There’s still time to register to vote. Do it, for the sake of our future | Opinion

Editor’s note: This op-ed has been updated to reflect that Florida has extended the deadline to register to vote to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6.

As October begins, campaign yards signs decorate our neighborhoods and our phones are ringing non-stop with concerned friends and family, my fellow citizens wanting to participate in the process. Social media is buzzing, and get-out-the-vote efforts are in full swing.

This all seems normal for election season, but the 2020 election is anything but normal.

As a mother of two young daughters, I believe that everything is on the line for them and for their future.

This election is one of the most important elections our nation has ever faced.

I want my daughters to know that it is possible to achieve their dreams. I want them to learn compassion and empathy.

I want them to enjoy their youth, attend safe schools, be allowed to make choices for their own bodies and to freely love whom they love.

These values are fundamental to who I am as a mother, and I am filled with anxiety that the choices and freedoms I have been afforded will be stripped away from them and change what is possible for their lives.

Nov. 3 is rapidly approaching and memories of where I was in 2016 flood my thoughts.

After working tireless volunteer hours for months, I woke up on Election Day of 2016, kissed both of my girls on the forehead and told them that this was the day our country was going to elect the first woman president.

I told them that this was a day to be proud of our country, to be proud of being a woman, and that they would remember this day for the rest of their lives.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

My family, like so many others across the nation, is struggling with the devastating health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I wait until they have gone to bed before I turn on the evening news out of fear they might witness what our very own president may say, which is a roller coaster every day.

Every day I struggle to balance work and virtual learning. Everything seems uncertain for them and for our family.

The 2020 election is one that will define who our country is and what our founding principles truly are. Everything is on the line.

This election represents a renewed opportunity to fight for our values.

I know without a doubt that voting in 2020 is not only a privilege but our civic responsibility. Even my own right to vote was granted because of incredible heroes before me who were willing to fight for it. To lose their lives for it.

I know that I must honor them by exercising my right to participate in democracy and to have my voice heard on Nov. 3.

I call on my neighbors, my family and my community to recognize that we are not only voting for ourselves, but we are voting for our children who deserve a healthy planet and a brighter future.

We vote for our fundamental values as a country, for our neighbors that are not afforded the privilege to choose the direction of their futures.

This November, we vote for the hard-working Americans struggling to put food on the table.

We vote for the lives of Black women and men that were lost at the hands of police brutality.

We vote for all women, who deserve equal pay for equal work and to have both their paid and unpaid labor valued.

This November, I will vote for structural and transformational change.

In Florida, we know that our elections are decided on the margins.

Arguably, Florida is the most critical of states to win the presidency, and Miami-Dade County is its epicenter. As our state faces unprecedented attempts at voter suppression and the battle for returning citizens to regain their right to vote remains in turmoil, it is even more critical for eligible unregistered Florida voters to register today, which is the last chance.

This election is not the time to sit on the sidelines.

We must use our voices and vote for hope over hate, for healing over division.

I am calling on other women and mothers to join me. I have taken the pledge to vote for my daughters and I ask you to do the same.

Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, at 7 p.m., is the deadline. You can register to vote and check your registration status at www.makeaplantovote.com.

The time to register to vote is now, literally.

Lisa Perry is the co-state director for Women Vote Florida.