Vote, Vote, Vote to use your voice by Tuesday!

As election day is inching closer and closer, our everyday media feed is filled with political propaganda and false information. According to an article published on October 14th, 2024 by The Washington Post, there was an incident in Michigan where an ad from Tom Barrett’s campaign was advertising the election day to be November 6th. And this campaign was aimed at Black voters, leading to the idea that the incorrect information was an “intentional strategy to ‘deter’ Black voters by deceiving them into showing up to vote on the day after the 2024 election”. If you aren’t planning on voting in the upcoming election, you might be thinking that your vote doesn’t matter and won’t have an impact on the turnout of the election. Not in this case. According to Dr. Deron Schreck, he predicts the results of the election will be a coin flip. There is a 50/50 chance of either Kamala or Trump winning, and you have the opportunity to help break the tie by placing your vote on Tuesday November 5, 2024. Voting is one of the most powerful ways to shape our future. You have a direct say in policies that impact our everyday lives like healthcare, education, the economy, and climate action. This is your chance to stand up for the values you believe in and be apart of the change you want to see. You can register to vote in person on the day of the election, or in advance at the Cook County Clerk’s office.

A women’s vote holds profound significance in the United States. Each vote cast is a tribute to the many women who fought vigorously for American women to be considered full citizens. Unsung heroes like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, often forgotten in American textbooks, were foundational to the suffrage movement. Equally significant, are Shirley Chisholm and Fannie Lou Hamer, the pioneers who fought to secure voting rights for Black and Brown women, safeguarding that non-white women were not left behind by the suffrage movement.

Mary Wollstonecraft, regarded as the founder of feminism, paved the way for the women’s suffrage movement, and in return, enabled my generation of women to cast their vote for Kamala Harris. It is the women of the past belonging to every nation across the world, who make this moment possible. In ancient Greek society, women were viewed as secondary citizens, compared to the animal kingdom, and only held little value for bearing children. Meanwhile, the men of their society were compared to their Greek gods. The fact that women today can vote, particularly women of color like me, is a reflection of hard-won progress.

Personally, voting brings to mind my great-grandmother, Gloria Mayfield. Who, despite her severe type II diabetes, stood for hours to cast her vote for former President Barack Obama. My grandmother, born in Mississippi in the 1930’s during the Jim Crow era, would often share the pervasive racism she endured. These are the same stories that the GOP is desperately trying to erase from American textbooks. Yet, despite the health struggles she endured in her late life, she stood in line to vote, bearing witness to a moment she never thought she would see. The first black president. In the years close to her passing, she was wheelchair-bound, but I know she would have been in that line again to vote for Kamala.

On Nov. 5, 2024 you have two choices: to vote for a kind-hearted woman who wants to take us forward, be a President for all Americans, and has a to-do list. Your other option is a man who has been found guilty of sexual assault (the judge classified it as rape), has 34 felony counts, and at least three more trials to come, has quoted and praised Hitler and other dictators over and over again, and has a blueprint to take us backwards. Instead of a to-do list, he has an enemies list. Nov. 5 that is your chance to make your voice heard, even if you consider yourself to be an introvert afraid of public speaking. If you decide to stay home, then don’t complain about the results. our vote is your voice to say you want to keep living in a free democracy. There are countries that do not have a free democracy.

On Nov. 5, make sure to carry out your constitutional right to pick the leader you think is best. When America gained its independence, not all the American people had the right to vote. Women did not have the ability to vote until 1920; Black people did not have an absolute fair way to vote until 1965. If you are thinking your vote “it is just one vote” or that “my vote doesn’t matter because I am in a dark ‘blue’ or dark ‘red’ state,” you are falling into the apathy trap. If everyone in that state or district had that mentality, then those non-voters would most definitely make a difference! For example, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania started his politcal career in 2005. when he was elected mayor, he won by one vote. He recently state on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that had he never received that single vote, he would probably not be a senator now. In a winner-takes-all Electoral College state, very vote really does count.