By Shabbir
There are people who don’t want us to vote, and they have placed many barriers in our way, including everything from removing mailboxes to purging voter rolls. We are almost a century past Jim Crow laws and literacy tests for voting, but there many subtle and not-so-subtle barriers being placed in our way to prevent us from voting this November. Don’t let them take away your basic right as a US citizen. Make a plan and vote as early as you can for this November election. (Do not vote twice as its illegal, and you could go to jail 🙂
The biggest barrier is that 48 out of 50 states have laws preventing felons from voting in some way. These laws are discriminatory in large part against those in lower economic strata. For example, in Florida which has 14 million registered voters, and 8 million people voted in last election, had until recently 1.4 million felons not allowed to vote, Fully 10% of all voters, and 18% of those casting votes! This becomes really important when one considers the last two recent elections in Florida were won by only 10,000 votes. A recent amendment to Florida’s constitution approved by an overwhelming number of voters now allows felons to vote, but the Governor then put in new restrictions that all fines must be paid prior to being allowed to vote. The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition is a fantastic grass roots organization that was highly effective in overturning Florida law, and it is now working on helping felons pay off their fines and fees. FRRC was formed a former homeless person, Desmond Meade, who has been selected as Time’s most influential 100 people. FRRC is non partisan, and helps all felons regain their voting rights.
The recent attacks on the postal service is another bar to voting, as many citizens depend on US Mail to receive and deliver their ballots. Contact to your congressman or senator to demand ontime postal service, a service mentioned in the US constitution. ContactCongress.org is a website that tells you who is your Representative or Senator, and how to get in touch by phone, mail, email, social media, etc.