What Alabama Can Learn From California on Voting Rights

What Alabama Can Learn From California on Voting Rights

What Alabama Can Learn From California on Voting Rights

As Alabama closes DMV locations in black counties, California passes a law to automatically register 6 million new voters.

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

In recent weeks Alabama has been in the news for passing a strict voter-ID law and then closing 31 DMV locations, particularly in majority-black counties where civil rights activists like Jimmie Lee Jackson and Jonathan Daniels died fighting for voting rights. This from the state that was the birthplace of the Voting Rights Act and currently ranks last in the nation in voter access.

Over the weekend California moved in a dramatically different direction, becoming the second state–following Oregon–to automatically register citizens who request a driver’s license or state ID from the DMV unless they opt out. The law could add 6 million unregistered voters to the rolls, which would be the largest voter-registration drive in state history.

Unlike Alabama, California is using the power of the government to bring millions of new voters into the political process– treating the vote as a fundamental right, rather than a special privilege.

“Democracy is stronger when more citizens can vote!” California Secretary of State Alex Padilla tweeted after Governor Jerry Brown signed the law. You’d think that would be a truism in a democracy, but unfortunately far too many states under Republican control have enacted new laws making it harder to vote in recent years.

From 2011 to 2015, 468 new voting restrictions have been introduced in 49 states, with 21 states adopting new laws curbing voter access, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

Restrictions_after_2010_060215-1

But Democrats and voting-rights advocates have not been similarly aggressive in trying to expand the electorate. Now that is starting to change, especially with the largest and most diverse state in the country passing such an ambitious electoral reform. Automatic voter registration bills have been proposed in 16 other states and by Democrats in Congress.

Expansive voting map 2015 6 3

By pushing automatic registration, “we’re reshaping the discussion about voting rights,” Padilla told me recently. “It’s not just about being on defense but going on offense by making it easier for people to cast ballots.”

It’s a shame that on the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, a quarter of Americans–51 million citizens–are not registered to vote. Let’s hope more states follow the model of California, not Alabama.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x