Inspired by Teresa Valle
Feminist Suffrage Parade, NYC circa 1912, Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain).
In the United States, every citizen at least 18 years of age has the right to vote. It is a right we take for granted.
The highest voter turn-out we’ve seen in recent times was in 1960, when 63.1% of the voting-age population exercised its right to elect a president. That year, Democrat John Fitzgerald Kennedy received 34,220,984 (49.72%) votes, barely beating out Republican Richard Milhous Nixon, who received 34,108,157 (49.55%) votes.
The right to vote is a fundamental liberty granted by our Constitution. But it wasn’t always so.
The U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1787, defined the process our country would undertake to elect its presidents and vice-presidents, including the concept of an electoral college. However, state constitutions determined eligibility to vote and in most cases excluded Blacks, Women, and The Poor. With few exceptions, only White, Land-Owning Men could participate in the creation of this country’s government.
Eventually and thanks to the blood and sweat of many who came before us, the Constitution was amended to expand voting rights:
- The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) established that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” (It took almost a century longer, for the National Voting Rights Act of 1965, to fulfill the full promise of the Fifteenth Amendment in all states.)
- The Nineteenth Amendment (1920) established that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Alice Paul and Lucy Burns formed the Congressional for Women Suffrage in 1913, and successfully brought about this amendment, which Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton originally sought in 1878.
- The Twenty-Fourth Amendment (1964) established that the right to vote “shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.”
Women Suffragists picketing in front of the White,
House, 1917, Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)
Write for your right
Don’t give up your right to vote by not exercising it on November 4! It doesn’t matter who you vote for—just please, VOTE!
Fellow blogger Teresa Valle hit home this message with a poignant and powerful expression of why she votes. Read her words, and then sit down to your own Writing Practice.
Why I Vote
By Teresa Valle
I vote because I believe that citizenship has certain rights and responsibilities. I vote because I believe in supporting the common good. I vote because I believe in freedom of religion. I vote because I believe in the principle that those of us who are fortunate enough to be strong and successful have a responsibility to help those who are less able or less fortunate. I vote because I believe the health of our people translates into the health of our country. I vote because I believe in freedom of assembly. I vote because I believe in freedom of speech. I vote because, as someone who drives on the roads, relies on the fire department, the police department, the hospitals that treat our illnesses, and the schools that educate our children, I believe I need to pony up and pay my taxes. I vote because I believe we get what we pay for. I vote because I believe we need to work hard and pay attention in order to protect ourselves, one another and our system of governance. I vote because I believe appropriate regulation can help protect our children from tainted toys, tainted foods, and the consequences of poorly controlled toxic overload. I vote because I believe the common good is best served by an informed and involved electorate. I vote because I believe in the civil treatment of individuals during wartime, and I believe in the rule of law. I vote because I believe in the power of posse comitatus to limit the excessive use of military intervention against our own citizenry. I vote because I believe the rights of the individuals and families in our country rise above the rights of corporate monoliths. I vote because I believe I am part of the natural world and that it needs our protection and stewardship. I vote because I believe in the right to bear arms. I vote because I believe in the separation of church and state. I vote because I believe in the power of the human mind, for good, for evil, and for the full range of possibilities in between. I vote because I believe in choice: not simply reproductive choice; rather, the larger concept of choice that allows us to agree or disagree without fear of reprisal. I believe in the larger concept of choice that allows us to pursue higher education, to pursue the religious convictions that speak to us as individuals and as members of formal religion, to pursue happiness and meaning in our personal relationships and our marriages, to pursue the freedoms that have defined us as a nation. I vote because I believe in sharing the burdens, the joys, and the blessings of living here and living now. I vote because I believe.
Teresa Valle is the pen name of Teresa Phillips, a writer, goose farmer, and therapist living and working in a river community in central New Mexico. Although she is primarily a writer of short fiction—which she publishes on her fiction blog, Cuentos—she’s recently been experimenting with creative non-fiction and essays at Trees for the Forest.
To vote is human
- Problems in the 2000 Presidential Elections prompted voting process reform, specifically via the Help America Vote Act of 2002. This act provided state funds to replace punch card machines with electronic voting machines (on-going), established the independent, bipartisan Election Assistance Commission (EAC), and developed minimum election administration standards for states to follow.
