Hello everyone! My name is Annie, I use She/Her/Hers or They/Them/Theirs pronouns, and I’m an Undergraduate Coordinator at the Center for Civic Justice. I began as an intern two years ago, in 2018, with the hopes of mobilizing Stony Brook students to vote, but I could never have predicted that our work would be so important come 2020.

 

By May, the country was seeing not only a COVID-19 public health crisis, but also a revived fight for racial justice flooding the streets following the death of George Floyd. Young people have risen to the occasion, and have become leaders in addressing both of these fatal problems, leading to the eruption of, what I believe is, the greatest level of civic engagement among young people in U.S history. Normally, it would be extremely difficult to get students to vote because they are simply indifferent to politics, but that is not what we are seeing this year. This year, we are seeing young people putting their bodies on the front lines- whether in healthcare or in a protest -it is an incredible sacrifice, and a testament to how dedicated the young generation is to being the change they want to see.

 

The election is still three months away. While it has been an eventful summer, we must maintain the momentum until November 3. My contribution to this is my creation of instagram stories that educate students about voter disenfranchisement across the country while I “race to the polls.” 

 

Disenfranchisement is defined as “denying one’s right to vote.” In many states, this practice is rationalized into law, and often affects low income and minority communities. Especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the right to vote is being attacked left and right. Educating students about their rights, how those rights are being infringed upon, and how they can protect themselves is the best way to prepare our students for a federal election in 2020.

 

Here are some of the ways in which disenfranchisement is unfolding this year:

 

• The state of Kentucky closed 95% of their polling locations for the presidential primary on June 23, 2020 (1). This resulted in long lines, loss of poll workers, and voter apathy. 
• In Dekalb, Georgia, there were problems with the voting machines for their presidential primary. This led them to convert to using paper ballots instead of electronic ones. However, they quickly ran out (2). For reference, the residents of Dekalb, Georgia are 55% black, and many Dekalb voters could not wait for more paper ballots to be delivered.
• In Virginia, Kentucky, and Iowa, felons lose their right to vote permanently. Six more states disenfranchise some felons, and 39 more states don’t let people in prison vote (3). This is significant because approximately 45% of felons and 33% of prisoners in the US are Black Americans, but they make up only 12% of the US population.
• The supreme court recently ruled against allowing Texans to vote by mail amid the COVID-19 pandemic (4). However, Texas election law automatically provides mail-in ballots to all voters over the age of 65. According to the 26th amendment, “The right of Citizens of the US to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of age”. Yet, denying voters under the age of 65 mail-in ballots, simply because of age, violates this amendment.

 

I intend on making these videos every other week to help our students translate their frustrations into a motivation to vote. More importantly, the goal is to inspire our students to be a force for change beyond November 3, and to stay educated on socio-economic injustices nationwide and fight against them.

This post was written by Annie Green.

1. Lee, M. (2020, June 19). Kentucky braces for possible voting problems in Tuesday’s primary amid signs of high turnout. Retrieved August 04, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kentucky-braces-for-possible-voting-problems-in-tuesdays-primary-amid-signs-of-high-turnout/2020/06/19/b7b960ce-b199-11ea-8f56-63f38c990077_story.html
2. Georgia: Chaos engulfs voting in White House battleground. (2020, June 10). Retrieved August 04, 2020, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52984537
3. Potyondy, P. (n.d.). Retrieved August 04, 2020, from https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/felon-voting-rights.aspx
4.  Liptak, A. (2020, June 26). Supreme Court Turns Down Request to Allow All Texans to Vote by Mail. Retrieved August 04, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/us/supreme-court-texas-vote-by-mail.html