It’s Almost National Voter Registration Day!
You know what’s a really fun thing to do?
Vote!
In what other way can you put your opinions, values, and beliefs out there, but in private, and no one can tell you that your choices are wrong? Pretty cool, right? Speaking of rights, many societies don’t enjoy this one. And we Americans have certainly struggled to expand it to more of our fellow citizens. But our right to vote is enshrined in several Constitutional amendments and legislative acts. Those worried about election integrity can keep in mind that even federal elections are managed by individual states and municipalities. Though Congress and states set the rules, there is, by design, no national administration of elections in the United States.
The hard truth about voting is that after an election is over, you may find the results aren’t what you hoped for. But you know what? They definitely will not reflect your choices if you and others sit it out. It’s that simple.
Now that I have you excited about voting, did you know that there is a holiday to get eligible people registered?
It’s National Voter Registration Day, and this year it will be celebrated on Tuesday, September 16. Mercer County Library System branches will have voter registration forms on-hand to make it easy to sign-up. Spread the word and bring a friend! If you can’t make it to the library or to the County Clerk’s office, you can find registration forms and lots of other info at MCLS’s online Topic Guide about NJ voting.
And if you’d like to explore voting in these United States even further, take a look at just some of the titles available at Mercer County Library System:
By Erin Geiger Smith
A journalist examines the long and continuing fight for voting equality, why so few Americans today vote, and innovative ways to educate and motivate them; included are checklists of what to do before election day to prepare to vote and encourage others.
By Ari Berman
On the fiftieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, a riveting and alarming account of the continuing battle over the right to vote The adoption of the landmark Voting Rights Act in 1965 enfranchised millions of Americans and is widely regarded as the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement. And yet fifty years later we are still fighting heated battles over race, representation, and political power--over the right to vote, the central pillar of our democracy
By Tommy Jenkins, Illustrated by Kati Lacker
This original graphic novel looks at the history of voting rights in the United States, and how it has affected the way we vote today. Author Tommy Jenkins traces this history from the earliest steps toward democracy during the American Revolution, to the upheaval caused by the Civil War, the fight for women's suffrage, the Civil Rights movement, the election of an African American president, and the control by a Republican majority.
By Caitlin Cass
New Yorker contributing cartoonist Caitlin Cass pens a sweeping history of women's suffrage in the U.S. She explores the multigenerational arc of the movement, humanizing key historical figures from the early days of the suffrage fight, to the dawn of the "New Women" such as Alice Paul and Mary Church Terrell, to the Civil Rights era. Additionally, this book sheds light on less chronicled figures such as Zitkala-Ša and Mabel Ping Hua-Lee, whose stories reveal the complex racial dynamics that haunt this history.
By Eric Holder with Sam Koppelman
Chronicles the dramatic history of the vote in America and presents an urgent summons to protect and perfect democracy, from the former Attorney General of the United States and a leading voting rights advocate.
When it comes to voting, I think this quote that’s been attributed to Thomas Jefferson says it best: “We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”
~ Kathleen @ Hopewell
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