Local Governments Can and Must Act to Protect Voting Rights
To date this year, 19 states across the nation have passed 33 laws that make it more difficult for their constituents to vote, using restrictions that vary from stricter voter identification requirements to shortened voting periods. And while eyes remain on Congress and the Biden administration for a response to these attacks, voting rights protections […]
Beshear shouldn’t get to pick and choose who gets to vote based on criminal record
The national conversation over voting rights and voter suppression bills has largely focused on partisan debates in states that are likely to prove decisive in future presidential elections, including Georgia and Florida. But one state not on the national radar — Kentucky — is ground zero for a crucial fight over the future of our […]
Too many Kentuckians are still denied voting rights. Lawsuit aims to change that.
The national conversation over voting rights and voter suppression bills has largely focused on partisan debates in states that are likely to prove decisive in future presidential elections, including Georgia and Florida. But one state not on the national radar—Kentucky—is ground zero for a crucial fight over the future of our democracy: whether and how […]
It’s Time to Make Voting Part of Who We Are
If there’s one phrase we all can’t seem to escape, it’s “unprecedented times.” We’ve been living through “unprecedented times” for 19 months: going to work; attending school; witnessing and participating in a historic movement for Black lives; and experiencing one of the most tense election seasons in U.S. history – all under the inescapable conditions […]
Voter Registration Volunteers are Crucial for Our Democracy. They Shouldn’t Be Threatened with Fines
On National Voter Registration last September, activists, neighbors and community volunteers across the country took to the streets to help 1.5 million voters get registered in the span of just 24 hours, a historic feat in preparation for the 2020 election. But today, on this year’s National Voter Registration Day, those same volunteers are being […]
The Promise of the 26th Amendment Remains Unfulfilled on its 50th Anniversary
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. Decades ago, one of us, Rosalyn Baker, directly helped achieve this expansion of voting rights for young people, while the other, Whitney Williams, continues fighting today to ensure these hard-earned rights are not diminished. Incredibly, this […]
Democracy Is Good for Business: Corporations Should Support Expanding Voting Rights.
Conservatives howled after Major League Baseball announced it would move its draft and July’s All-Star Game from Atlanta in response to the state’s newly enacted voter restrictions. The legislature took action after a record turnout among historically marginalized voters flipped the reliably conservative state for Democrats in the presidential election and U.S. Senate runoffs. When […]
Independent voters will be harmed by election reform proposal
Independent voters in Arizona could be facing a substantial and unjustified change in the way they vote. Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita’s bill to purge the permanent early voting list, or PEVL, will have a negative impact on voters who choose to remain unaffiliated with any political party. The proposal has already been defeated once in the […]
Black youth can decide Florida’s elections
In 2016, President Donald J. Trump won our state by 112,911 votes. Compare that number to the 801,023 students enrolled in Florida’s colleges and universities. While all those students may not be eligible to vote, the vast majority can cast their ballot this November and truly make a difference in who wins and who loses. […]
Wanted: A new generation of poll workers
Nearly 60% of the 920,000 poll workers during the 2016 election were over the age of 60, and, as we have seen during this primary season, concerns around COVID-19 have led them to opt out in 2020. As a result, the primaries saw numerous polling locations shuttered because of a lack of poll workers. Right now, the […]
