By Mary Toy
I stood on the courthouse sidewalk on the morning of Friday, August 5, 2025, the wind tugging at my clipboard and voter registration forms. For sixty years, St. Louis League of Women Voters volunteers have waited just outside naturalization swearing-in ceremonies to help new Americans with one final step on their journey: registering to vote.
But this time, we weren’t allowed inside.
A new federal policy told us we no longer belonged in the courthouse. Only state and local election officials, they said, could register new citizens at the ceremony. Never mind that for generations, it has been League volunteers—ordinary citizens—who have stood ready to ensure new Americans leave not just with their citizenship certificate, but with their power to use it.
So, we moved outside to the public sidewalks outside the courthouse.
And there, democracy still happened.
One young man from the Congo approached me on the sidewalk. He told me he had been at the courthouse the week before to watch his brother become a citizen. This time, he was there for his own naturalization ceremony.
“I expected to see you when I walked out of the courtroom,” he explained. “But, I didn’t see you. And then, as I started to walk outside – I saw you!” He looked around at our clipboards and pens, our scarves whipping in the wind. “I’m so grateful you are still here—even if you had to wait outside for me.”
That moment stuck with me. Even when the doors seem to be closed, we found a way to keep them open.
By the end of the morning, 25 of us had registered 30 of the 42 new citizens naturalized that morning. The others left with our brochures, determined to finish their registrations at home. Thirty new voters on a windy St. Louis sidewalk. Thirty voices ready to be heard.
The next day, I read our co-president Julie’s note to us volunteers. She reminded us that what we had done was bigger than a morning’s work. That, despite the federal confusion—whether from Homeland Security, USCIS, or the courts—the League has always been clear about its mission: to empower voters and defend democracy.
She was right. For 106 years, the League has been here, nonpartisan and steadfast, helping citizens step into their power. And for 60 of those years in St. Louis, we have been there for new Americans on the very day they join our democracy.
This time, it was on the sidewalk. Next time, I hope we’ll be back inside. But either way, we’ll be there. Because that’s what democracy looks like: showing up, standing steady, and making sure every new American knows— we need their voice.
