Select an issue concerning voting rights or practices and briefly tell us your thoughts about it.
By Audrey Grant, Hazen Union High School
Voting rights have historically been one of the most forefront issues in American culture. There is no denying that limiting voting access is synonymous with limiting speech. The laws around voting are created by those in power, and while we want to remain optimistic that they do care about their constituency, not all lawmakers are created equal. In the Civil Rights era of the mid 20th century, our country saw a widespread string of laws which disproportionately negatively affected black and poor communities, limiting their speech and opportunity for civil engagement. While the expressed intention of creating such legislation as poll taxes and mandatory literacy tests was not to disenfranchise communities of color, these policies have been shown to disproportionately affect those communities. Therefore, the intention behind these policies was to limit, hurt, and disenfranchise those communities which lawmakers consider of lesser value. While poll taxes and literacy tests have been abolished in this country, we’re still seeing the limitation of voting everywhere. Closing polling places, limiting voting hours, voter ID laws; All of these are ways of limiting voting, or deferring people from voting in the first place.
In the midst of a pandemic, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers wanted to postpone his state’s primary election. The courts overturned this order, voting to put voters lives on the line for an election. The court also extended the absentee deadline, and Wisconsin had a concordantly large turnout of said ballots, with fivethirtyeight stating that nearly 80% of Wisconsin’s ballots will be absentee. That still leaves 20% of the voters standing outside, waiting in long lines spaces 6 feet apart to do their civic duty. This led to Time magazine announcing that 50 people were tested positive after the primaries were finished. Wisconsin is not the only instance of this phenomenon; we are seeing states across the country delay their primaries as it is logistically unsafe and irresponsible to do so. While communities of color are already getting hit disproportionately hard in this pandemic, the question becomes, what can we do to help these people vote? Does it mean putting off elections indefinitely, while the country reevaluates it’s priorities? Or can we find a safer way to hold these elections? By nationalizing mail-in and absentee voting, we can allow anyone to vote from home. This is a significantly safer option, as it does not require a voter to risk their life in order to perform their civic right, and can guarantee that people have the ability to vote.
This is not something that we can implement overnight. Such a large scale project requires lots of people working on the logistics and details. There are many organizations and initiatives that work towards making voting more accessible and safe, a mission which is more important than ever during this pandemic. There needs to be greater accessibility to mail in voting, and towns need to take measures to ensure the safety of everyone involved. This may sound like a daunting task, however it is completely feasible with a coordinated effort. Just like the civil rights movement, or even the Suffragette movement, Americans have proven time and time again that we have the ability to change the voting laws to make it more accessible and fair to everyone.
Voting is a fundamental right, and we are extremely privileged as a culture to live in a fair and functioning democracy. However, it is exceedingly important that we recognize the flaws in our system, even when a long term pandemic scale event changes elections in a way that we have never faced before. Despite whatever difficulties we may face, we must ultimately protect our democracy first and foremost, even in times of turmoil and distress, lest the very fabric of our infrastructure be torn apart.