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| Norman Rockwell, "Election Day" / flickr |
Two Saturdays ago I did something I have never done before.
I knocked on 40 doors asking people to please vote in the mid-term elections.
It was an informative day. I met all kinds of people—different walks of life.
Some retired, some well heeled and some on food stamps. Almost everybody I met
wants the best for South Carolina. But it did not matter who they were—we all
have a great privilege in this country of having our say at the ballot box. It
hasn’t always been this way.
In the days of our Founding Fathers only white, male and
wealthy could vote. A little later any Caucasian male who owned 50 acres of
property or had taxable income could vote.
After the slaves were freed four states allowed those freed could vote.
Women could not vote in this country until August 1920 when the Nineteenth
amendment was added to the Constitution. African Americans were forced to jump
through all sorts of hoops to try to vote for years. States erected the
barriers of literacy tests and poll taxes to deny votes to people of
color. But President Lyndon Johnson in
August 1965 signed the Voting Rights Act. This action prohibited states and
their political subdivisions from imposing voting qualifications that deny the
right of United States citizens to vote because of race, color or membership in
a language minority group. Millions of Americans of color were denied the right
to vote until 1965.
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| flickr |
90 million of our citizens never vote. Today we learn that
new voting restrictions can be found in 22 states. Voting lines are getting
longer. States that have seen increase in minority turnouts have seen the most
cumbersome restrictions added to voting rights in different parts of the
country. Looks like a lot of people
making the rules in states are scared if every registered voter went to the
polls.
Voting ought to be easy—not hard. Governor Hickenlooper of
Colorado has led a movement where every registered voter automatically receives
a mail-in ballot. Voters in that state can cast their vote at centers and not
just precincts. The Governor has also expanded early voting and same-day voter
registration.
What do we have to fear from letting all our registered
citizens vote? Democracy says that everybody over 18 who is a citizen should
have the right to vote. Voting is not a privilege—it is a right. When we erect
barriers to the disabled, the poor who have no transportation and those that
work difficult hours we are drawing lines that are at odds with our democracy. In Texas lifelong voter Sammie Bates complained that it took her a while to save
up the $42.00 needed to order her birth certificate, which she needed to get a
free ID. “You’re going to put the money where you feel the need is most
urgent...We couldn’t eat the birth certificate, and we couldn’t pay the rent
with our birth certificate.” There is something very wrong with the voter
restrictions so many states are demanding this fall.
Mid-term elections are not as popular since we are not
electing a President. But we are voting on who will be our Governor, who will
represent us in the Senate and Congress and local elections. Every citizen
should study this list of names and make up their minds on who they will vote
for. It is hard not to be swayed by all the money that has been pumped into
elections from both parties. And it is hard not to become disenchanted with our
voting system today. Yet we, the people, can still make a profound difference
in our state and nation if we exercise our God-given right to vote.
When Benjamin Franklin emerged from Constitution Hall, a
woman asked him, “What kind of a government are you giving us?” A republic,
Madam if you can keep it.” Keeping the republic strong is the task of every
citizen. When you stand before the voting booth this is your chance to help
keep our democracy strong. Exercise your right—it was paid for by the work and
prayers and dreams and blood of a great many people. All these sacrifices by so
many do not deserve to be wasted.
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| --flickr |
--RogerLovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com
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