“My dear friends: Your vote is precious, almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect union.”
– John Lewis, 2012 speech in Charlotte, North Carolina
Background
Who can vote in the US--and who has the ability to vote freely, safely and without opposition-- has indicated who this country deems worthy of having a voice and having power. To go even further, it has demonstrated to us who the US government acknowledges as human and not. And those who are bestowed certain unalienable rights, among those: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness-- and those who are not. As we have seen in recent months, there is widespread anger at the violations of the humanity and dignity of Black, Indigenous and People of Color. People are outraged at the systems that maintain the racism which police violence thrives off of. Yet, among all the anguish, we’ve also seen how these overwhelming emotions have renewed a movement that began decades ago, and has continued up till today. I believe it is because of a collective understanding that we cannot settle anymore.
Black, Indigenous and People of Color do not deserve to just be treated as human beings and live a dignified life-- we are in fact owed that. We are owed a world where we do not have to bend over backwards and jump over hurdles just to merely survive. We ought to be provided with equitable opportunities, resources, and environments that enable us to flourish! We understand that “they”, those who currently hold power in this country, are always bartering our humanity, thus we cannot compromise on what we are owed. We cannot compromise on something as simply as acknowledging our humanity. The fight for racial justice has sustained so long because we want the kind of systemic change we can feel, see and hear.
The National B.L.A.C.K Cooperative wants to take that reimagining of society even further. We demand that our humanity is not only acknowledged, that we are given not only space to just barely survive... but that we are served justice that allows us to flourish. Because that is what is owed to us.
This is the sentiment that our organization has around this whole event. But let’s get into unpacking all that-- voting, democracy, flourishing-- and discuss.
Humanity, Deservingness Politics, Voter Enthusiasm and What We Are Owed
What does democracy mean to you?
What do you think of the voting process?
How have current events, systemic racism and COVID-19, impacted your perspective on the politics of our country? The election process? Congress? The Supreme Court? The executive branch of our federal gov’t?
What do you hope to achieve from this election? Are BIPOC, and Black people more specifically, owed something in this election?
“Black Americans protesting the violation of their rights are a defining tradition of this country. In the last century, there have been hundreds of uprisings in black communities in response to white violence”.
-- Excerpt from What is Owed! It's Time for Reparations
Should everyone get to vote?
Does everyone deserve to flourish?
If so, how do we implement laws that reflect that sentiment?
What makes you feel empowered, motivated or enthusiastic to vote in this election?
It could be a specific issue, a candidate, etc.
How can we enact or force the legislature to enact that change?
How can we best honor and support one another throughout our differences in the upcoming election?
What are people currently afraid of with this upcoming election?
How has the current voter suppression campaign launched by the current administration impacted your enthusiasm on how to vote?
It is time to “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble”.
-- John Lewis
The Importance of Voting
Has the passing of Former United States Representative and Civil Rights Icon John Lewis and Former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg impacted how important voting is to you?
Do you think that voting is important? Why or why not?
Do you feel heard in the voting process? Do you feel issues that are important to you are being addressed or ignored?
Voting Power
Why don’t people vote?
Should we continue to have a two party system? If not, what would be an alternative to the two party system we have implemented today?
How can we agree to disagree with one another and remain respectful of each other?
Rebuilding with Voting at the Foundation
Electoral College: A group of people appointed by each state who formally elect the president and the vice president of the United States. There are 538 electors, 435 Representatives, 100 senators, and 3 electors from the District of Columbia. Both the Democratic candidate and the Republican candidate are trying to add up the electors in every state so that they surpass 270 electoral votes over just over half of 538 votes. The Electoral College has effectively whitewashed history. When the idea of a popular vote was raised, they griped openly that it could result in too much democracy. With few objections, they quickly dispensed with the notion that the people might choose their leader. Delegates from the slaveholding South had another rationale for opposing the direct election method, and they had no qualms about articulating it: Doing so would simply be to their disadvantage.
The Electoral College was adopted in order to provide slave states with a disproportionately loud voice. populations in the North and South were approximately equal, but roughly one-third of those living in the South were held in bondage. Because of its considerable, nonvoting slave population, that region would have less clout under a popular-vote system. The ultimate solution was an indirect method of choosing the president, one that could leverage the three-fifths compromise, the Faustian bargain they’d already made to determine how congressional seats would be apportioned. With about 93 percent of the country’s slaves toiling in just five southern states, that region was the undoubted beneficiary of the compromise, increasing the size of the South’s congressional delegation by 42 percent. When the time came to agree on a system for choosing the president, it was all too easy for the delegates to resort to the three-fifths compromise as the foundation. The peculiar system that emerged was the Electoral College.
Why does the Electoral College exist?
Should the Electoral College continue to exist?