- Currently there are five methods for voting in the U.S.—paper ballots (used since U.S. independence, with secret ballot inroduced at the end of the 19th century), mechanical lever machines (introduced in the late 19th century and the most common method of voting through the mid 1980s), punch cards (first implemented in the early 1960s), optical scan (first used in the 1960s and currently the most common method of voting), and direct recording electronic (introduced in the mid 1970s and the second most used method).
- Three groups of individuals are vital to the voting process: voters, poll workers, and election officials.
Vote early, vote often
- Become a Poll Worker, web page on the Election Assistance Commission website
- Early Voting, In-person voting map and absentee voting by mail map, from The Pew Centers on the States, electionline.org
- Early Voting Information Center at Reed College
We vote and then our votes translate into delegates to the electoral college who then vote for the President of the United States. That has always bothered me because it is possible to lose the popular vote and still become President of the United States.
I vote because I want the right to comment on what the elected people do to our country. To not vote and then comment would be hypocritical.
I vote because this is a representative democracy which doesn’t represent the people of the country. That will only happen when everyone eligible to vote gets out and votes…the poor, the minorities, the disenfranchised. The color and direction of the Congress would change if every eligible person registered to vote and then voted. We wouldn’t recognize our Congress as the cameras panned over both houses. That’s what I want to see in my lifetime.
Those are just some of the reasons I vote.
The piece by Teresa Valle is great. I will check out her other writing and the web site. Thanks for the links.
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Yeah, I’m not fond of the Electoral College method either, Bob.
And I wanted to chime in with your comment on Teresa Valle’s piece. First, though, Teresa, I love that you have a pen name. What is the difference between a pen name and a psuedonym? I mean, obviously you wouldn’t have shared your real name if you were writing under a pseudonym, but what inspired the use of a “pen name”?
And then second, how exactly did you write your Why I Vote piece? It sounds and feels like it just rolled right out of your wild mind and flowed out of your pen. Did it?
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Teresa, I was totally inspired when I read your Writing Practice on Why I Vote. It’s a pleasure to have you as a Guest on red Ravine. I had the same question as ybonesy — what inspired you to write this practice? It does seem like it flowed right out of Wild Mind.
I vote for many reasons that I hope to explore in my own practice. But it all boils down to — many people in this country have paid a high price for our right to vote, so that everyone can have a voice — and I believe one vote can make a difference. And I’m with Bob in that if people want to complain about the way things are and they aren’t voting, I am less inclined to listen.
ybonesy, great job on pulling this post together. I want to comment on the rest of the Topic later. But there are a couple of things that have always struck me about the Constitutional Amendments around voting:
1) How the 15th Amendment gave all MEN the right to vote (not addressing women who were considered less than in every way and not fit to vote). Yet not all men could freely exercise that right until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
2) How WOMEN did not get the right to vote until a half century later in the 19th Amendment — 50 more years would pass and a lot of hard work by Women Suffragists. Many put their lives on the line for the right to vote. They were beaten and jailed and spit on and you name it.
We owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who fought for equal rights so that all people would be able to vote in this country. HUGE.
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Good morning, Ybonesy. —
Thanks for including this writing practice on RR. Regarding my pen name — here are the two main reasons. First is that Teresa Phillips is a very common name, and is used by a well-known writer of romance novels. So Valle distinguishes me from her. Second is that I wanted my name to connect more clearly with my family and culture, which is Mexican-mixta on my dad’s side. Valle is a family name – my grandmother was Olivia Ybarra y de Valle. Ybarra tends to stress out non Spanish speakers, so I went with Valle. You may say “Valley” or “Vah-yeh”, as you wish. To a lesser degree, I am also intermittently nervous and scaredy about about who I am and how safe it is to be gay and out and married and using my actual name.
I think a pen name and a psueodonym are pretty much the same thing. I’ve published under Phillips, but I’m really working on changing that now.
I wrote this “Why I Vote” piece in response to a comment you made on Trees for the Forest recently. Say something nice about the vice presidential candidates.
It is hard, right now, to talk politics without going off on a crazy rant, regardless of your political inclinations. We’ve been thoroughly divided, mostly by manipulation, from my perspective. The Napoleon approach. Disturbing.
I decided to write about voting rather than candidates because it allowed me to talk about the election in a way that expressed my own values rather than attacking anyone. I think I achieved that, although I would edit it like mad if it wasn’t a practice! I didn’t even mention the Magna Carta! So much more to say ……
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Ah, me and my comments. 8) Hey, this was a way good way to speak up, say something profound.
