male: the "fox news" decision desk can now project that joe biden will become the 46th president of the united states. male: the wrong people are going to turn this country to socialism, communism, marxism. crowd: trump, pack your-- you're illegitimate. karishma vyas: it's been a year like no other in america. crowd: america was never great. female: losers cheat to win. karishma: a country at war with itself. donald trump: the radical democrats are trying to capture georgia's senate seats. [crowd booing] trump: you just can't let them steal the us senate.

karishma: two months ago i came to this southern state of georgia, the final battleground for control of the senate. deborah scott: stand up. all: vote. deborah: stand up. all: vote. karishma: tracking a powerful movement that's changing the face of us politics. deborah: we had to fight for the right to vote. deborah: you registered? female: yes, ma'am. deborah: our people have worked and died for this right, so we're not gonna let anybody take it away from 'em. ♪♪♪ male: well, it all comes down to georgia, folks. male: what happens in georgia is gonna determine the future of the united states. male: see a clearing trend overnight across northern georgia, that's gonna allow it to get fairly cold again. male: lows are dropping down to-- karishma: it's winter in atlanta and new covid cases are spiking at around 5000 a day. this once vibrant city is eerily quiet. [phones ringing]

queen larosa: good morning, wyatt clan. this is queen larosa with-- female: --georgia stand-up. we're just reaching out to voters to remind them-- female: please get up, get out, cast your ballot so that your vote can be counted and your voice can be heard. karishma: here in fulton county, election fever is ramping up. ♪♪♪ deborah: first of all, is everybody in here registered to vote? karishma: it's the last day of voter registration for the runoff elections in two senate seats. deborah: what we find is that people-- karishma: deborah scott, a veteran voting rights activist, is rallying her team. deborah: we want serial voters, because what is voting? power. there are two kinds of power: there's organized money and there's organized people. we don't necessarily have organized money, but we can organize people. what we're really trying to do is build power for our communities. karishma: deborah is part of a formidable force of black

women leaders in georgia. they've registered over 800,000 voters in the last two years. deborah: if somebody says, "who should i vote for?" what do you say? male: that's up to you. deborah: "that's up to you." can everybody say "non-partisan"? your job is just to make sure they get to the poll. deborah: does everybody have a coat? take your coat with you. it's going to be cold. take your coat. do you have a coat? deborah: your vote is your ticket to play in this game. what's the saying, either you're at the table or you're on the menu. you need to be at the table so that you can decide what is best for your family and community. female: today is the last day to register to vote in georgia. female: you must register to vote by the end of the day today. and even if you think you're already registered, double check and confirm. karishma: in november, georgia, a traditionally republican state, voted for a democratic president for the first time in 30 years.

a record number of african americans voted. now the focus is on getting them to turn out again. deborah: hi, how are you? male: not bad. deborah: good. you registered to vote? male: no, ma'am. i've only been out of jail for, like, six years. deborah: i think you can vote as long as you're not on probation. this here, it will tell you how you can register so you can vote. male: i'mma make sure i give my man one too. deborah: all right, do that, okay. male: hey, y'all have a good day. deborah: we want them to come out and vote early. can we say "early," folks? early. early in the morning. karishma: historically, people don't come out to vote in runoffs. deborah needs to change that. deborah: of course, the base of everything we do is black women. i said, black women, do your thing. 'cause we know that when black women work together we get it done.

karishma: twenty-five-year-old ariel a'nette singleton is deborah's most promising protégé. ariel a'nette singleton: it's been an awakening, and it's a great fearlessness, because you feel as though anything is possible. ariel: just say, "you can visit our website, which is stand-up.org, or follow us on instagram, twitter, and facebook at-- ariel: seeing the numbers and seeing, especially, black youth coming out in record numbers, i mean that just says something about our generation. karishma: since donald trump was elected in 2016, georgia has seen a surge in young people registering to vote, up by 35%. ariel: you'll be on social media point in dekalb county, okay? ariel: i have a power, i have an entitlement. it's by law; i know i have this right. this is mine. and i'm gonna do it, whether you say i can or not. karishma: a crowd assembles at the capitol building in downtown atlanta.

