Co-authored by
Tanya Wilkinson and Anne Kopp
“If the power of the right to vote was truly made available to everyone in America, it would change the future of the nation.”
— Stacey Abrams in Prime Video’s new documentary “All In: The Fight For Democracy.”
One hundred years ago in August, the 19th Amendment granted American women the right to vote. One hundred and fifty two years ago the 14th amendment granted full citizenship to all persons “born or naturalized” in the United States, thus allowing People of Color to vote. However, census data shows that only 61.4% of eligible citizens reported voting in the 2016 presidential election. This means that millions of voters couldn’t, or didn’t, cast their ballots the last time around. Many millions of those inactive voters are women and People of Color. The 14th and 19th amendments are unfinished business.
The usual response to a statistic like this is to frame it as an issue of personal character. Irresponsible, lazy and/or apathetic people don’t vote. And personal issues probably account for some of those millions of eligible, but inactive, voters. At the same time, a significant proportion of voters who fail to vote have been purposefully or inadvertently prevented from voting.
We have all read too many times about broken voting machines, false mailers that discourage people from voting, intentionally closed polling sites, polling places that are inaccessible to the differently abled, inadequately trained polling place staff, unconscionably long waits for voting. State officials have participated in illegally purging voting rolls and state legislatures have passed restrictive laws, like the law in North Dakota requiring a street address to vote in a state where large numbers of rural, and Native American, voters only have PO Boxes. Donald Trump’s attempts to undermine the US Postal Service are also a part of this intentional campaign against voting rights. These actions are a direct attack on the American people, our democracy, and our ideals.
Many of the organizers in Airlift supported groups saw voter suppression coming long before recent events. They have witnessed these tactics firsthand. Fortunately Airlift supports organizations that already have some of the tools they need to combat disenfranchisement. By aiming for an historic voter turnout it is possible to counteract the impact of voter suppression. The following Airlift funds are already acting to increase voter participation:
Airlift’s Voter Motor Fund
Airlift’s Voter Motor funds have expanded the franchise across the Midwest and the South. One of the groups in the Voter Motor fund is Black Voters Matter, who helped to turn out the vote in Alabama for the special election that put Doug Jones in the Senate. The video here shows voter suppression in action in Louisville, Georgia in which local law enforcement blocked voters from getting a ride to the polls. The video has commentary by co-founders, LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright.
The New Georgia Project has teamed up with the Action Network to form the Peanut Gallery, organizing citizens to attend local election board meetings and provide information to the public on polling place location changes, voting machine problems and other voting related issues in an effort to maintain public trust in the electoral process and fight any fraud or illegal activity.
(You can support Airlift’s Voter Motor fund here.)
Airlift’s West by Southwest Fund
In our West by Southwest Fund, Move Texas registered 30,000 new voters under 30 in 2018 alone, and they are rapidly gaining on their goal to register 175,000 new voters by the general election. Move Texas organizers are working under daunting conditions such as changing polling locations, removing polling sites, and not accepting a student ID as a valid form of identification to vote. Check out their GOTV video from their website.
Also in our West by Southwest fund is Communities for a New California, who is getting out the vote in key counties, using relational canvassing to motivate infrequent voters.
(You can donate to the Airlift West by Southwest Fund here.)
Airlift’s Lift the Midwest Fund
In our Lift the Midwest Fund, Leaders Igniting Transformation in Wisconsin is working on numerous fronts to expand voting rights of previously disenfranchised groups, with a focus on Black and Brown young people on college campuses and throughout the state. In Michigan, Detroit Action encourages civic engagement through relational canvassing by phone banking, texting, as well as Town Halls in which community members speak with their elected officials. The underlying focus is to help community members understand that their vote counts, and that there are ways to hold their elected officials accountable after the election, through the Town Halls and attendance at city and county meetings. Here is a Detroit Action volunteer giving her perspective on the work of relational organizing through phone banking.
(You can donate to Airlift’s Lift the Midwest Fund here.)
These are just a few examples of the powerful, and potentially transformative, work being done across the nation by Airlift groups. They can keep fighting for full enfranchisement with every weapon at their disposal, if they have reliable support.
In addition to supporting Airlift groups that are struggling to ensure voting rights, there are things individuals can do to combat voter suppression. The following suggestions about what we can all do are taken from an article by Brittany Packnett in Cosmopolitan magazine, by all accounts a non-partisan periodical, responding to the recent attempts to slow down mail delivery just ahead of the November election. From the article:
We can show up for the American Postal Workers Union’s #SaveThePostOffice campaign, send emails and make calls to aid them in their fight.
We can volunteer to text, canvass, register, and expand the franchise to everyone who lacks it
We can get together in community, to collect and hand deliver mail-in ballots from our friends and neighbors.
We can link up with places like the Poll Hero Project and volunteer as poll workers to help prevent the closure of polling places and the stoppage of early voting.
And we can vote. So we make our plans early and often, and we make our loved ones do the same.
We can check our registration often to make sure we’re still on the rolls.
And finally, remember that if you are in line to vote before the polls close, you have the right to vote, no matter how long it takes. If you’re being asked to leave or running into other problems at your polling station, call the ACLU’s Election Protection Hotline (1-866-OUR-VOTE).