Gerrymandering
A widespread, undemocratic practice that’s stifling the voice of millions of voters; “a practice intended to establish an unfair political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries” (Wikipedia).
Why do you think Politicians try to suppress people’s votes?
How does gerrymandering impact health accessibility/ healthcare access? Does this influence the way people vote?
Why is gerrymandering an issue in terms of school to prison pipeline?
How does education influence the way people vote?
Follow up: how does ‘fake news’ impact student development and growth?
Thinking about the future voters, how can we have equitable and credible information backed by evidence and reasoning?
Voter Suppression
An African-American citizen attempting to exercise his right to vote would often be threatened with losing his job. Denial of credit, threats of eviction, and verbal abuse by white voting clerks also prevented black Southerners from voting. When all else failed, mob violence and even lynching kept black people away from the ballot box. Think about how the actions of John Lewis have impacted the leaders around him.
Should everyone have the right to vote?
Voter Caging: A tactic that specifically refers to times when a political party or another partisan organization sends registered mail to addresses of registered voters that they have identified as likely to be unfriendly to their candidate. All mail that is returned as undeliverable is placed on what is called a caging list. The organization then challenges the right to vote of the people on the list, on the grounds that if the voters were unreachable at the address listed on their voter registration, then they are not eligible to vote in that area (ballotpedia.org).
Is voter caging fair?
How does voter caging reinforce systemic oppression?
Does voter caging impact the way we educate one another on voting?
How does voter caging vary by a person’s identity (race, gender, class, etc)
Voter ID Laws
Thirty-six states have identification requirements at the polls. Seven states have strict photo ID laws, under which voters must present one of a limited set forms of government-issued photo ID in order to cast a regular ballot with no exceptions.
Are voter ID laws a form of voter suppression?
How does voter ID reinforce who deserves to vote?
Voter Disenfranchisement
For example, when people who were imprisoned finish serving time and come back to community, they are not allowed to vote.
Do formerly incarcerated deserve the right to vote?
Should formerly incarcerated people be able to vote?
Does everyone deserve to get a vote?
Voting Rights: A Brief Overview of Voting History
For thousands of years (starting as early as 1600s), the church and state were predominantly influenced by white supremacy founded as a mechanism to control and maintain power amongst their citizens. Policies created upheld these notions and are baked into current systems of oppression today.
In 1776, voting was controlled by individual state legislatures. Only white men age 21 and older who owned land could vote.
In 1886, the 14th Amendment granted full citizenship rights, including voting rights to all men born or naturalized in the United States.
In 1870, the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution eliminates racial barriers to voting; however, many states continue practicing voter discrimination. Poll taxes, literacy tests, fraud, and intimidation still prevented many from voting. Native Americans were still denied the right to vote.
“The 15th Amendment states: “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 granting African-American men the right to vote was adopted into the U.S.”()
In 1910, Washington voters amended the State Constitution, allowing women to vote and run for office.
In 1915, many states used the "grandfather clause " to keep descendents of slaves out of elections. The clause said you could not vote unless your grandfather had voted -- an impossibility for most people whose ancestors were slaves.
In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, giving women the right to vote.
In 1924, the Indian Citizenship Act granted Native Americans citizenship and voting rights
The Voting Rights Act, signed into law by President Johnson on August 6, 1965, suspended literacy and other tests in counties and states showing evidence of voter discrimination. These counties and states also were prohibited from creating new voter requirements that denied citizens their right to vote. Moreover, in the areas covered by the act, federal examiners replaced local clerks in registering voters.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ended the practices that had denied African Americans the right to vote in Southern states. Registration of black voters in the South jumped from 43 percent in 1964 to 66 percent by the end of the decade. This represented an increase of more than a million new African American voters who could finally claim their right to vote.
The Importance of Voting Revisited
Do you think that voting is important? Why or why not?
What is democracy and what does it mean to you?
Democracy: noun
"a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives."
-- From Oxford Languages
How is democracy being undermined today?
How can we hold one another more accountable?
How does democracy influence the way citizens vote?
Democracy is seen as the structure that supports or hinders voting rights, what are your current thoughts?
“... I do not believe that the meaning of the Constitution was forever “fixed” at the Philadelphia Convention. Nor do I find the wisdom, foresight, and sense of justice exhibited by the Framers particularly profound. To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war, and momentous social transformation to attain the system of constitutional government, and its respect for the individual freedoms and human rights, we hold as fundamental today. When contemporary Americans cite “The Constitution,” they invoke a concept that is vastly different from what the Framers barely began to construct two centuries ago.”
-- Thurgood Marshall, Former Supreme Court Justice, Bicentennial Speech
Resources
Look Up Your Voter Registration
More Information About How to Vote in CT
Volunteer on Election Day
Learn More About the Current Election
Track Bills at the CT General Assembly page
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