I love the name Olivia, and yes, while Ybarra throws some non-Spanish speakers for a loop, it’s also wonderful. (Remember Cynthia Izagerrrrrrre? Am I spelling that right? She was a newscaster on one of the local stations, and man, she rolled her r’s. I kind of miss her since she moved on to Dallas. Think about how much she’s stressing out folks there.)
I do want to say that being out there, blogging especially—while it has its scary aspect (who’s really reading this and what are they plotting?) it also has the huge benefit of drawing like-minded or sometimes not-so-like-minded-but-nonetheless-kind people together. Anyway, I’m also (and I think QM, too) always struggling with the duality of the pen name and the real name, and I hope I can eventually just merge the two.
Oh, one other thing, speaking of powerful words and writing, isn’t it also important to take ownership of those words, for intellectual property reasons, of course, but also to stand by the truth as you know it?
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QM, to the items that struck you about the Amendments—does anyone ever wonder what today’s “fight” is? I mean, thinking back to the suffragettes and suffragists, there was a gulf between what was real (per the law of the land) and what was right.
Today, is the “fight” mostly about exercising the rights, not letting them be hard-won for nothing? Is it about a different gulf that exists—between what is real (say, Earth is dying, people are still living in poverty) and what is right (we can’t let Earth die, we can’t leave some out)?
Mostly thinking aloud here about the difference between “those times” and the courage it took to fight for right, and “these times” and whether and what the fight is about.
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ybonesy, that’s a really good question (#6). I’d love to hear from other readers on that. I have to think about it a little more. Off the top of my head, it occurs to me that even though we have rights on paper, actually living those beliefs is much harder. And still, not all have equal rights on paper either.
Maybe the “fight” is to learn to “live” the individual freedoms and ideals that others have fought for. And to live them through non-violent, non-rageful means, through some kind of peace. It seems like the more rights we have, the more divided we become, even among like-minded people. That doesn’t make any sense to me.
I think remembering the courage those who came before us had to go out on the frontlines and stand up for what was right is good to remember. It gives us hope. But there is something that exist in the mindset today, something about how people feel entitled, no matter who they are. That entitlement seems to lead to disrespect and a need to blame others and divides us somehow.
I don’t know. I think humans are always going to disagree and to fight with each other. But the thought occurs to me — how are we ever going to bridge gaps and stop wars with a bunch of angry people on all sides? Anger might be useful in its place and for a short time. But does not allow others to approach and hear what we have to say. It’s a wall.
I have to think about it more. I think the “fight” might be more spiritual. To learn how to have our own voices and speak in our own voices, yet still get along — to allow everyone to have access to the rights that have been earned, not given. Rights can be taken away.
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Hello again, Ybs and QM — back between appointments. I wanted to say, regarding wild mind and writing practice, that this type of writing has been central to my development as a writer. When I first started writing, as an undergraduate, I was good with language but found creative writing (my main interest) painful, even excruciating. I had very little self-confidence at that time, and needed constant hand holding to produce even the shortest piece of work.
When I read Writing Down the Bones a number of years ago, it changed how I approach writing. Having used writing practice to find and honor my voice for so long, I have easy and passionate access to that voice whenever I sit down for writing practice. It is an incredible gift, I am so grateful for it.
Ybonesy, regarding ownership of words – both for truth and for intellectural property rights, I think of David B. Dale over at Very Short Novels. That’s his pen name; it honors his family, it creates a separate identity for him the writer v him the business owner. I guess, in part, because my writing is sometimes beyond wild, I want to make it clear that my writing is me the fiction writer rather than me the business owner or the therapist.
QM – “I think remembering the courage those who came before us had to go out on the frontlines and stand up for what was right is good to remember. It gives us hope. But there is something that exist in the mindset today, something about how people feel entitled, no matter who they are. That entitlement seems to lead to disrespect and a need to blame others and divides us somehow.” — That is exactly right, and I think the call has come for us to be the people with the courage to fight for what is right, and to fight to bring us back together again, working for the common good.
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I’m glad you added that insight about your Writing Practice (#8). Very eloquently written. It is only one approach to writing but it sure has helped me to find my voice, my wildness, what I really think, and to be able to tap it at any time by doing a timed Writing Practice.
