The 2020 national election saw two-thirds of all eligible voters turn
out to vote. The vast showing was the greatest in 120 years,
surpassing even Obama’s 2008 victory over John McCain or
John F. Kennedy’s narrow defeat of Richard Nixon in 1960.
Yet, instead of
celebration, the accomplishment sparked a fervent backlash.
Riding the wings of lies
about voter fraud, legislators in 43 states quickly
countered the unprecedented turnout by introducing over 250
bills designed to make voting harder, the Brennan Center for
Justice reports.
These bills include harsh
restrictions on voting by mail, burdensome voter ID
requirements, severely curtailed voter registration
opportunities, more aggressive voter purge practices, and
proposed changes in allocating presidential electors.
Presently, no voter
suppression bills have been introduced in the Ohio
Legislature. Still, we are watching as it may be only a
matter of time. We do know that Secretary of State LaRose
has ruled only one drop box per county for the upcoming
primary. It is the same tactic LaRose implemented in 2020
and frequently used to create long voter lines in larger
cities and urban areas.
There has even been a
barbaric Georgia proposal to outlaw providing pizza to
voters waiting in line to vote.
To use the words of the
Miami Herald’s Leonard Pitts, “This is an all-hands-on-deck
emergency!” Voter suppression, the Brennan Center’s Myrna
Perez adds, is a relentless issue that “the courts may not
provide the answer.”
What Shall We Do?
President Biden has signed
an executive order with intentions to “promote additional
access to voting and protect voting rights.” But the order
has also been described as merely an “initial step” without
much bite or permanence.
The U.S. House of
Representatives has also passed HR 1, a “sweeping election
bill to fight Republican voter suppression.” Yet, the bill
could die in the Senate given the presence there of
conservative Democrats like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
The work, instead, likely
falls back on the coalition of Black women and progressive
grassroots activist groups who tremendously impacted Georgia
and the country, elevating Joe Biden over Trump while
sending Ossoff and Warnock to the U.S. Senate.
These groups include
multi-racial, multi-generational, multi-issue organizations
such as Black Lives Matter, the Working Families Party,
Frontline Alliance, Southern Movement Assembly, and United
We Dream. Locally, we will continue to count on groups like
The Movement and the Ohio Unity Coalition, and Black women
leaders such as Tina Butts, Petee Talley, and Anita Madison
for even more collective impact.
I am excited about the
unprecedented and confident grassroots mobilization and
organization that we witnessed in 2020 and into 2021. With
unity, collaboration, and coordination, we shall again
overcome by defeating voter suppression.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org
|
