I was asked to present at a “Women and Voting” panel as part
of the Gender, Sex and Sexuality Conference held (this year) at SUNY Potsdam on
Feb. 10-11. What follows is my presentation paper, in two parts. The Conference
is a collaborative effort between the faulty, staff, student and larger community
of the four colleges in the St. Lawrence Valley. Learn more at their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GSSConference
The American Association of University Women,
The League of Women Voters,
and Voting Efforts in New York State,
Part 2
The (Dis)Enfranchisement Conference 2017
February 11, 2017
Politicians and policy makers
routinely make decisions about issues that directly affect women and their families,
including our paychecks, access to reproductive health care, and education
funding. But more often than not, these conversations do not include women’s
voices. To create real change, women must be part of the conversation, and one
of the most powerful places for us to chime in is at the polls.
Both AAUW and the League have
created tools to use in modern electoral settings.
Launched by the League of
Women Voters Education Fund in October of 2006, VOTE411.org is a "one-stop-shop" for election related
information. It provides nonpartisan information to the public which is both
general and state-specific on all aspects of the election process. Voters can
find out about on voter registration and laws (by state), as well as information
on candidates and issues on the ballot.
The AAUW Action Fund produces nonpartisan voter education materials
each election cycle to provide all voters with the information they need to
cast informed ballots. These include Voter Guides, Issue Fact Sheets, the
Congressional Voting Record, and Ballot Initiative Guides. AAUW recognizes that
with so much at stake each time Americans head to the polls, it’s more
important than ever to identify those candidates who would best represent our
values and those who would roll back our rights.
The 2016 Presidential
campaign leading up to Election Day hit many new highs and lows. One high was
voter registration, which soared to 200 million people registered to vote for
the first time in U.S.
history. More than 50 million new people registered to vote in the previous
eight years from the beginning of the Obama Administration.
The election didn’t exactly
turn out the way many of us had expected it to. But there’s a lesson in what
did happen for all of us. We may not have gotten the results we wanted, but we
took our place in line at our polling places because of the work, the vision,
the commitment and persistence of women (and men) generations ago who wedged
open a door that that had been tightly closed. We have gone from a nation where
only 6% of the population could vote to one where over 200 million of us can
vote – if we chose to.
Where we go from here is the
critical question. In recent years we’ve seen a wave of voter suppression
tactics play out in state after state, often under the banner of “voter fraud.”
There is no real voter fraud in this country, as study after study has proven.
But in the counter-reality we live in, where “alternative” facts can be
substituted for demonstrable, reality-based information that can proven, there
is a wave of voter-fraud hysteria sweeping selected offices in the land.
Once we leave the hallowed
halls of the current administration, it is hard to find much evidence of voter
fraud, but that won’t stop a new wave of laws designed to root out this
non-existent problem. The truth is, voter “fraud” is just another word for
disenfranchisement, and so is voter “intimidation” and voter “suppression.”
Here in New York, there is much work to be done to
reform our antiquated ballot access laws.
In December, NYS Attorney General
Eric Schneiderman released a comprehensive report following complaints received by his office regarding the April
presidential primary. He has proposed a series of voting reforms to make New York a national
leader in protecting and expanding voting rights throughout the state. Among
his proposals are:
·
Automatic Voter
Registration of Eligible Voters
·
Same-Day
Registration for New Voters
·
Online Voter
Registration
·
Creating a System
of Permanent Voter Registration
·
Allow Registered
Voters to Change Their Party Enrollment Closer to Primary Day,
·
and Adoption of a
System for Early Voting.
New York State has one of the poorest voting turnout records among
all the states, largely due to the lack of modern vote reforms that other
states have put in place very successfully. In his several State of The State addresses,
Gov, Cuomo also proposed voting reforms. Each year the Assembly has passed
bills aimed at modernizing our system; each year the state Senate refuses to
bring those reforms to the floor for a vote. It is time for NYS to enact 21st
century voting procedures.
The partisan way we
redistrict here in New York
also creates problems with enfranchisement. There are states that redistrict
every 10 years on a non-partisan basis. A perfect example of the mess partisan
redistricting creates is right here in St. Lawrence County. As a “purple”
county, we have been sliced and diced into three state Senate districts and
four Assembly districts.
And our two-party electoral
system effectively ignores voters who identified as Independent. And as the two
major parties continue to disintegrate and turn off voters, more people are
choosing to identify as independent when they register to vote. But that does
not give them the same access to help with deciding to run for office. 50% of
millennials now describe themselves as political independents – they represent
half of the next generation of potential political leaders.
Another issue with our electoral
system here in New York
is a lack of candidates. All 213 seats in the state Legislature were on the
ballot last November, but in about a third there was no opposition candidate to
the sitting incumbent. Lack of competition takes away choice from voters and stifles
the democratic process at a time when many already have a negative view of
government and civic service.
Here in St. Lawrence County,
there were local elections without even one candidate on the ballot. In at
least ten local elections this fall, there were no official candidates.
"Unfortunately it’s happening more frequently as time goes on,"
according to Tom Nichols, the Republican election supervisor for the
County. Those seats were only filled if there was a last-minute write-in
on the ballot.
One of the very encouraging
signs since the election last fall and since the inauguration last month has
been the renewed spirit of small “d” democracy that has swept the nation. The
Women’s March on Jan. 22 and other, similar efforts – as well as those being planned
- have revitalized people’s interest in government and given them a voice and
the desire to use those voices. A few examples:
A
group of former congressional staffers drafted INDIVISIBLE, “Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda, that
draws on the tea party’s playbook for getting the attention of Congress. More
than 4,000 groups have since organized around the strategies laid out in that
document. These include seeking out their legislators in town hall meetings and
connecting with them by phone, rather than relying on e-communications.
Rise Stronger, started by a former official at the National
Security Council, aims to organize “citizen watchdogs,” in part by
crowdsourcing a “citizens calendar” to publicize the public appearances of
elected representatives. https://www.risestronger.org/
Laura
Moser’s Daily Action leaves a text
message or voice mail on the phones of her 100,000-plus army of citizen
activists wanting to influence the direction the federal government is taking. https://dailyaction.org/
Locally, people who live in
the NY 21 Congressional District that covers the 11-county region of the North Country have been turning to social media and the
streets to organize and discuss policy issues. Congress is more than getting
the message. In the face of an unprecedented volume phone calls and letters and
e-messages, many members of Congress have locked their doors and have stopped
holding in-person Town Halls.
A riled up, politically aware
and vocal public looks nothing like the nice safe groups of like-minded donors elected
officials usually spend their time with. Those of us who have labored in the
trenches of public policy for years to educate and motivate citizens and voters
watch with delight all this action and advocacy at the local, state and federal
level.
And finally, in order to fulfill
the vision our foremothers had for full equality, we must bring women to the
table. Your voice can’t be heard from the corridor (although Sen. Elizabeth
Warren found more than one way to get her message across after she was told to
sit down and shut up the other day). Women must run for office at every level. When
they run, women win at the same rates as men. When they don’t run, they never
win.
When women have enough seats
at the table, our issues will be the agenda.
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