♪ build a city, ♪ ♪ o great defender of the righteous. ♪ karishma: they're not interested in the senate runoffs. they're focused on donald trump's loss in november. male: every single legal vote should be counted and everyone should just have one vote. karishma: and you believe that's not the case? male: i don't believe that happened. female: i believe some votes were counted that were not legal. male: get ready, we're rolling. karishma: protecting the protesters today is the three percent security force. their leader, chris hill, is known as general blood agent. chris hill: what we're seeing right now, unfolding before our very eyes, is our country going sideways. it is fraud, 100%. it is our constitutional rights being taken away from us. chris: god bless america. karishma: the militia is armed to the teeth. they're allowed to be; it's an open carry state. [crowd cheering] karishma: there are more than 300 militias like this across the united states.

male: everyone from 18 to 45 years old, according to the constitution, can swear in right now and you can become the fighters of this country and defenders in the last stand that we have. karishma: a fellow far-right group uses the protest to recruit and induct more militia members. crowd: --enemies foreign and domestic. male: without any mental reservation. so help me, god. all: hooah! male: you are no longer just an american civilian. you are now part of the american militia. antifa: no fascist usa. no trump. no kkk. no fascist usa. male: heads up! heads up! heads up! heads up! karishma: the sudden arrival of a new group causes concern for the militia. antifa: no kkk. no fascist usa. karishma: on my right, we have a whole bunch of trump supporters rallying as well as fully armed militia,

and on my left we have black-clad, fully-armed antifa. antifa: trumps and klan go hand in hand. trumps and klan go hand in hand. trumps and klan go hand in hand. karishma: antifa are far-left, anti-fascist protesters. male: get out the--way, sir. antifa: usa. usa. usa. usa. karishma: the two groups are itching for a fight, but the cops are holding the line. antifa: hey man, my taxes pay your salary. antifa: --miracle, hallelujah. y'all come up here and worship. c'mon up here and worship, hallelujah. karishma: but just as the protest is winding down, the mood shifts.

male: i've got one in the chamber, bro. karishma: guns are drawn, cocked, and ready. it appears the militia is trapped in a parking garage. male: c'mon guys, ain't y'all supposed to be beating your wives today? like goddamn, go home. go eat some fried 'gator or some bullshit. karishma: they're blocked in this parking lot and i've heard that they've had their tires smashed, so they can't really leave. male: --you. male: --your daughter. ♪♪♪ female: to georgia now, where early voting is underway to decide who will fill those last two senate seats and ultimately decide which political party will control the senate. deborah: all right, this is the beginning of early voting. supposed to stop raining, but then the temperature is gonna drop. karishma: voter registration has closed.

these activists now need to get people to show up at the polls. ariel: you can let people know that naacp with lyft are giving free rides to the poll. karishma: and make sure they can vote unencumbered. deborah: andrew, tell us about security. if somebody gets in your face, what do you do? andrew: if somebody's approaching you and you feel 1000% that you're being threatened, you say "excuse me, brother, please--or sister, please back up," you know. and at that point you look around 'cause a lot of these individuals are actually carrying firearms on them, and they're pulling these firearms out. deborah: if it starts getting crazy, just go back in the van. we don't wanna be up in the middle of it. we don't wanna be on the news for the wrong thing. female: right. ariel: oh yeah, that's it. deborah: and we keep saying this is the most important election of our lifetime, but it's probably gonna get bad before it gets better. deborah: when y'all get to your first site, take pictures, walk around, get out the van, walk around, find the entrance, find out what's going on. be careful, be careful, be careful. deborah: you would think that every man and woman has the

right to vote, but that's not the case. there's been a concerted effort to make it harder on some people. deborah: let's do it, let's do it. deborah: there you go. happy voting day. thank you for voting. karishma: it's not just about getting people out to vote. civil rights groups here are also fighting voter suppression. deborah: put your mask on, though, 'cause we've gotta keep you safe. karishma: they say the government is preventing certain communities from voting. deborah: voter suppression tactics that we've seen, from closing of polls to changing polling locations to purging, based on race and based on class, is really running rampant here. it's really depressing when you realize that people have worked hard to keep people down. deborah: we are here because we love voters. we will vote! we will vote!