The pen name and the real name — it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Especially in relation to the copyrights and use of my photographs and my writing. It’s been good to have these few years of blogging to get my work out there. But ybonesy’s right — I’m getting closer to merging the pen name and the real name. To take that next step. It’s not a light decision. And there is family protection and rights to consider. But there will be a jumping off point.
Yes, the common good — doesn’t it seem like we’d live in a much better world if people acted for the common good. Maybe the fight is for unity, rather than division. How are we alike rather than how are we different.
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“…So long as the people
do not care to exercise their freedom,
those who wish to tyrannize will do so;
for tyrants are active and ardent,
and will devote themselves in the name
of any number of gods, religious and otherwise,
to put shackles upon sleeping men.”
Voltaire
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heather, good quote from Voltaire. Yet more good reasons to vote. I like the phrase “shackles on sleeping men.”
I was noticing the phrasing in Emily Dickinson’s poetry last night. Honestly, I had read a few of her more famous poems, but not much of her other work.
Here’s one that Liz read last night that pertains to some of the things we’ve been talking about on red Ravine about Civil Discourse:
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Oct 17 started early voting in NM, and I have completed my absentee ballot. There seems to be a much greater emphasis on early voting this election than I ever recall, but I’m not sure if that’s really the case.
Also, the Oct 13 issue of New Yorker magazine has a great history of voting and how one had to risk one’s own life in order to vote. Here is the link (LINK).
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ybonesy, along the lines of To Vote Is Human in this post, I got an email from a friend today with this Video the Vote information. I think this (along with the extra efforts toward early voting) may be to help prevent anticipated turnout and problems at the polls this year. If it’s anything like the Primaries, it’s going to be interesting.
Anyway, below is the info for anyone interested in being a Citizen Journalist. I’m not sure I’d really want to be videotaped as I was waiting in line to vote, but I can sure understand where the effort is coming from.
__________________
Video The Vote is a non-partisan effort to document the experiences of voters at the polls on election day. Please consider volunteering and inviting others to volunteer. Below is some info from their website:
Video The Vote (LINK)
Mission
Video the Vote ensures timely, complete, and accurate reporting of voter suppression and election irregularities by organizing citizen journalists to document elections and then using their footage to raise awareness about the ongoing challenges facing American voters.
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Oh, I heard about this effort. I think it’s a great idea, and yeah, the Citizen Journalist is certainly a new role that people can play to prevent—or at least discourage—voter fraud.
BTW, I should pass on this great advice I got about my absentee ballot: take photos—front and back—before turning in or sending via mail the ballot. The photos are your “receipt.”
I’ve heard from many people that they want to be part of the big day—Nov 4—but I think it’s much preferable to vote early. Yeah, just think back to the Primaries. So very chaotic. And even early voting lines in some states are very long.
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Watching the 10 o’clock news and early voting is really up in Bernalillo County (Albuquerque’s county). More than 12K votes cast today (or perhaps since early voting opened on Fri—wasn’t sure which), and more than 16K ballots returned already (and 77K requested). Wooo-hoooo.
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ybonesy, I was just looking at your link to early voting to see what the rules were for MN. No early voting without a good excuse. It’s interesting to see how the different states do it. Some don’t allow early voting at all.
It seems like the Western states are more lax. Here’s the break down and that link again for anyone else who wants to check it out —
States » Absentee and Early Voting Laws (LINK):
–32 states allow no-excuse pre-Election Day in-person voting – either early voting on a voting machine or in-person absentee voting.
–14 states and the District of Columbia require an excuse for in-person absentee voting
–1 state is all vote-by mail
–4 states do not allow early or in-person absentee voting
–28 states allow no-excuse absentee voting by mail
–22 states and the District of Columbia require an excuse to vote absentee by mail
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Interesting, isn’t it?
We had an Early Voting rally last Sat (week ago yesterday) and it was so exciting. I don’t remember the same kind of focus and excitement around Early Voting in 2004.
BTW, both presidential candidates were in ABQ yesterday. McCain came in the morning and drew a crowd of about 1K, according to reports. Obama’s rally had 35K in the main area and 10-15K outside the closed off park. I’m pretty jazzed by how jazzed everyone else seems to be. Some real momentum building about voting, about the candidates, about this moment in time.
