It really is that simple. You vote because there was a time (and I’m not sure it’s over yet) when certain people were denied the right to vote. When people had to jump through hoops (a bit like having to get photo ID) in order to vote.
Like I said, some of that is still going on, photo ID’s and birth certificates required, polling places closed so that long drives are necessary to vote. Not as bad as polling taxes or literacy tests but still not conducive to the most people voting as possible.
It’s all a bit rigged and until it isn’t, until we have a fair system of voting that makes is easy for everyone to vote, then as many of us as possible have to vote. We just have to. We have to vote for more and better Democrats who want to put the principles of Democracy into action.
Sure, sure, it doesn’t seem hard to get a photo ID… maybe. If you have a car and some other form of ID, such as a birth certificate, to get the photo ID. I’ve talked to some of the rural elderly here at Remote Medical Fairs who say they were “born at home and will die at home”. These folks were born in the 1920’s at home, they don’t have birth certificates.
Let’s don't forget that photo ID’s aren’t being required because of voter fraud either, there really is an infinitesimal amount of voter fraud — being perpetrated by the voters at any rate.
These voting requirements aren’t to insure proper voting procedures are in place, they are a way to disenfranchise voters, a way to make it hard for certain people to vote. Generally older people, poor people and people of color.
Which is exactly what poll taxes and literacy tests were for. At each polling station they had two boxes; one for “colored” and one for white. You had to pay the tax two weeks in advance and your dated receipt went in the box. As least if you were a person of color that was the rule. If you were white there was a separate box and next to it was a pad of postdated poll tax receipts, so you could pay it that day and vote.
And literacy tests? They were for anyone who couldn’t prove that they had gone to school through the 5th grade. Sounds a little reasonable to some. I’ve heard many, even Progressives say that some kind of test should be given because there are a lot of uninformed people voting. I don’t agree and wonder how a fair test would be designed. Because literacy tests were NOT fair. They were not even literacy tests at all. They were tricks. Traps designed to keep people from voting.
I could write one out for you to see and you can go take one here for yourself (remember to time it, you only get 10 minutes) but this is a fun video that shows a lot of the questions on the test.
Below, Harvard kids take the test and nail it! No, they don’t pass the test, they get that it's not a test, it’s an obstacle. It inspires them to be sure to vote. I hope it does for you too.
Now you may have the idea that literacy tests were put in place just to block people of color from voting. Well, sort of, kind of, but that's not all of it.
In 1855 Connecticut adopts the nation's first literacy test for voting. Massachusetts follows suit in 1857. The tests were implemented to discriminate against Irish-Catholic immigrants.
Irish Catholics. Who, by the way, weren't considered white back then.
www.infoplease.com/…
Yeah, but literacy tests were a long time ago right? Again...that might depend on your definition of a long time ago. From the same source.
Literacy requirements are banned for five years by the 1970 renewal of the Voting Rights Act. At the time, eighteen states still have a literacy requirement in place. In Oregon v. Mitchell, the Court upholds the ban on literacy tests, which is made permanent in 1975. Judge Hugo Black, writing the court's opinion, cited the "long history of the discriminatory use of literacy tests to disenfranchise voters on account of their race" as the reason for their decision.
IN 1970, 18 states still had literacy requirements in place. That doesn't seem like a long time ago to me, it seems recent.
If I haven't convinced you to vote maybe Mrs. Gilford can.
VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE
DK FANS OF 90 FOR 90
Voter registration and getting out the vote (GOTV) are critical to positive change in legislative bodies, from the very local level to the national level. Dr. Fergie Reid, Jr., and Brenda Hill started a movement in Virginia called 90for90, in honor of and inspired by Dr. Fergie Reid, Sr., who was the first black person elected to the Virginia legislature since Reconstruction, who served there for many years with distinction, and who recently turned 90 years of age. The idea is to register ninety new voters in every precinct of Virginia, over a quarter million in all. The idea has caught fire and is inspiring similar efforts in other States. This group is a place to post diaries on voter registration, GOTV, candidates, and ways to inspire greater participation in the political process everywhere.
Follow DK Fans of 90 for 90 by clicking on the heart at the top of the page here.
Click LIKE on the 90for90 Face Book page here.