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With the November 5 General Election just a few weeks away, it appears that some people are still trying to decide if they should even bother to vote. This message is for Black people, in particular, who are experiencing that particular indecisiveness. Let’s remember that other Black people before you, in too many cases, died that you might have the right to vote. Let’s remember that it took the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, guaranteeing and protecting our right to vote; that people were beaten and killed to stop us from voting; that in this century the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965; that since 2020, we have seen a number of states try to institute Voter I.D. requirements when many of our older citizens who value the privilege of voting can not produce copies of birth certificates which often were not provided for them; let us not forget that ballot drop boxes have been removed in some states making it harder to return a ballot and that in some places the hours for voting at polling sites have been reduced to create and inconvenience voting times for working people.
Some of us might be homeless or unsheltered and say that because you don’t have a physical street address, you don’t want to vote and that your vote won’t count. Not so. Every vote counts and you can vote without a street address. Your right to vote is not attached to where you live.
If you have not registered to vote, there is still a small window. Remember, although we can’t know who you vote for, we can know whether or not you bothered to vote. Make a decision and stay in the game. Your very existence depends on it.
(Dr. John E. Warren is Publisher, San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Newspaper)
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