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Dr. Michael McDonald from George Mason Univ’s Dept of Public and Intl Affairs created this site (LINK) to publish 2008 Early Voting statistics. The site changes daily. One of the things most interesting to me is to see the magnitude of the 2008 early vote as compared to total votes cast in 2004. For example, as of today in NM, the number of early votes in this current election represents 37% of the total number of total votes cast in the ’04 election.
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Ok, I’m curious. What 1 state allows vote by mail only? I’m guessing it might be Alaska, but I’m probably wrong. I mean it seems so weird. D
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Oregon. I was just there end of last week and folks talked about mailing in their votes.
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Thanks. I should have checked out the link provided by QM. It appears that Oregon voted for this in 1998. Wow! Who would have thought?
yb, it appears the candidates were in your state recently. Did you get to attend any of the visits there? They have been all over the place here in PA. D
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diddy, it’s interesting, isn’t it? Pennsylvania is a big swing state this time. I know people think Obama is ahead in the polls so much that they aren’t worried. But I’m one of those people who doesn’t get complacent. Anything can happen. Everyone should get out and vote!
About the early voting, yeah, Oregon was all mail-in. I had no idea. I think I looked and PA is the same as MN in early voting. I’ve noticed that PA is often regulated in state government (and things like drivers licenses, etc.) in similar ways to Minnesota. When I lived in Montana, things were very lax. That tends to be true of the Western states.
There is a certain amount of the spirit of independence and not wanting to be regulated that still goes on out West. Until you get over to the West Coast and then it’s all legislated again. Fascinating.
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yes, I think too that MN & PA are much alike, though I personally think PA is behind the times in so many things. About 30 years ago I remember being in a laundromat along with some visitors who were from Australia. They were following a racing circuit & requested my help in understanding the differences between MD (a state that they had just left) & PA. They couldn’t believe that each state had differences re: sales tax & simple things such as buying beer & wine in grocery stores in MD & having to go to a bar in PA to get a single six-pack & state controlled liquor stores for everything else. They thought I was crazy when they told me they were off to Ohio next & I said it would be different there.
As far as the voting in Oregon, I guess it must work for them, but I think the margin for error would be greater. Anyhow, I vote because I am a concerned citizen & feel it is my duty & an honor to voice my opinion. I don’t count either party out in this election. I don’t follow the polls, nor do I care who endorses who. I vote my conscience & what I believe will benefit all Americans the most. D
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[…] -Related to post WRITING TOPIC – WHY I VOTE. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)I’m Not ObsessedObama Charges For Lawn […]
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[…] November 4th, 2008 and history is being made in the United States of America. Liz and I voted this morning at our local precinct in Minneapolis; ybonesy is out in New Mexico continuing her good work. I take […]
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[…] Women won the right to vote during her early years, but she never saw the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. Despite her lack of equality, she ran the household. She joined other women who ran their households, churches, and school and civic organizations. She knew that women ruled the world. She lived to see women lead nations and corporations and go to Congress. She saw Blacks fight for their rights as citizens and she supported them. She believed that ALL Americans were created equal and should be treated equally by the law. She supported the equal rights of homosexuals. During “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” she wrote letters to her Congressional representatives. “I told them that ho-ma-sex-yalls and lespians should be able to serve their country. If we had more of them in the service, we wouldn’t have all those illegitimate children running around overseas.” An argument I have never heard expressed by anyone else. […]
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[…] Why I Vote by Teresa Valle […]
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[…] before women had the right to vote, Low was instrumental in encouraging girls to develop self-reliance and resourcefulness, not only […]
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August 26th, 2010 marks the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment and women’s right to vote.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
I listened to a fantastic interview this morning on MPR’s Midday.
People forget how hard women had to fight to get the vote. And the role that African American women played in the Suffrage Movement. It was a violent time for women who were more radical in the fight. Meanwhile, in the background, the tamer side of the movement worked the President from a different angle, eventually winning him over.
Here’s the link and the blurb about the MPR Midday program with Gary Eichten:
90 Years Of Women Voting (LINK)
The 19th amendment giving women the right to vote was adopted August 26, 1920. How did this come about, and how does this civil rights movement compare to others before and since?
Sara Evans: Regents professor emerita of history, University of Minnesota. She was McKnight Distinguished Professor of History. Author of “Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America,” and “Tidal Wave: How Women Changed America at Century’s End.”
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