From the 14th Amendment to the 15th Amendment to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it just seems like America just cannot get with the notion of everyone voting. Fast forward to the present day, where it is legal to purge voters under whatever rule that state deems fit, tell someone they cannot register because of immigration status, or simply for not having an ID. Voting, our God-given right seems to be that main liberty that has always been tried to be taken away since the start of the fight for it. Sure, our country fights over citizenship, gay rights, civil rights, but none of those stacks up to the many obstacles citizens around the country face every election just choose law makers for this country. It is unfair, but who really stands for the underrepresented and unheard in our America? This mid-term election has not only shown us how divided we are as a country but just how fair our law makers will go to make sure that certain members of our population will never have a voice. We have exposed an ugly truth that has reared its head time and time again, but we now have heroes that ready to stand up and say no more.

 

According to Aljazeera, since 2010, 24 states have introduced tighter voting restrictions, 13 specifically tightened voter ID laws, while 11 made it harder for citizens to simply register to vote. Does that sound like “Land of the free, home of the brave” to you? Absolutely not, it seems as if the Republicans sit around and think of ways to make it harder for them to be voted out of power, and in this election these decisions are being set up to make it seem like that is. Tennessee comes in dead last in voter turnout and is home to the strictest voting laws in the country. There over 800,000 adults alone not registered to vote according to the census.

 

State Representative Brenda Gilmore, who is running for a senate seat, has been an advocate for the poor, minorities and senior citizens this law has affected since the 2014 mid-term. Using the Census from 2000 to 2016 she has been able to show how stricter laws directly made the voter turnout of African American voters vary, but more so decline as the laws changed.  In states like Texas and North Carolina, the Supreme Court ruled that voter ID laws were intentionally designed to suppress the African American vote. In the end all she wants, just like many minority people across the state is for their constitutional right of voting to be restored. The voter ID of 2011 stated that you have to have a photo ID to vote, and honestly senior citizens don’t have a photo ID for numbers of reasons. Why change up the protocol they have known most of their voter career, because technically it hasn’t been that long. 

 

I find voting laws troubling first as an African American female, second as a citizen who can vote freely. As an African American, we have only been allowed to freely vote for 50 years. Just 50, let that sink in. Since then it has been one law, one uphill battle after the next. While some can’t vote, there are others who just refuse to participate. I don’t think they fully understand the privilege and work that the generations before us put in for that right to be freely enjoyed. I will admit I did not understand the magnitude of it until this election. Going over facts and numbers, it all just clicked, and I will never miss another election. 

 

Some states don’t have people like State Rep. Brenda Gilmore to advocate for them or organizations like the Equity Alliance to educate them, but Tennessee does. The low turnout of the 2014 election lit a fire under our officials that I don’t believe anyone saw coming. It seems as if everywhere you turned there was registration tables and the stress of the need to vote this time around. But once again Tennessee falls short because we have a registration cutoff date, rules for being purged are insane, and early voting isn’t as effective as it should be. Even early voting is a hassle. I recently went to early vote and the whole Rutherford county voting system shut down for four hours on the last day which was a Thursday, unlike Nashville that went on longer. There are way too many ways to get cheated out of your vote in this state.