In half an hour of watching the video Suppressed: the Fight to Vote you can learn what happened in the 2018 election to suppress the vote. It was more than poll closures and voter purges. It was not by accident, it was a carefully planned strategy that was targeted to suppress the votes in African-American communities. It was so effective in 2018 that there will undoubtedly be voter suppression tactics used again in 2020. The news coverage on election day will probably be about long lines and confused voters, not the reasons why voters gave up or were fooled by confusing messages.
Voting is a right that we value highly. For some voting is a sacred act. We demand that our vote is heard and properly counted. We cannot afford to have it taken away from any of our citizens. Watch the short film and then share it with your family and friends. There will be an opportunity to discuss it after the service on August 9th.
In the Sunday worship service on August 9th a featured guest speaker will educate us about voter suppression. We will have another service soon focused on voter mobilization. If you have personal memories of voting that you are willing to share during in an upcoming service, please contact Rev. Levwood.
The UUCT Social Action Committee has already begun to send out postcards to the most vulnerable voters encouraging them to register to vote and to request a mail in ballot. Our goal is to send out 2020 postcards to people using the tools from Reclaim Our Vote. We will have more details in the next issue of the Meridian or you can contact Janet Temkin or Susan Fleming. We need your help to Reclaim the Vote.