As this edition of The St. Louis American goes to press, we are running out time. The blood of our ancestors cries out to us to use this time wisely. People who wish to vote on November 8, yet are not currently registered to vote, have less than three weeks to register to vote. The last day to register to vote in the upcoming general election is October 12. The election itself is less than a month and a half away.
On November 8, we will elect a new president, a new commander in chief of our armed forces who will appoint at least one (and probably several) U.S. Supreme Court Justices. The ideological bases of those judges will influence life in the United States in countless crucial ways. Remember a Republican president appointed Clarence Thomas, who cast the decisive vote in a landmark Supreme Court case that allows states to hinder voting rights. Missouri voters also have a real chance to elect another Democrat, Jason Kander, to the U.S. Senate. The Republican incumbent, Roy Blunt, while politically skilled, has consistently voted against our community’s interests. Blunt voted against 25 of the 26 bills the NAACP said were consistent with its civil rights mission in the 112th Congress.
Among several dangerous and misguided ballot initiatives, Missouri voters will have a chance to reject Amendment 6. This would impose a voter photo ID requirement in the state. While allegedly targeted at stopping voter fraud, the voter impersonation that photo ID would prevent is virtually non-existent. What Amendment 6 would do is make it more difficult for various constituencies to vote. Kander estimates there are 220,000 registered voters in Missouri (most of them low-income, students or very elderly) who do not have a photo ID that would meet the requirements of Amendment 6.
While those requirements will not be in place on November 8, if voters do not reject Amendment 6, then they will take effect for future elections. That means if we do not register to vote before October 12, vote on November 8 and vote against Amendment 6, then voting will become more difficult for many people who tend to vote in our best interests. Republicans across the nation sponsor voter photo ID bills and amendments because they know, if they succeed, many marginalized people who vote Democrat will be denied the right to vote.
A number of voter registration efforts are underway, and we endorse them heartily. Allies of Hillary Clinton have formed the Every Citizen Counts organization to register and energize voters, with an eye towards her most loyal constituencies against this Republican nominee, African Americans and Latinos. Clinton introduced a website, www.iwillvote.com, to expedite voter registration. The NAACP, African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and Service Employees International Union are among other groups committed to registering and energizing voters. As Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker, director for the AME church’s Commission on Social Action, said, “Voter apathy is the greatest threat to democracy!”
For African Americans, voter apathy also is a grievous sin against the blood and suffering of our ancestors. To our horror, we are aware that some millennials are talking about sitting out this election because (they say) even a black Democratic president did not stop police brutality or (perhaps) because their preferred candidate lost the Democratic primary. Long before these individuals were born, many people lost their lives fighting for their precious right to be heard via their vote. That right should not be squandered over disappointment with limited options or outrage over continuing inequity in the criminal justice process.
We think of people like the Rev. George Lee, whose efforts to register black voters in Mississippi inspired the formation of a White Citizens Council that retaliated against blacks as soon as they registered to vote. Members of the White Citizens Council killed Rev. Lee in 1955 when he would not agree to stop registering black voters. What would Rev. Lee say if he knew that people in his grandchildren’s generation planned to sit out an election – particularly an election where a dangerous demagogue like Donald Trump, who proudly and boldly proclaims his racist views, will win if the Democratic nominee loses?
We must remember our historic dissent and resistance to the forces that oppose full acceptance of our rights as Americans, such as the franchise. We must oppose a Republican nominee with a racist birther fixation about the legitimacy of the Obama presidency. Whether we look to the past or to the future, our conscience tells us that we must register to vote before October 12, we must vote on November 8, and we must cast votes that matter against Trump, Blunt and Amendment 6.
In addition to online voter registration at http://www.sos.mo.gov/elections/goVoteMissouri/register or www.iwillvote.com, you may register to vote at the office of your local election authority or a library.