it's not gonna matter what they throw at us, we're reminding people that we are here for you. we wanna make sure that this is a free and fair election. tayelor mccurdy: don't forget to vote! tayelor: they purge you from the polls. you can be registered to vote, you move counties, next thing you know you're just purged from the polls completely. tayelor: we got bates ave on the list too, so we can hit this on our way back up. karishma: twenty-nine-year-old tayelor mccurdy is volunteering for deborah's organization today. tayelor: you could have voted in a primary election last year and now all of a sudden you can't vote anymore. karishma: do you know anyone that's happened to? tayelor: it's happened to me. karishma: tayelor says this happened just before the november elections. tayelor: i actually went in to make sure that i was registered to vote and saw that i wasn't. and i know that i registered to vote.

poof, no longer; purged from the polls. karishma: could they ever give you an explanation of why your name was not on the voter registration anymore? tayelor: nope, never an explanation. just gone. karishma: just disappeared for no reason? tayelor: never an explanation. black people have always been politically active, but you have to consider the lengths that people will go to, to keep black people out of those spaces. it's a fight for us. it's a huge fight for us. karishma: civil rights groups are taking this fight to court. they're suing the state of georgia, alleging they wrongfully purged tens of thousands of voters from the rolls. barbara arnwine: why is it every time we have a purge case, it's mainly black and brown people who are on these lists? karishma: the government claims voters were removed legitimately. barbara arnwine and other civil rights lawyers dispute this.

barbara: you have to sue georgia over and over and over again. karishma: after days of being unable to get a meeting with state officials, they try again, in person. latosha brown: we would like to sit down with you all. we don't wanna get a run around the block. we wanna sit down, have a meeting. have our experts to sit down with your experts and get it resolved. we don't want this to continue. we're in the middle of the election and we want to resolve this as soon as possible. karishma: this case joins more than seven other voter suppression cases currently before the courts in georgia. deborah: atlanta georgia, usa. we're in the south. the us south has a history of voter suppression. they have a history of abuse of black and brown people. crowd: freedom now, freedom now, freedom now, freedom now, freedom now, freedom now, freedom now, freedom now, freedom now.

martin luther king jr.: while we know that to vote is the key to democratic government, we are ready now to march on ballot boxes. until every situation that keeps us down at the bottom of the economic ladder is changed, we're ready to march on ballot boxes. we" [crowd cheering] karishma: in 1965, the voting rights act was passed. it was one of the greatest achievements of the civil rights movement, but in 2013 the supreme court wound back the legislation. civil rights groups claim many states have reintroduced

obstructive voter practices. there's only two weeks left to vote, but turnout is soaring despite covid and the cold. [car horns honking] karishma: but here in cobb county there's a problem. lawyer barbara arnwine is furious that almost half of the polling stations here have been closed. barbara: we have counties in georgia where 35% of all the african americans have no car. if you don't have a lot of polling sites, you're gonna have long lines. why should somebody have to wait in line for three hours to vote? if you're a working person, even though they're supposed to give you time off, they usually only give you an hour. karishma: she believes black and brown voters are being targeted. barbara: they closed not one white polling place, but all the

other ones they closed were in brown and black neighborhoods. karishma: so they didn't close a single polling station in predominately white neighborhoods? barbara: not a single one. deborah: y'all, please stay in line. please stay in line, no matter what it takes. you gonna vote? whatcha gonna do? vote. whatcha gonna do? male: vote! deborah: whatcha gonna do? male: vote! deborah: whatcha gonna do? male: vote! deborah: you gonna vote? deborah: we see people waiting in line four, five, six, seven, eight, nine hours to cast their vote, because they know that their vote matters and, if they continue to go back to the polls every time, that they'll build a democracy that they really want. deborah: party at the polls at east point, georgia. karishma: do you know who is behind suppressing the vote that particularly targets black and brown communities?

