Election Day—Vote!

 by James M. Jackson

If you have already voted in today’s elections, thank you—assuming, of course, you are a legal voter. Even if you voted for the “wrong” candidates, thank you for helping to maintain a fundamental pillar of our representational democracy—the right to vote as you think best.

The first presidential election for which I was eligible to vote was 1972. I couldn’t vote in 1968—even though I was eighteen and eligible to be cannon fodder in the Vietnam War—because in New York, the “age of majority” was then twenty-one and there was no overriding federal law. That changed in 1970, when The Voting Rights Act of 1970 lowered the voting age for federal elections to eighteen.

After the Supreme Court ruled Congress could lower the voting age for federal elections, but could not for state elections, Congress passed the 26^th Amendment to the Constitution in March 1971. In just over two months, the required 3/4ths of the states ratified the amendment, and President Nixon signed it into law on July 5, 1971.

I didn’t recall until I researched this blog that in the 19^th century, it was not uncommon for states and territories to allow noncitizens to vote. (There were often other requirements, such as property ownership, paying taxes, or other restrictions to limit voting to “responsible” adults. And in most states voting privileges applied only to males until passage of the nineteenth amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1920.) At the turn of the 20^th century, states began forbidding any noncitizens from voting. Alabama kicked off the movement in 1901. By the 1928 elections, all states had banned noncitizen voting. While not legal, not until 1996 did Congress criminalize noncitizen voting in federal elections.

In 1992, a spark of a movement began when the City of Takoma Park, Maryland, became the first municipality to restore noncitizen voting for local elections. The argument leaders gave was that citizenship was irrelevant when voting for those responsible for delivering local services, such as public transportation, garbage collection, water, sewage, parks, and recreation, etc. (And, the Maryland constitution expressly delegated the authority to determine suffrage requirements for municipal elections to the city charters.)

In 2016, San Francisco voters (Proposition N) gave noncitizens the right to vote in school board elections. Several other cities followed soon after. Every attempt to allow noncitizens to vote has gone to court. Some cities won in court, some lost, and seven states have already amended their constitutions to forbid noncitizen voting for anything. Eight more states have similar measures on today’s ballots.

I grew up in a Republican home and counted as my Jackson ancestors Whigs, then early supporters of the Liberty Party (1840s), Free Soil Party (early 1850s), and ultimately the Republican party (late 1850s). In grade school, I was “for” Nixon, and “against” Kennedy. In 1972, I was against Nixon and for McGovern, and I knew what that meant (including that I was probably the first of the Jackson clan to ever vote for a Democratic presidential candidate). Of course, despite my vote, Nixon won in a landslide.

In 1980, I took a “principled” stand, and voted for John B. Anderson, a liberal Republican Congressman. Across the country, only 5,719,849 other people voted for my candidate. Ronald Reagan crushed President Jimmy Carter. Even if everyone who had voted for Anderson had voted for Carter, Reagan would still have trounced Carter, but that was the last of my principled presidential stands.

I came to realize that as much as I wished for a third party that represents my views, what mattered was who gets elected. I am better off choosing the better of the two candidates who could possibly win, and not “send a message”—especially since the winner doesn’t care about my message.

With primaries, I don’t take that pragmatic approach. I vote my conscience and hope the winner pays some attention. Hope springs eternal, as the saying goes.

I have heard some say, “Why bother? My vote doesn’t really count.” Well, maybe not in most elections. However, if more people who felt that way did vote, their combined votes might well change things.

Every once in a while, a single vote makes a difference. A few years back, a school bond referendum was on the ballot and it ended in a tie. Without my vote, the referendum would have been defeated. The tie meant the school board could place the referendum on the next ballot (a general election). With more voters, it received overwhelming approval.

So vote, if you haven’t. Again, thank you if you have.

* * * * *

 James M. Jackson authors the Seamus McCree series. Full of mystery and suspense, these thrillers explore financial crimes, family relationships, and what happens when they mix. To learn more information about Jim and his books, check out his website, https://jamesmjackson.com. You can sign up for his newsletter (and get to read a free Seamus McCree short story). 

Notes

1. Liberty Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Party_(United_States,_1840)

2. Timeline of voting rights in the United States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_voting_rights_in_the_United_States

3. Laws permitting noncitizen voting https://ballotpedia.org/Laws_permitting_noncitizens_to_vote_in_the_United_States

The Woman in the Cupboard

Today is Election Day in the United States. It’s the culmination of a hard fought, often nasty, verbal battle. For some people, (perhaps most) it’s a huge relief that the whole thing is over. For others, it’s just another day. They don’t participate, believing their vote doesn’t count. For me, Election Day is special and exciting.

However, I didn’t always feel that way until a vacation to London. During my visit, an English friend and I met up at Parliament and listened to a lively debate. Afterward we walked to a lobby where several Members of Parliament (MPs) congregated. A few surreptitiously pulled my journalist friend aside to give him “scoops” for his newspaper. One MP recognized my American accent and kindly offered to show us around, including a chapel in the House of Commons.

A guard unlocked the chapel door and we walked into an elaborately decorated room with stained glass windows, a vaulted ceiling and an intricately tiled floor. But the MP didn’t linger. He led us to the back of the room, out one side, up several stairs and stopped in front of a rather ordinary looking wooden door. Opening it, he motioned for us to step inside what appeared to be a janitor’s closet. Staying outside, he closed the door. My friend and I looked at each other, bewildered why we were standing in a tiny closet next to an upright Hoover.

Sensing our confusion the MP called out, “Look at the plaque on the door.” The plaque was dedicated to the brave suffragette, Emily Wilding Davison, who hid in the broom cupboard (closet) the night before the 1911 census and emerged during the next day’s count. Why did she commit this act of defiance? So she could legally write that her place of residence on census day was the House of Commons and thus claim that she had the same political rights as men.

I wondered how Emily Davison felt as she waited alone in the darkness and suffocating silence of the closet. Was she scared not knowing what would happen once she was discovered? Or, while curled up in this cramped space waiting for morning, did she fortify herself by envisioning a time when she, her daughters and future generations of women could vote?

I knew that suffragettes had been jailed, tortured, ridiculed and shunned while pursuing the right for women to vote. But it seemed so long ago and not relevant to my life. Yet, with a flash of insight, I realized that less than one hundred years ago it was illegal for women to vote in the U.S.!  A right I took for granted.

I returned to the U.S. with a changed perspective. Now, in addition to a right, I feel that it is a privilege and a responsibility to vote. When I mark my ballot I feel grateful for women in the U.S. and other countries who had a dream and fought for the right to vote…so I can vote. I am hopeful that one day everyone will have be able to have a say in their government.

 

To see the plaque dedicated to Emily Wilder Davison, go to: http://www.explore-parliament.net/playMovie.htm?nssMovieName=0902