How two swing states changed American voting
Throughline
This episode explores how two pivotal moments in Arizona and Michigan shaped modern American voting dynamics—Arizona's early voter suppressi
Key takeaways
- Rehnquist's 1960s 'ballot security' program in Arizona laid the foundation for modern voter suppression strategies.
- The GOP has institutionalized a top-down 'block-the-vote' approach rooted in historical tactics from Arizona.
Main topics
- Voter suppression history
- Election integrity debates
Notable quotes
He said, pardon me, are you a qualified voter to this black gentleman? And the man said, yes. And he said, do you have any credentials to indicate that you are?
Conclusion
The future of American democracy may be decided by the enduring legaci
Transcript preview
Speaker 4 (0:00) This is Ira Glass. On This American Life, we tell stories about when things change. Like for this guy, David, whose entire life took a sharp, unexpected, and very unpleasant turn. And it did take me a while to realize it's basically because the monkey pressed the button. That's right. Because the monkey pressed the button. Surprising stories every week, wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 5 (0:28) Do you think that I really would be here in front of the Judiciary Committee of the United States to testify on the qualifications of the chief justice after 27 years of trying lawsuits if I wasn't absolutely sure that I interviewed Bill Rehnquist because voters pointed him out? Speaker 1 (0:52) In the summer of 1986, the Senate held hearings to confirm William Rehnquist as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. And some of the most dramatic moments of the hearings didn't have anything to do with his previous 14 years as an associate justice on the bench. Instead, it was about something that happened years before he was even a judge, when he was living in Phoenix, Arizona in the 1960s. Speaker 4 (1:19) We saw Mr. Rehnquist drive up. Speaker 5 (1:22) There was a group of young Republicans. I saw him there and I saw him approach at least one voter, and if my memory is correct, two. Speaker 1 (1:31) Witnesses say they saw William Rehnquist, who was a well-known attorney at the time, at polling places in the early 1960s. The witnesses said Rehnquist was there to challenge the eligibility of some voters. He approached the line on the outside of the polling place. Speaker 5 (1:51) He said, pardon me, are you a qualified voter to this black gentleman? And the man said, yes. And he said, do you have any credentials to indicate that you are? The man said, no. And he said, well, then perhaps there's a question whether or not you're qualified. Speaker 3 (2:05) Was he harassing voters? Speaker 5 (2:07) Yeah, he harassed one right in front of me. Speaker 3 (2:10) What did he do? Speaker 5 (2:11) Asked Speaker 3 (2:11) him Speaker 5 (2:11) to read a card. Read something from the Constitution. I kept looking. I thought he was going to stick it in my face. I'm going to stick my fist in his mouth. Speaker 1 (2:19) During the hearing, William Rundquist denied any claims that he harassed or intimidated any voters. Speaker 5 (2:26) Yes, I do deny that. I deny that. Yes, I do deny that. But Speaker 1 (2:30) he did acknowledge that he gave legal advice to Republicans who were at the polls challenging voter eligibility, and that in some cases, he showed up at the polling places himself. He called it an election day program. Others called it a ballot security program. Speaker 2 (2:52) Rehnquist was sworn in as chief justice and the nation moved on. But that so-called Election Day program had taken on a life of its own, becoming a national strategy whose legacy still reverberates today in the bigger fight over controlling the vote. Speaker 1 (3:09) In 2026, that fight to control the vote is as big as ever. President Trump has pushed all year to change voting rules for the upcoming elections. Speaker 5 (3:19) We want voter ID. We want proof of citizenship. We want honesty in our elections. We want honesty in our country. Speaker 1 (3:26) A strategy which is upending the midterms. It's important to note that there is very little evidence to support his claims of widespread voter fraud. Speaker 7 (3:36) This effort by the United States Postal Service and the federal government right now is a naked attempt to inject chaos and doubt into our election system right Speaker 1 (3:47) before voting starts. States have jumped into the act too. Ten states have changed or adopted new congressional maps ahead of the 2026 elections in an attempt to flip or secure seats. Speaker 3 (4:01) Those conditions are fueling a congressional gerrymandering fight that President Trump started last year. Speaker 1 (4:08) All these tactics have resulted in a flurry of election-related lawsuits. Speaker 3 (4:18) The U.S. Supreme Court has again stopped a newly drawn congressional map. And that Speaker 1 (4:24) has sown a sense of uncertainty. The Speaker 3 (4:27) state court has blocked the new map, which favors Republican candidates. At Speaker 1 (4:32) stake, the Democrats believe they have a real chance to flip the House and the Senate. In the end, this election will come down to who votes. On this episode of ThruLine from NPR, we're going to tell you some stories from two states. Arizona, and Michigan to show you how some of today's political dynamics were seeded. First, the story of how a future Supreme Court justice helped launch a program to challenge voters at the local polls in Arizona, in a county that's become a hotbed for election conspiracies about voter fraud. Then... How a 1973 labor strike led by Arab Americans in a Michigan factory town sparked a political movement that could play a major role in the election this November. Coming up, those two stories of building power from the top down and the bottom up that have both changed American elections. This is Carol Daly from Phoenix, Speaker 8 (5:35) Arizona, Speaker 1 (5:35) and Speaker 8 (5:36) you're listening to ThruLine from NPR. I Speaker 3 (5:39) haven't seen my son since 2012. Speaker 2 (5:42) This is Deborah Tice. The disappearance of her son, Austin, is one of the biggest missing person cases in the Speaker 3 (5:49) world. Speaker 8 (5:50) What do you want from me? I should solve the Speaker 3 (5:52) mystery. Speaker 8 (5:53) I know that my son is somewhere alive. Speaker 3 (5:55) Listen to Where Is Austin Tice? from NPR's Embedded and BBC Speaker 2 (6:00) Radio 4 on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 3 (6:04) This is Tanya Mosley, co-host of Fresh Air. Ten years ago, Colin Kaepernick took the knee during the national anthem, and it cost him his NFL career. He's rarely talked about it since. Now he tells the story of that decision and why he still trains every day to play. Speaker 8 (6:20) But I am not at the point of accepting I will never step on a field again. Speaker 3 (6:24) Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get fresh air. This message comes from the NPR Wine Club, which has generated over $1.75 million to support NPR. Whether buying a few bottles or joining the club, learn more at nprwineclub.org slash podcast. Must be 21 or older to purchase. Part one, a flurry of fists. Speaker 6 (6:58) Rehnquist agreed to the interview with the New York Times. He told me, under duress. Speaker 6 (7:07) We told him, we're going to do a profile of you, whether you cooperate or not. Speaker 2 (7:11) Nearly two years before William Rehnquist became Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John A. Jenkins was trying to get an interview with him. Speaker 6 (7:20) I am a journalist based in Washington, D.C. And Speaker 2 (7:24) he wrote a book called The Partisan, The Life of William Rehnquist. Speaker 6 (7:28) He replied with a letter. Mr. Jenkins, I'd like to meet you. And why don't you come in and we'll decide when you get there whether or not this is an interview we can Speaker 2 (7:42) do. This was a big deal because William Rehnquist didn't really do a lot of interviews. And he had a reputation for being a bit of a loner on the court. Speaker 6 (7:52) He frequently was the only person in dissent on a case. Speaker 2 (7:58) So John goes into the interview thinking that this might be his only shot. I took my tape recorder. Speaker 6 (8:05) I had my notes prepared. I had my questions. I went in and I just set the recorder up. We just started talking. Speaker 2 (8:13) John wanted to know why Rehnquist was often the only judge dissenting on a case. But when the conversation started flowing, he says they jumped from one idea to the next. And when their time was up, he said, Speaker 6 (8:25) OK, you can schedule another interview. But try to be more organized next time. Speaker 2 (8:30) After the interview, John met with his editor to game plan what they were going to actually do with the story. And she told him, What Speaker 6 (8:38) you need to do is you need to understand the origins of his conservatism. Speaker 2 (8:43) And digging into these origins, it started revealing why Rehnquist was so sure of what was right and wrong, so unflinching in his values. and believed so strongly in what the Constitution said that he was willing to go to great lengths to protect it. Speaker 6 (9:10) William Rehnquist is born in 1924. He lives in Shorewood, Wisconsin. A suburb of Milwaukee. Shorewood, Wisconsin is all white. And Shorewood High School is all white. Speaker 2 (9:24) And it's here, inside Rehnquist's high school, that John can see, from the beginning, Speaker 6 (9:30) He is deeply ideological. Speaker 5 (9:51) Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. Speaker 1 (10:22) William Rehnquist was a senior in high school when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. And he got involved. He helped organize a school assembly called Wake Up America and was active in a patriotic group called United States of Young Americans. And Speaker 6 (10:38) he signs up during high school to be a block captain to report subversive activity to the FBI in case it exists. Speaker 1 (10:48) After he graduates, Rehnquist enlists in the Army and serves until the war ends. Then he comes back, gets his law degree from Stanford. Speaker 6 (10:57) First in his class. Speaker 1 (10:58) And then he lands a clerkship with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, who was a strong advocate for First Amendment rights and civil liberties. Speaker 6 (11:08) So he just had a supreme self-confidence. Speaker 1 (11:10) And it was during his clerkship with Jackson, five months in, where Rehnquist would show what kind of conservative he was. Speaker 6 (11:27) 1952, he's 28 years old. Brown versus Board of Education is now in front of the court. And Rehnquist, he writes a memo to Jackson in which he is telling Jackson, you don't have to vote for this. You don't have to vote with the majority. There is a more principled stand. We Speaker 5 (11:51) can get to him pretty quick. Speaker 5 (11:53) We got a Speaker 1 (11:54) hold of John's last conversation with William Rehnquist before his article in the New York Times Magazine was published in 1985. In the phone call, John asked him about a similar memo he'd written around the same time regarding a voting rights case. Speaker 5 (12:09) May I read it to you? You said it is about time the court faced the fact that the white people in the South, you meant. Speaker 5 (12:30) John Speaker 1 (12:30) reads some more. And then he asks, Speaker 5 (12:47) Well, I would be happy to stop by and show you the entire memo. It's just a one-page memo with three paragraphs. If that would help. We're in oral argument. Speaker 5 (13:01) Later, Speaker 1 (13:02) in his confirmation hearing, Rehnquist would try to deflect answering any questions directly about his views on integration, including the memo about Brown v. Board, which he said reflected Jackson's views, not his. Speaker 4 (13:16) Doesn't the memo that was written, that you wrote, doesn't it have language indicating that you were indicating your views, not Justice Jackson's views? Speaker 5 (13:29) Yeah, I