When We All Vote’s Executive Director Stephanie Young revealed on the HollywoodLife Podcast how voters can stop voter suppression & more by taking action in the midterm elections.
Believe it or not, this November, it will be time for hit the voting booths once again! Americans will have the opportunity for their voices to be heard on the first Tuesday of Nov. 2022, when we vote to fill 34 Senate seats and all 435 House seats, as well as several high-profile gubernatorial races in key battleground states. “There really is nothing more important than this,” Stephanie Young, Executive Director of When We Will Vote, said on the HollywoodLife Podcast. “These are people who represent you every day. We have folks, like your Secretaries of State — the people who determine what voting looks like in your state — we have over 20 of those seats up for grabs.”
She continued, “I’ve heard firsthand, some of the folks that are running for these offices that we tend to not pay attention to, saying that if they had to do it all over again, they would not have certified the 2020 election. What that tells me, and what that should tell us, is that we are really in the fight for our democracy. We have the choice to elect people that believe in democracy and to participate and ensure that we’re making our voices heard, so that we don’t miss out on roles, like Secretary of State, because they are going to determine what voting looks like in your in your state– who can vote, who can’t, all of the things that really make us a true democracy.”
Stephanie, whose goal is to help Michelle Obama‘s organization “infiltrate culture” and “increase participation in each and every election by helping to close the age gap,” added that “it’s so incredibly important that we’re paying attention” because the upcoming midterm elections will “impact you way down the line.” “It’s going to impact what happens in 2024,” she warned, “I know it feels like we just voted, but that’s the thing about voting. You have to consistently be a part of this process, so that the issues that you care about are at the forefront of those who are supposed to represent you.”
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Stephanie also detailed the ongoing “assault on voting rights” that has plagued the US. “There’s over 500 voter suppression bills, either introduced or passed. Places like Texas, Georgia, Florida, those bills have all passed. It’s making it harder for young people, people with disabilities, people of color, and just working class Americans, to vote. Why? Because they reduced the time that you can go vote early. They have stricter voter ID laws that don’t make any sense. In addition to that, for groups like ours, who helped to support people in long lines, which is another form of voter suppression, with water or food, they have banned that now, too,” she explained. “This is a clear and concerted effort to to really attack voting in this country.”
The former Obama Administration Associate Communications Director believes that these laws are a response to the incredible turnout in the 2020 election, which ultimately unseated former president Donald Trump. “Around 67% of Americans actually voted, and they voted in a global pandemic, nothing stopped them. After, there were some people who saw that and said, ‘Wow, there’s more young people voting, there’s more people of color voting. I don’t like the fact that this person is representing my state,’” she recalled. “I think that we saw the biggest piece of information that should help to inform how we think about this, which was the insurrection that happened on January 6, when we saw people stormed the Capitol to say the election was rigged. So now, we’re consistently fighting this Big Lie on social platforms, saying that the election was rigged, because it did not go in your favor.”
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Stephanie continued, “Voter suppression is happening in a multitude of different ways, and we have to make sure that we’re sending the right people to Congress who believe in voting right to believe in democracy.” Readers and listeners can visited WhenWeAllVote.org to get involved, learn more about the upcoming midterm elections and ensure they are registered to vote so their voices can be heard.
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