WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (HOST): We are just three weeks away from the Nov. 5th election. For various reasons, this has been a historic campaign. With us again to talk about that and some other issues is political analyst, Otis Sanford. Welcome back!
OTIS SANFORD: Glad to be here, Chris. Thank you for having me.
BLANK: Otis, I want to start with the media. As a media person, even I get frustrated at times with so many conflicting pieces of information, especially around who's moving forward or backward when the polls keep calling this a deadlocked race -- completely up for grabs. How do we make sense of this without losing more faith in our sources of information?
SANFORD: I think we have to understand the value of polls. And, you know, at its core, Chris, the real value is just to give the media, and therefore the public, something to talk about. There are so many different people doing polls. The best thing to do is to take an average of a lot of reputable polls. But frankly, you know, there are some sources of information -- you talking about losing faith -- let's be clear, there are some biased media outlets out there. And we should lose faith in them. But really, and this might sound a little cliche-ish, but the only real poll that counts is the one that is taken on Election Day and during early voting and absentee balloting. That's all people really need to pay attention to.
BLANK: My takeaway from all these polls is that Americans have essentially already locked in their votes. I mean, it doesn't seem like anything that journalists think is germane -- for example, Kamala Harris's appearance on Fox News or Donald Trump's Town Hall dance party last week -- is having any sway at all on voters.
Why is this so different than past elections? You know, the last month has always been a crucial time for candidates to really stick the landing.
SANFORD: Well, that's true. I think the biggest difference is Donald Trump. Donald Trump is such a polarizing figure. His supporters have long made up their minds that they're going to vote for him, whether he stands up there and dances to "It's a Man's World" by James Brown or not. So it really doesn't matter what he does or says. And people have made up their minds about Kamala Harris for the most part. A little less. But for the most part, because her core supporters are with her, that's what's going on here.
BLANK: What about independent voters? I mean, is there any reason at this point for any serious person to be undecided?
SANFORD: There is no reason for anybody to be undecided at this point. And again, that reason is Donald Trump. You know what Donald Trump stands for. And so if you're going to support him, then that means that you are buying into allowing this man to again be president after he did all the things that he's done in the past. So it doesn't really matter about party labels at this point. I'm banking that a slight majority of Americans are going to say we've had enough of the chaos.
BLANK: Well, Otis, back in the day the whole purpose of early voting was to avoid the lines. But when early voting opened this week here in Shelby County, and in Nashville, there were long lines in some places. Does the early voting turnout speak to what we're talking about here? The passion people have for at least one of these candidates. They already know who they're going to vote for and they just want to get this thing over with?
SANFORD: Oh, no question about it. They can't wait for November 5th to get here and the days after that. This is a crucial election. I think you're going to see a lot of long lines every day. This will be the heaviest turnout that we've had probably since -- I mean, we had a heavy turnout in 2020 despite the pandemic. We also had a very heavy turnout in 2008, Barack Obama's first election. I'm expecting it to rival that and perhaps beat that. And it should. There should be a 70 percent turnout, Chris. Now, I know it probably won't get there, but we should. Because this election is so critical that as many people as possible should go to the polls and stand in those lines if necessary to cast their ballot.
BLANK: Well, we will be revisiting this topic, obviously, in the next couple of weeks. But for a minute, Otis, let's talk about this one local issue. The Memphis Area Transit Authority is facing huge budget cuts and layoffs. But I don't think anyone at MATA was expecting the cut that mayor Paul Young made last week when he fired MATA's entire board and then replaced it in a "mata" of days. What do you think about that decision?
SANFORD: I think it was the absolute right decision. He didn't do this in a vacuum. They did a study of MATA's operation and that came back scathing. And so, I think Mayor Young took a bold leadership move here by just cleaning house. And I think he got the support he needed from the city council to do this. MATA is in a bad way right now, Christopher, and drastic changes needed to be made. And I think he did the absolute right thing.
