On this Voter Registration Day, demand politicians return power to the people | Opinion
At the League of Women Voters Miami-Dade, National Voter Registration Day is our favorite day of the year. Sept 28 stands for what the organization strives to achieve: educating and empowering voters without agenda. Unlike special-interest groups or political parties that take part in registration, we are not selling anything other than civic engagement. We are not trying to persuade voters on candidates; we are just sharing facts and access.
On this day — and every day — we not only help register voters, we also help them use their voices to stay informed and educated on the topics that matter most to them as citizens and voters. Our No. 1 priority is giving power to the people. We work to help everyone understand our government and the power they have to shape it — however they think it should be shaped. We do not prioritize whom we educate based on the beliefs they hold but rather on our organizational belief that all voices deserve to be represented.
This year, our primary goal is to fight for voters whose power is being stolen. It has become clear that many legislators in Florida have prioritized stripping away the rights of voters that don’t side with them, This Voter Registration Day, our message is, we will not step down from the fight to defend voting rights. It is the American right — it’s not a privilege — mentioned most often in the Constitution.
Republican lawmakers have been consistently chipping away at voter rights in Florida as a blatant extension of Jim Crow-era tactics. We saw the will of over 60% of Florida voters erased after their votes to restore the rights of former felons was blocked. The DeSantis administration saw to it that 1.4 million people who deserve enfranchisement would continue to live with a scarlet letter attached to their citizenry. It is not a coincidence that over 20% of those would-be voters are Black. A modern-day poll tax was enforced on those who have already paid more than a pound of flesh to society through incarceration. They are required to pay for any and all court fees and fines before daring to reintegrate in the voting system. The effect this has on those already traumatized by our justice system is a fear of voting.
Now there is a conservative-led outcry to stop the ultimate bogeyman of voter fraud, born mainly out of a collective tantrum at the loss of the presidency. A 2014 study looked at voting records from 2000 to 2014. Out of 1 billion ballots cast, the study found a meager 31 instances of fraud. As a response, the detrimental passage of the SB-90 bill from Florida’s latest legislative session, created undue burden for voting by mail, among other restrictions. Not only does this limit voting accessibility for citizens with disabilities, it purposely creates confusion for voters who believe they are already signed up to vote by mail.
Earlier this year, Republican U.S. Rep. John Kavanagh, of Arizona, said quite plainly that, “Everybody shouldn’t be voting,” adding a bafflingly honest caveat that quality of votes is more important to Republicans than quantity. Conservative enclaves have been begging for stricter voter ID laws, although there was no evidence that widespread voter fraud existed. That is, until it was discovered that the Republican Party cooked up a Fyre-festival level plan with a half-baked fake candidate in the state Senate District 37 race to overthrow the Democratic incumbent who had the same last name as the planted candidate.
In a leaked text exchange this month, Republican Florida Sen. Joe Gruters said keeping valid, vote-by-mail ballots counted would be “devastating” to the party, intimating that he plans to do anything to ensure Republicans — and only Republicans — can win races regardless of the will of the people.
The powers-that-be clearly are not playing fairly. The League of Women Voters Miami-Dade will not idly stand by as the rights of Florida voters are maliciously corroded by the current administration and Republican leaders. As stated, the League stands with the people and the choices the people make, notwithstanding party affiliations.
Join us to ensure that every vote and every voice count, regardless of who benefits. Celebrate National Voter Registration Day by calling your congressional representative and senators and urging them to pass the Freedom to Vote Act. Use our nonpartisan Vote411 tool and make your voice heard by voting in all local elections.
Monica Skoko Rodriguez is voter-services chair and past president of the League of Women Voters Miami-Dade. Natalie Alatriste is president of the League of Women Voters Miami-Dade.
This story was originally published September 27, 2021 at 6:25 PM.