutely, spreading adequate and accurate information
on social media, a platform where most people
get their news.
A lot of people don't know,
even who their elected officials are,
nonetheless what they do.
So, it could be a great opportunity for you to become
a leader in your community just by gatekeeping
that information.
- Yeah, I mean, those people are me.
I'm somebody who is just starting to realize that I need to
become more involved with my local government.
And I'm realizing that the information is all right there,
if I just like, literally Google,
like my zip code, and look up local officials,
there's so much opportunity for me to get involved.
- You know, I think what this virus has shown us
is that elections matter.
As a voting rights activist,
that's pretty much what I spent my entire adult life
trying to tell people.
The government is, your tool to make your community better.
So the more you learn how to use your tools,
the more benefit it will have to you and to the community
that you wanna serve, and you wanna protect.
- That makes me think about, the work that
you've been doing recently,
you created the Georgia Youth Poll Workers' Project.
- Yes, yes.
- Can you tell us about it?
- We are a nonpartisan nonprofit initiative,
that hires young people to become poll workers
in their community.
So whenever you go to vote in your precinct in person,
you will see people working the polls, right?
And for the past 20 or so years,
the average age of those people working at your precinct
has been 60.
So our motto is we wanna change the face
in your local precinct.
The amount of poll workers correlates directly to the amount
of precincts in somebodys area, right?
So if you're looking at communities that have historically
been underserved, these communities need as many resources
as they can get.
And it's not just money.
It's human people willing to actually go into these
communities and provide these essential services.
We serve as the recruiter, for these communities,
so that they can have the adequate amount of resources
on election day, to be able
to make sure their votes are counted.
- So Evan you've been working so hard to get young folks
involved and engaged in local government.
When did you start becoming involved with public life
and public policy?
- Yeah, so I actually started in probably third grade.
So when I was a child, I joined the Boy Scouts of America.
Some of our merit badge requirements were actually going to
city council meetings, and governors meeting, right?
So I met a lot of elected officials and a lot
of my merit badge is directly correlated to working
in the community.
- I think I always thought that,
being a part of local government,
being a part of those town hall meetings was for folks who
bought houses, and were land owners in a community.
- People need to realize that you living in the community,
is an investment in the community, right?
You still pay your taxes,
you still use the public resources
and you have a say, right?
So what we need to do is to make sure all of us are actually
doing our part because that's where the change start.
It starts with all of us voting, and it starts with
all of us building community, that want to help each other.
We wanna build communities that are aware,
of people like trans people, of people like disabled people,
of people like undocumented people, right?
So that we can grow together rather than compete for growth
against each other.
- So cool, it's so exciting Evan.
What can one do in terms of their own government
that would influence, police reform, healthcare issues,
education?
- Those three issues all have three different offices right?
So when you're talking about police reform,
and you can go to the budgeting committee
that does police budgets in your city,
even if there's like a police oversight
or community oversight board,
or community oversight task force.
And then also of course, protesting is a great means
to raise awareness for these things and to put pressure
on the elected officials.
When it comes to education,
every community has a school board.
Healthcare, that's more of a state and federal thing, right?
But then you have to have the governors and the state houses
approve those funds to go into your communities.
There's overarching things you can do.
So we just had the census conclude.
The census helps determine how much funds
go into your community.
But a pinnacle of those things, is to run for office, right?
The best person to represent your community, is you.
- Is there like a cool influential role in local government
that maybe most folks don't know about
that you would wanna tell us about?
- It may vary by stating what the name is,
but there is a person in your state,
that runs your public services and help with those, right?
But when you're talking about things like transportation,
we are talking about things like environmental reform.
They're one of the most quintessential people when it comes
to those process.
Another thing in a local community, is DAs.
They determine what cases go to court,
what cases are prosecuted, right?
I'm thinking about people like Larry Krasner in Pennsylvania
who said, "Oh, well we're not charging
marijuana possession charges."
Depending on if that's what you want,
that's something you need to talk to your DA about
and advocate for it.
Of course, a lot of people are scared, right?
Because a lot of these offices have been tools
to oppress groups and marginalize groups,
but that just is more fuel for us to take over these systems
so that we can change them.
- Do you have any vision for the future of voting rights
and new procedures as we move forward?
- Our democracy started as an experiment
and I'm a firm believer that the experiment's not done.
Like for example, the electoral college.
I'm a firm non-believer in the electoral college,
the vote of a Republican in California should equal the same
as a Democrat in Alabama.
I wanna experiment with things like participatory budgeting.
So the idea is that, a certain part of the budget,
is voted on democratically, right?
Like let's say you have,
your community has a million dollars,
you as a citizen, can come up with a proposal
to use for that billion dollars.
It could be things like, a community garden, or things like
adding solar panels to a community center.
It restores faith in democracy because what you vote on,
immediately goes into your community and you know,
you did that.
- It sounds so amazing, and it's just,
it's so exciting to hear a vision for what's possible,
to both create more immediate effects, in our community,
and also long lasting effects that help for generations.
All right, did they warn you about a game?
- Yes, they did warn me about a game.
- Today, we're gonna play a game called, "Hot spot debate,"
where we can have a little bit of fun,
debating some different issues that might come up,
in local politics.
I'm gonna go first.
Michelle Obama debating the importance
of outdoor fitness equipment.
You know that I love fitness and you know that I'm better at
dancing than my husband,
now I wanna be putting out, exercise equipment everywhere.
Shut down the streets, shut down the parking lot.
Let's make them all outdoor fitting
- So I have to be Michelle Obama too?
- Yes
- Got you, okay Yes, please Evan.
- You know, growing up in the South side of Chicago,
something I realized is, it gets cold.
And though I support fitness equipment,
outdoor fitness equipment, would be a very bad idea.
- Yes, next one, a nap, enthusiast fireworks.
- I love my daily naps, and I love to sleep at night,
but if there are fireworks outside,
I see weird things in my dreams, man,
maybe we should just move the fireworks somewhere else,
away from me.
- Well, here's the thing,
some people say, "The key to a nap is waking up
with an alarm."
Some people say," Oh, just nap and you'll
naturally wake up."
Neither of those things work for me.
I need fireworks, loud fireworks so,
Oh sorry
Fifth grade class president, teachers getting paid more.
I was a fifth grade class president too.
So I had practice at this.
Fellow students and community,
our teachers are working hard every day,
to get as much information out before recess.
Our teachers have given us recess every single day.
Therefore, I believe that our teachers have earned a raise.
- All right, hard to follow that, wait, let me go higher,
um, um
Um, yes teachers deserve more pay, but also
wait, I sound like a chicken,
oh wait
yes, teachers deserve more pay, but like seen all workers,
like I liked my garbage man.
I just think that everybody should be paid more, you know,
I think I should be paid as a student, if I'm being honest.
- That was awesome.
- If you wanna get involved, I would advise you to do these
four things; read and learn about your community,
and who you are,
especially in relations to others,
run for office, know who represents you in your community,
and go to community and government meetings,
and finally be a poll worker.
- Well, that was so fun and so informative.
Remember, the government is our tool and the more
we are involved, the better the tool works for us
and our community.
For more information, check out ballotpedia,
to see and learn more about what's gonna be on the ballot,
and, check out myreps to learn more about your state
and local officials.
I'm Tessa Claire Hersh, and this has been, "Now What."