The United States presidential election is adding to the tension of an already tense 2020. Yet, I encourage you to not let the divisiveness in the country keep you from letting your voice be heard. Go out and vote. It is a right we have taken for granted.
In 1776, when the republic came to be, only white men over the age of 21 who owned land could vote. The right extended to all white men in 1856. Due to the 15th Amendment in 1870, African-American men were allowed to vote but faced obstacles in voting taxes and literacy tests. White women gained the right to vote in 1920 when the 19th Amendment passed, while black women still had to fight to be heard. The McCarran-Walter Act of 1954 granted all Asian Americans the right to become citizens and vote. Until 1962, Native Americans weren’t guaranteed the right to vote in every state.
However, the Voting Rights Act in 1965 allowed voters to legally challenge voting restrictions. It was later amended to protect voting rights for non-English speaking American citizens.
It took more than a century for all American citizens to be able to vote, and it seems we have forgotten how hard our ancestors fought for the right. Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, and Lucy Stone campaigned for universal voting rights, Anthony even getting arrested for showing up to the polls. In Birmingham, Alabama in 1926, a group of African American women were beaten by election officials for attempting to register to vote. Martin Luther King Jr. and thousands of others faced deadly violence from local authorities and white vigilante groups while marching 54 miles from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
Without them and countless others, our world today would look very different. We wouldn’t have had an African American president or 100 women, 44 of color, currently serving in the House of Representatives.
And before you say your one vote won’t make a difference, consider close elections of the recent past. In 2008, Republican Mike Kelly beat Democrat Karl Kassel in an Alaska state House race by four votes out of 10,000. A Wyoming state House GOP primary in 2016 was determined by one vote, 583 to 582. The Senate Democratic primary in Vermont 2016 had over 7,400 votes cast with former Rep. Francis Brooks winning by one.
Out of 23,000 votes in the 2017 Virginia House of Delegates race, there was a tie between Republican David Yancy and Democrat Shelly Simonds. The tie was broken by pulling a name from a film canister, out of a bowl. Yancy won, which gave Republicans control of the state House by a single seat. Your vote matters.
However, if you want it to count in this year’s election, you can’t wait any longer. The deadlines for registering vary from state-to-state, but here in Kentucky the last chance is Oct. 5. Absentee ballot requests end Friday, Oct. 5 with the early voting period running from Tuesday, Oct. 13, to Monday, Nov. 2.
Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 3, and will include ballots for president, one-third of the U.S. Senate, and all of the House of Representatives. In many areas, state and local races will also be on the ballot.In the past, change occurred because people voted. If you want things to change for the better, you have to do the same. This year has thrown a lot of obstacles at us; barriers that aren’t going to disappear if we don’t become more proactive. One election, this election, can be the starting point; one vote can make a difference. So register and cast your votes. Let your voice be heard.
