As members of the League of Women Voters, we sometimes take for granted that voting rights are essential. Many Americans know the history of the struggle for the right to vote for ALL citizens and understand the importance of voting rights, but we still hear questions like the following: “What’s the big deal about voting rights?” or “Why should I care about voting rights?” The basic answer is that, in a democracy, your vote is your voice. As Americans, we all want our voices to be heard.
Do you realize what we Americans accomplished in the last election? We were entering the dark winter of a terrifying pandemic that put everyone at risk, and yet we voted in numbers not seen in a hundred years. A record-breaking number of Alabamians voted absentee-by-mail or stood in socially distanced lines in the cold for hours to cast their votes. We proved that Big Money and suppressive voting laws can’t stop us if we make our voices heard through our votes. Let’s build on this momentum.
Our democracy was designed to respond to the voices of the voters in shaping our government and thus the quality of our lives. It is the responsibility of the government to make sure that every eligible citizen can vote and to guard against any attempts to block qualified voters from casting their ballots. It is the responsibility of every citizen to learn about issues and candidates and then vote in an informed way.
The League of Women Voters has your back. Our motto is “Empowering Voters. Defending Democracy.” We work at the national and state levels to protect and enhance voting rights. At the local level you can count on us. We can help you register to vote. We’ll provide information on the process of voting so that you know where to go and how to do it. We’ll organize candidate forums so that you can size up the candidates as they answer our questions. If you can’t make it to a forum, we’ll make sure that you can watch a recording of the forum at your convenience on our YouTube channel or Facebook. We’ll gather more information for you so that you can make informed decisions on candidates and ballot amendments, and we’ll place all of that for easy access on Vote411.
Through this blog we will do our best to keep you informed about what’s happening with voting rights. We’ll offer explanations of things that you might vaguely remember from civics class and would like to review. Please feel free to email us at (cedavies08@gmail.com) about things you’d like us to explain.
