For the second weekend in a row, Politico’s Sam Stein guest hosted MSNBC’s Velshi. On this Saturday, Stein accused pro-lifers in Kansas of “essentially trick their citizens into voting away their own rights” on an upcoming ballot measure on August 2.
Stein went to commercial teasing the future segment with all the hyperbole that one expects from MSNBC, “It’s been just one month since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the legal chaos continues to cause fallout with life or death consequences for people who need reproductive healthcare across the country. Coming up we’ll take you to one so-called safe state where anti-abortion forces are trying to essentially trick their citizens into voting away their own rights.”
Several minutes later when Stein finally got around to the issue, he added more negative descriptors of the measure, “there’s some confusing and deceptive things happening with this ballot measure… the vote is definitely happening in the primary, so you’d expect, kind of, a lower turnout than in the general election.”
For Stein, the date isn’t even the worst part. Addressing President of Kansas Birth Justice Society, Sapphire Garcia-Lies, Stein continued:
And then what’s a little tricky is the wording of the amendment on the ballot can be confusing. Voting for the amendment, if you’re for the amendment that’s actually voting against abortion rights and voting against the amendment is a vote to preserve abortion rights, so if we’re all confused, I have to imagine that voters in the state are confused. Is that your understanding, has this been a real problem?
Kansas’s wording is not that confusing. The question is “the constitution of the state of Kansas does not require government funding of abortion and does not create or secure a right to abortion.”
If voters are genuinely confused by the inclusion of word “not,” then right beside the question on the state’s official voter guide on the question is the meaning of yes and no votes. The measure also has to be worded that way, because pro-lifers are seeking to amend the state constitution in response to a Roe-like Kansas Supreme Court ruling.
Despite the explanations and clarifications provided by the state, Garcia-Lies was happy to agree with Stein, “It has been a real problem and it was done with purpose and intention, they want voters to be confused. It is also no accident that this is on the primary ballot instead of the main ballot, it’s a huge issue, it is impossible to read that ballot and get a clear picture of what you’re actually voting for and I think that’s a travesty, that’s an injustice.”
Stein and others are already trying to find excuses for why they could lose because the graphics Stein showed indicated that the measure is winning in the polls, 47-43.
This segment was sponsored by Dell.
Here is a transcript for the July 23 show:
MSNBC Velshi
7/23/2022
9:37 AM ET
SAM STEIN: It’s been just one month since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the legal chaos continues to cause fallout with life or death consequences for people who need reproductive healthcare across the country. Coming up we’ll take you to one so-called safe state where anti-abortion forces are trying to essentially trick their citizens into voting away their own rights.
…
9:53 AM ET
And one of those states could be Kansas and Sapphire, there’s some confusing and deceptive things happening with this ballot measure in your state. For one thing, it’s my understanding, is that the vote happening---, well I, the vote is definitely happening in the primary, so you’d expect, kind of, a lower turnout than in the general election.
And then what’s a little tricky is the wording of the amendment on the ballot can be confusing. Voting for the amendment, if you’re for the amendment that’s actually voting against abortion rights and voting against the amendment is a vote to preserve abortion rights, so if we’re all confused, I have to imagine that voters in the state are confused. Is that your understanding, has this been a real problem?
SAPPHIRE GARCIA-LIES: It has been a real problem and it was done with purpose and intention, they want voters to be confused. It is also no accident that this is on the primary ballot instead of the main ballot, it’s a huge issue, it is impossible to read that ballot and get a clear picture of what you’re actually voting for and I think that’s a travesty, that’s an injustice.
