My Turn: Why we must pass the Freedom to Vote Act – The Recorder

Published: 11/18/2021 3:42:27 PM

If America has a civil religion, voting for the first time is a baptismal act. Like baptism, it is also a profound act of intergenerational nurture, through which we welcome the young to take their place amongst us.

So why are states making it more difficult for new voters to vote? According to the Brennan Center for Justice, in this year alone 19 states have enacted 33 laws that make it harder for Americans to vote. Let me tell you: it was already pretty damn hard.

I work at a university alongside a team of staff and students who offer year-round, 50-state voter services to our campus community, which is located in one of the most voter friendly states in the union. Despite these advantages, our students some of the brightest young people in the country still lose the chance to vote for the first time because of lack of basic voter information, limited access to the printer, copier and/or stamps they need to submit their voter registration, confusing (sometimes contradictory) instructions from their local election authorities, absentee ballot procedures with ridiculously high barriers (seven states required notarized absentee or mail-in ballots in 2020), long lines at the polls which interfere with classes or campus jobs the list goes on.

Despite these barriers (add in a global pandemic and an election haunted by threats of violence), college students voted in record numbers last fall. The problem with American voters isnt apathy its opportunity.

Thats why we desperately need the Freedom to Vote Act to implement national standards for federal elections. We have to reconsecrate ourselves to a government of the people, by the people, for the people a government we choose at the ballot box.

In a perfect world, the Freedom to Vote Act would be a bi-partisan bill with the full-throated support of every patriotic American from Anchorage to Miami. Thats not the world we live in. Right now, the filibuster is preventing the Senate from debating the Freedom to Vote Act just like it was used to delay civil rights legislation during Jim Crow. And so (hey ho), the filibuster has got to go. The stakes are simply too high to protect a loophole procedure not even original to the Senate rules. If voting is a sacred rite, the filibuster is a synod bylaw.

I applaud Sens.Warren and Markey for calling for the end of the filibuster and for the passage of rigorous voting protections. Our representatives must do everything they can to secure our most fundamental freedom. And we must do everything we can to welcome new voters to the beloved community and perpetuate the faith in democracy we hold so dear.

Ruth Curry is a resident of Turners Falls and a civic engagement professional in higher education.

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My Turn: Why we must pass the Freedom to Vote Act - The Recorder