Voting: Right & Effort #PovertyTruths
Voting: Right & Effort #PovertyTruths
Dear Friends,
We are entering October and starting to feel some excitement around local and state elections all over the country. Election season is a time to be heard, to take responsibilities, and to exercise one of our most important rights as citizens.
Yet, despite transformational progress over many decades - the right to vote for women in 1920, the Voting Rights Act in 1965, etc.,- voters’ rights are still a high stakes issue for our democracy. Many state legislatures have pushed back on voting rights in ways that exclude people living in poverty from the power of being heard through the vote. The right to vote remains nevertheless one of the foundations of our democracy. And we know that we are far from having equal access to voting, as you will see in this newsletter.
Our Poverty Myths report published four years ago tried to bring some elements of clarification to this topic from the perspective of people in poverty, who, statistically, vote proportionately less than people with more secure lives. Looking at the barriers to voting, our readers could understand better why some people do not participate in a system that too often seems unsupportive or useless. When schools are underfunded, decent housing impossible to find, and voting feels disconnected from one’s immediate needs and aspirations, etc., voting might not be the priority. And that’s understandable.
But that is just part of the story. A key point is missing: the effort that people in poverty make so they can vote, knowing that it could be a way to recover some power over their life for themselves and their communities.
There are many people who decide to put energy into overcoming the barriers to voting, despite the challenges they face and the fights they need to win everyday to make ends meet and raise their families. For some, like Patrick, this means becoming a citizen in order to express themselves in elections that will have direct consequences on their lives. For others, like Emma, this means becoming a poll worker. And many others organize people in their community to understand the ballot and make it to the polls.
Democracy is a political system. At ATD Fourth World, we know that democracy has little meaning if it is not rooted in the realities of life. Democracy starts when people from very different views and backgrounds make the effort to understand one another. The way ATD Fourth World builds community supports this effort, contributing to the development of a culture where exclusion itself is banned.
Thank you for your efforts and support.
In solidarity,
Guillaume Charvon
National Director
