***Happy National Voter Registration Day!***
We the People all suffer when any of our citizens are denied the right to vote. The most at risk are the young, the poor, and people of color. We white people, particularly city folk in prosperous areas, largely have not had to fear that our vote will not be able to be cast, or will not be counted. We must be the allies to help ensure fair voting from sea to shining sea. That is why I have decided that my personal mission in advance of the 2020 election will be helping to get out the vote, and specifically helping to ensure voter rights for disenfranchised citizens. We are witnessing the continuation of voter suppression, especially of black voters, that has been part of America's fabric since the very beginning.
The History
Black people have been denied the right to vote from the beginning. Slaves weren't citizens and therefore couldn't vote. When freedom came and the 14th Amendment was passed in 1868, many states still barred black men from voting (black women, like white women, were barred from voting for many more years). A few years later, the 15th Amendment was passed. It read, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
The 15th Amendment did NOT prevent States from preventing black men from voting, however. Do you know where the term grandfather clause came from? Some southern states passed laws that included a clause that stated that if a man's grandfather had been a slave, then he doesn't have a right to vote. Grandfather clauses were struck down in 1915, and in 1920, black women finally won the right to vote when the 19th Amendment was passed. Those laws, however, did not stop poll taxes, literacy tests, and the southern white man's friend, intimidation – including lynchings – from preventing black citizens from voting.
This went on for decades until the brave civil rights fighters of the 1960s took to the streets and the lunch counters and the courtrooms and forced the passing of the 24th Amendment, outlawing poll taxes, and the Voter Rights Act of 1965.
Those were powerful, progressive years, but these strong laws have not prevented voter suppression since then. It's back in a big way, though it never really left.
The Now
Black voter suppression is making a resurgence, in codified and non-codified ways.
Since 2010, more states have enacted more strict voting laws, making it harder for people to vote.
Many other communities have put barriers in front of people, especially poor people and people of color, on their way to the polls. In the South especially, tactics to disenfranchise black voters are commonplace:
- Making polling places distant and inaccessible
- Changing or eliminating polling places
- Reducing the hours that polling places are open
- Requiring voter ID or proof-of-citizenship. According to the ACLU, while 1 in 10 Americans do not possess government-issued ID, 1 in 4 African Americans don't, and 15% of people earning less than $35,000 a year do not possess government-issued ID.
- Purging people from the polls
- Felon disinfranchisement
- Complex and inaccessible information
- Intimidation
But it was Georgia that brought it home to me, caused me great concern, and spurred me to action. Voter suppression was front and center during the 2018 election, when black voters were systematically denied the right to vote in Georgia. The gubernatorial race between Stacey Abrams (D), hoping to be the first black female governor of Georgia (and indeed the first in the nation), and incumbent Brian Kemp (R), old white man and TЯUMP supporter, was pivotal. Voter suppression was pervasive, blatant, and shameful!
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| Mike Licht |
These are just a few ways in which voters in Georgia were denied their right to vote in 2018:
- Hundreds of thousands of voters were purged from the polls in the months before the November, 2018 election. Only a fraction of these were legitimate cancellations. Purges were made for people to didn't vote in the previous few elections, or who failed the "exact match" policy -- voter registration addresses had to have exact matches to driver license or social security information. Not a single dash or period could be different.
- A busload of black Georgia voters who were on their way to vote on the first day of early voting was turned around.
- A racist robocall that impersonated Oprah Winfrey was used by a white supremacist group in the days before the election.
- Kemp made an unsubstantiated allegation days before the election that there was hacking by Democrats.
- Voting machines were not working properly. Touch-screens chose Kemp when the voter touched Abrams's name.
- There was a lack of voting machines, while hundreds of voting machines were locked away in government storerooms. The shortage of voting machines created long lines in many polling places, causing some voters to give up and leave, as Georgia does not have a law guaranteeing paid time off for voting.
- In some areas, voters were refused provisional ballots.
- Hundreds of polling places were closed throughout Georgia since 2012, causing voters to have to travel farther and spend more time to exercise their right. This especially impacts poor, rural citizens' rights.
Voter suppression tactics do not only target black citizens, but also Native Americans and Latinx folks across the nation. We must fight for the right of every single eligible citizen to vote. How can we do this?
The Future
Help me in my mission, please! This is an urgent issue that needs many minds to solve.
Act locally. First, register to vote yourself. Consult the League of Women Voters's Vote411 or the government site vote.gov for voter registration information. Reach out to others and encourage them to register and to vote. Talk to your neighbors with kids approaching 18 and encourage them to get their kids to register. In California, the last day to register for the primary election is February 18, 2020. The primary election is on Tuesday, March 3, 2020.
Learn about the candidates and the issues. Your empowerment begins with voter registration, but does not end there. Read, learn, and be an informed voter.
Push your state and local elections officials to implement fairer voting procedures:
- Allow early voting and vote-by-mail.
- Reform voter registration methods - allow automatic and election-day registration.
- End gerrymandering.
- Make Election Day a national holiday (call your Members of Congress!).
And please, please help me in supporting the organizations below, which are helping to enfranchise traditionally disenfranchised voters. Will you pledge $5 to one of these organizations?
Fair Fight 2020 – Stacey Abrams is leading the charge to empower voters in 10 battleground states.
Spread the Vote helps people acquire IDs in order to facilitate their right to vote.
NAACP – The NAACP has been fighting for black rights, including voting rights, for 110 years. Help them help others!
League of Women Voters – They are dedicated to voter rights. Period. This almost-100-year-old nonpartisan organization has been at the forefront of empowering voters since the Suffrage movement. Find your local office of the League of Woman Voters and volunteer or donate.
The ACLU fights many fights for justice and freedom, one of which is voter rights. They've filed lawsuits against Brian Kemp and work tirelessly for all of our freedoms. Idea: donate directly to ACLU chapters in areas that are most at risk for voter suppression. See a (slightly outdated, but still useful) list of those vulnerable communities here.
The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law "is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to reform, revitalize – and when necessary, defend – our country's systems of democracy and justice." They advocate for American democracy in all areas, including voter rights. BCJ is a great resource for learning.
Common Cause helps defend many areas of our democracy, including ensuring voter rights and ending gerrymandering. They've got plenty of volunteering opportunities and action plans if you want to act rather than donate.
There are also many action plans suggested by Let America Vote. Look them over and take action!
“We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” --Thomas Jefferson
Thanks for reading!
Sources for further reading:
The Atlantic - overview
Nonprofit Quarterly - Georgia
Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Closed polling places in GA
Progressive.org - overview
The Guardian - Georgia
The Atlantic - solutions
Dissent Magazine - solutions
Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Voting machine shortage
American Progress - overview, including intimidation tactics
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