"Voting is like alchemy- taking an abstract value and breathing life into it."
- Sharon Salzberg, American author
Voter suppression.- if some state governments can't find a way to eliminate rights they will find a way to make exercising your rights more difficult. Take for example the 288 restrictions created by lawmakers from 2011 to 2015 imposing greater hardship on a women's right to a safe and legal abortion. Roe v. Wade ensures protection of a woman's legal right to control her own reproduction. It's a human right that many conservative lawmakers want to restrict so much it has become an emotional and economic burden for the majority of women. In Texas lawmakers have devised so many restrictions some woman may be forced to drive over 300 miles or be required to wait days in order to receive medical attention to exercise their legal right. Economic and emotional hardship is almost no right at all, as lawmakers intended. See research and statistics here :(http://www.guttmacher.org/media/inthenews/2016/01/13/index.html
The right to vote in the United States is the most fundamental right we have guaranteed by our constitution. Those eligible to vote should have every barrier removed in order for their voice to be heard and counted yet once again restrictions are being placed on many citizens based on their state, district and skin color. State leaders are needlessly imposing restrictions on citizens voting rights with over 30 states adding roadblocks to the polls. At one time the state of North Carolina https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trial-to-start-over-north-carolinas-voter-id-law/2016/01/24/fac97d20-c1d1-11e5-9443-7074c3645405_story.html making headlines again for questionable voter restrictions had one of the lowest voter turn out rates in the country. In just a few years after civil rights groups expanded measures such as same-day registration and provisional ballots for African-American and Latino voters the turn out peaked at 68% in 2012.
The Voting Rights Act which is discussed in the video above (courtesy YouTube, Young Turks) complicates matters especially since federal approval isn't needed before states enact more obstacles for voters. Not all state lawmakers want to suppress or impede voters by any means. In fact many state and federal representatives are constantly fighting for the protection of our voting rights. Be sure to research your state and find out what you can do to make voting as uncomplicated and convenient as it should be for every single eligible US citizen.
Check information regarding your state: https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote
Residents of Ohio : http://www.ohio.gov/government/elections/
