The 2012 race for the White House is close—so is the race for the United States Senate. As the 2012 elections are fast approaching, there have been reports across the country of efforts being made to shrink the pool of Americans who will be able to vote in the years ahead. In thirty-eight (38) states and counting, strict new voter ID laws, restrictions on early voting and Sunday voting, and racially motivated bans on ex-felons have either been passed or proposed.
New voter restriction laws on the books or in the works could deny the right to vote to more than five (5) million Americans this year. The mostly conservative proponents of these new laws claim they are meant to prevent widespread voter fraud. But the numbers to back up this argument simply do not exist.
Let’s be clear – the real reason behind this spate of new laws is to suppress the votes of communities of color and other voter that tend to vote for Democrats – African Americans, Latinos, young people, the elderly and people with disabilities. If we are ever going to address the dire economic and educational challenges facing underserved communities, we must start with the vote.
As was aptly stated by President Johnson when discussing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, “The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.” With that knowledge, people across the country have rallied to stand up against the forces trying to block the right to vote for millions. The persons in attendance at that event understand that, if we, as citizens, do not take action to stop restrictions on voting, no one will.
Instead seeking to suppress the right to vote for millions of Americans, our politicians should be focusing on what really matters – creating jobs, jobs, jobs – and not devising ways to take away one of our most basic rights. Will you take a stand with me by against voter suppression laws. This fight won’t be easy… but there is no challenge more worth our struggle.
Voting is the one right that practically defines a democracy. The right to vote is one of the cornerstones of the United States Constitution. Nonetheless, during periods of history in America, millions of this nation’s citizens were denied this most precious right based on an immutable characteristic such as race.
Voting is a cherished right. Countless brave people gave up their lives to secure that right. Federal law guarantees it. Now it’s up to each of us to protect the right to vote and to make our vote count.
Source(s): US Constitution. Wikipedia. NAACP. Stand For Freedom
Photo Credit: Microsoft Clip Art
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