deborah: i do know it's a ideology. i know that it's steeped in racism. i do know that, you know, a lot of white men are upset right now. there's a shift in power. when you've been in the power class for all these many years, and then you start to see that that's disrupted, i think that there's a fear that there's going to be a power shift, and they'll be at the bottom. karishma: while voters are struggling against suppression, candidates and election officials are facing outright intimidation. raphael warnock: they're trying to divide us, and our job is to remain focused and awake because the stakes are so high. and you can't control everything that a new day brings, but my dad taught me a lesson: your job is to just be ready.

so i wanna ask you tonight to cobb county, are you ready? crowd: ready! karishma: reverend raphael warnock is one the democratic candidates for the senate. he's the pastor at the ebenezer baptist church, where martin luther king jr. once preached. this is one of several messages left for him at the church. male: "number one, there ain't leadership in that [bleep] church, and i don't use the word [bleep]. you think you're [bleeping] smart walking around talking [bleep] about everybody. you ain't gonna be so smart when you're beheaded. you won't be so smart when people drag you out on the [bleeping] street and destroy your ass, talking about [bleeping] what you're gonna do. karishma: even republicans haven't been spared. trump supporters are threatening conservative election officials and their families. gabriel sterling: this is elections. this is the backbone of democracy, and all of you who've not said a damn word are complicit in this. mr. president, stop inspiring people to commit

potential acts of violence. someone's gonna get hurt, someone's gonna get shot, someone's gonna get killed. karishma: on the outskirts of atlanta, the three percent militia are initiating new members. chris: know ye, that are placed in special trust and faith, and are strictly charged, our members are last arraigned to render obedience to orders that may be given from time to time, general blood agent commanding. you guys are a ranked, patched, vetted member, trusted member, welcome member of three percent security force, georgia's security force three percent. guns up! all: guns up! chris: hand salute, ready two, fall out. keep working it. male: congrats, man. male: appreciate it. male: for sure, for sure. karishma: chris hill founded this group in 2014, alarmed by the progressive policies of president obama. chris: our country is being--has been stolen from us.

the only thing left is the right to bear arms and that's being taken away. the only thing we have left is free and fair elections. we're here for when that fails. karishma: are you going to vote? chris: it's almost insanity to keep voting and expecting a different result. we did not have a free and fair election. there was rampant fraud. karishma: you know, the african american community is worried that their names have been purged from electoral rolls. do you believe they're legitimate grievances? chris: i haven't seen any evidence of that. i'm not aware of anything like that being suggested. i would hope not. and, yeah. karishma: if the democrats win the senate runoff, what is your fear? chris: the fear is that we would be on a countdown towards extinction in this country. male: i honestly believe we are currently engaged in what you would call a cold civil war. karishma: are you prepping for that?

are you prepping for a civil war? male: yeah. karishma: next year? male: next week. male: i want this to be said. it may be tomorrow, it may be ten years from now, but there is--there's too much fuel on the fire. chris: we're weeks away from catastrophe unfolding in the united states of america. karishma: the senate race is incredibly tight. the night before the runoffs, trump makes a last-minute dash to georgia. trump: hello, georgia. by the way, there is no way we lost georgia, there's no way. that was a rigged election. crowd: four more years. four more years. karishma: he continues to flame unproven conspiracies about election fraud. trump: eight thousand dead voters, four hundred thousand

previously unreported mail-in ballots magically appeared. male: good morning, it's the last day of voting in georgia. republicans-- [vehicle horns honking] male: okay, go ahead and vote. male: yes, sir. ♪♪♪ karishma: it's the final day of voting. deborah: c'mon, stand up. if we're not movin', we ain't doin'. karishma: in a matter of hours, the polls will close and the count will begin. deborah: how was your voting experience today? you have a mask? i got one for you, though. hold on. karishma: it's early, but deborah and her team are already at a polling station. male: hello, hello. deborah: all right, you got it, there you go. whatcha gonna say? whatcha gonna say? brendan: this election day, my name is brendan nelson, i'm here with georgia stand-up. i just wanna let you say, let's do it again, let's do it again.

