issue:
Voting Access

Our country has been a beacon of democracy for 250 years and our voting system has kept it strong because it has worked.  It has never undergone any major assault until now, and that assault is by our current “leaders”(!). 

 

Leaders in a democracy are meant to be servants of We The People, for our greater good.  Yet the ones in power now fear giving up their turn in office, and, instead, want to hold onto power and make it look like they were supported by the majority.

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So Republicans want to convince us there are deep problems with voting so they can rig the system to prevent some people from voting, anyone they don’t like, essentially. 

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I became an election worker to understand our system from the inside, and it is safe—everyone’s vote is counted and is secure.  In fact, the rules specify that everyone eligible to vote who comes in and wants to vote, can.  It is an affront to me personally, let alone to our entire democracy and the will of We The People, to limit the opportunity to vote. 

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We have to fight against messing around with mail-in voting (hurting especially those who have trouble with in-person voting like elderly, disabled, and folks without cars because we don’t have affordable public transportation from homes to most polling sites), and reducing the time available for early voting (hurting many working people), and demanding changing identification (meant to keep away anyone without certain kinds of connections or funds).

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Arguments to get rid of Sunday voting are not rooted in religious fervor and a "need" to respect a sabbath.  They are rooted in curtailing the votes of African Americans who traditionally do an excellent job of getting out the vote after Sunday church services, the "Souls to the Polls" effort.  NC Republicans have been reported in the New York Times to be pushing hard on not allowing Sunday voting for exactly this reason.  And sorry, there is no such thing as "added efficiency" by extending Saturday hours (talk to a poll-worker about longer days) to "make up for" eliminating Sunday voting--it is a ploy to curtail voting, pure and simple.  Why are Republicans so afraid?

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Municipal-level elections--those of town councils, school boards, etc.--have traditionally been nonpartisan throughout the U.S.  Why the sudden push from higher levels of government to force local politics into partisan affiliations?  Neal Jackson led this push, while I find it appalling.  The excuse that we voters somehow need to know the "persuasions" of those running for office doesn't wash:  how does hewing "red" or "blue" change how potholes get filled?  Clearly, the "need" is from Republicans, fearful of losing power rather than attending to the needs of a community.  Making it more difficult to change one's party affiliation falls into this same fear-based approach, rather than a service-based approach to caring.