Honor Dr. King with voting rights reforms
As we honor Martin Luther King’s 90th birthday and celebrate his legacy fighting for equality, let’s remember that his dream has not yet been realized.
There’s still discrimination. There remain laws that discourage the act of voting.
In several states, the 2018 election was reminiscent of the Jim Crow era. Citizens were purged from the voter rolls in Ohio and Georgia, and communities were left without polling machines in Atlanta. In Porter County, Indiana, there were no workers to open some polling locations.
Thankfully, here in Illinois, we didn’t see nefarious attempts to obstruct voters or decrease turnout. In fact, we saw the highest midterm turnout since 1990. But that doesn’t mean our work here is done. To achieve Dr. King’s dream, we need to modernize how our elections work.
Let’s start with fully implementing automatic voter registration. Let’s ensure anyone can run for office, in part, by fixing the way our maps are drawn to make districts more competitive and more representative. Let’s mitigate how much sway big donors have in determining candidate viability, by passing small-donor financing to help everyday people afford to run for office.
Dare I say, let’s even move Chicago’s elections to a warmer season to encourage turnout?
Dr. King once said of voting, “The denial of this sacred right is a tragic betrayal of the highest mandates of our democratic tradition.” If we, as a state, are not doing everything to encourage the vote, we — in accepting the status quo — are aiding in the denial of it. Let’s make 2019 the year we end this denial and achieve more of Dr. King’s dream.
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