One of the most important ways that you can help improve your community is by voting in local elections. Whether it’s choosing who you want to run your city, county or state government, or deciding how much money to give your local schools, or even whether to fill in the potholes on your street, decisions made by elected officials have real impacts on people’s lives. And the more people who vote, the better your community is likely to be.
But the right to vote has been under threat in recent years. Various factors like restrictive eligibility requirements, gerrymandering and misinformation have made it harder to get out the vote. And, as this piece from Human Rights Watch explains, the number of people who can’t vote is growing because of new laws.
After the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum in 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act. This legislation required jurisdictions with a history of disenfranchising voters to clear any changes to electoral procedures with the U.S. Department of Justice or the District Court for the District of Columbia. It also required states and counties with a high percentage of citizens who speak limited English to provide language assistance at the polls. It also mandated that certain electoral procedures, including literacy tests and photo ID requirements, be reviewed by federal examiners before they went into effect.
These provisions have been renewed and extended several times over the years. The 24th Amendment banned poll taxes, and the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18. Yet the fight for full and equal voting rights continues today.