please, you gotta get out here and vote today. yes ma'am, power to the people. deborah: all right, go over there and do that. karishma: it took deborah 16 years of hard work to get here. deborah: voter suppression, voter depression. it's all about empowering black people, and that's why we're here. karishma: and people are using their vote. this is on track to be the largest african american turnout georgia has seen for decades. karishma: every election is about politics, but this election also feels to me about race. deborah: well, any time you have an election in the south, it's about race, whether people say it or not. people don't want black people to vote. when black people and brown people vote, things change. karishma: what did you see that made you want to vote? male: there's people dying in record numbers that didn't have to die. female: looking at how everything is in the white house, man, it makes me feel like i'm back in mississippi. male: everybody wanna save the day.

everybody wanna be a hero. really what it was. karishma: you're a hero today because you voted. male: hey, i'm a hero today. i'm a georgia voter. deborah: how many more hours to go? karishma: deborah can finally see the finish line. deborah: jesus, take the wheel. it's almost over. it's almost over. we're almost ov-- all right, i see some little ones over here. karishma: but even now, she's focusing on the future. deborah: i see you. i see you. now you can't register until you're 17 1/2. how old are you now? female: ten. male: i'm 11. deborah: so 2027, you're gonna what? get registered to vote, and then you're gonna vote. that's your power. you got the power to choose presidents, right? female: it's shaping up to be a long night for election officials in georgia. karishma: the count is so close that it isn't until the next morning that the results become clear.

both democrats win their senate seats. raphael: the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else's cotton went to the polls and picked her youngest son to be a united states senator. so i come before you tonight as a man who knows that the improbable journey that led me to this place in this historic moment in america could only happen here. deborah: for the first time in history, georgia has elected a black senator. that really means a lot. we were a part of making history. deborah: stand up and what? all: vote! deborah: stand up and what? all: vote! deborah: stand up and what? all: vote! deborah: stand up and what? all: vote! deborah: stand up. all: vote! deborah: stand up. all: vote! deborah: stand up. all: vote!

karishma: but as deborah celebrates in georgia, a different kind of history is unfolding in the nation's capital. female: this is basically taking over, storming the capitol, and it's anarchy. it really is anarchy. deborah: holy smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke! look at 'em, look at all-- why aren't they doing anything? no one is in handcuffs right now. i'm not advocating for anybody to get shot, but if these were black people, they would be dead. even on a day like today, where we can celebrate the first black senator in a state like georgia, that, on that same day, this is what happens. so what, two steps forward, ten steps back. deborah: don't stop fighting for your power. don't stop fighting for what you need. deborah: can't stop, won't stop. ♪♪♪

deborah: as we say, "as goes georgia, as goes the rest of the south." we see it as a tipping point. i think this is only the beginning of the shifting of values here. if you do the work, if you register people to vote, if you see them as human beings with wants and desires, they see that this vote is a hammer, and they can use it. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ go, tell it on the mountain, ♪ ♪ over the hills and everywhere. ♪ ♪ go, tell it on the mountain that jesus ♪

deborah: uh-huh, see, i knew you had it in you, uh-huh. female: just a little repressed.

lydia feng: chinese youth are living in a brave new world. deborah: uh-huh. they're richer, better educated, and more connected than ever before. but they're also under constant pressure to compete and to conform. male: [speaking in foreign language] zhao jia: [speaking in foreign language] male: [speaking in foreign language] lydia: we've collaborated with chinese filmmakers to bring you three intimate stories of young people