What is the Washington Statewide Day of Action for Voting Rights?
By Gwen Frost
A historical timeline of voting rights history was displayed throughout the Miller hall collaborative space on Oct. 17. Western was among many Universities across Washington state that participated in the Statewide Day of Action for Voting Rights. Organized by the Washington Student Association (WSA), this statewide event had goals to both increase WSA visibility and bases on campus, as well as building momentum for Get Out The Vote (according to WSA’s website).
Western held their event from ten to four, inviting students to browse a timeline of the history of voting rights, with content warning of references to “slavery, racism, sexism, ableism, colonization, xenophobia, & state violence.” Zines were provided to offer digestible facts in pocket-sized form. The timeline was organized by large posters set around the space on table and floor throughout the room. The timeline began in 1800, the year the first voter registration law was passed in the U.S. (in Massachusetts). The timeline stated on this year “voter registration began as an explicit method of disenfranchisement (i.e. to be intentionally deprived the rights of citizenship) which was used to stop immigrants from voting.”
Literacy tests were provided, with a sign daring passer-bys to see if they could pass a literacy test. The Alabama Literacy tests are from 1963, a year before the “Freedom Summer” where thousands of civil rights activists converged in the south to defend the right to vote uninhibited for black folks. The Freedom Summer participants advocated to end the racially biased and disproportionately distributed literacy test, but were met with violence by both the state and white citizens.
The timeline included the Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act of 1984, as well the 1985 U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold the constitutionality of felony disenfranchisement. In 2017, 6.1 million people in America cannot vote due to a felony conviction, according to the timeline.
In 1993 the National Voter Registration Act was passed, resulting in 9 million new registered voters due to increased accessibility of registration. Washington state had a 78.76 percent voter turnout in the 2016 primary according to the WA Secretary of State, compared to the lower 58 percent of general U.S. turnout.