A coalition of organizations fighting for voting rights for disenfranchised Alabamians rallied at the State House Wednesday, urging lawmakers to support a state voting rights act.
Leaders of the coalition told those gathered on the steps Wednesday that this is a moment they must rise to meet, as efforts to disenfranchise marginalized voters spike.
“We’re gathered here today at the State House in a moment where decisions across the country, courts and right here in our state—at a federal and local level—are actively redefining who gets to participate in democracy,” said Anneisha Hardy, execute director at Alabama Values Progress. “This is a pattern that has historically seemed to shape who has access to power.”
The group wasn’t just there to rally; they also came to support a statewide voting rights act that appeared for the first time in a House committee Wednesday afternoon. That bill ultimately passed the committee, although the session is so closing to ending it has little chance of making it to the governor’s desk this year.
Jerome Dees, policy director for he Southern Poverty Law Center Alabama, described the temperature on voting rights in America.
“Barriers to voting have grown more sophisticated, more bureaucratic and more difficult to navigate,” Dees said. “We see polling place closures that force working families to travel father and wait longer to vote. We see complicated registration rules that confuse first-time voters and discourage participation. Here in Alabama, we see district maps that carve up communities and divide the voting strength of Black voters and other communities of color.
“These tactics may look technical on paper, but their impact is undeniable. They determine who is heard and who is ignored; who has influence and who is left out; who feels welcome in our democracy and who feels pushed aside. This is not the Alabama we should accept.”
Despite those obstacles, Ronald James Jr. of Alabama Forward addressed the crowd with a message of hope.
“If we don’t organize people in big groups, we can always organize the homes that we live in,” James said. “If we don’t organize people in mass movements, we can organize the small communities, the streets, the neighborhoods that we live in every day to move toward a better Alabama for us tomorrow.”
The advocacy day promotes the various different grassroots organizations to band together and amplify their power toward seeking solutions such as early voting, absentee ballot assistance, mail-in voting and other measures.
