ONE PERSON, ONE VOTE

The year 2020 will mark the 100th anniversary of women having the right to vote in the United States… let us not squander it.

Years ago, I would take part in canvassing on behalf of various organizations, and I heard a lot of different things from a lot of different voters. One thing stood out as particularly troubling. Every now and then, I would happen upon a woman who would either say, “I just vote the way my husband tells me to vote,” or “I just vote the way my father tells me to vote.”

The first time I heard someone say this, it shocked me. I thought about how women had to fight for the right that the 19th amendment guarantees. There were suffragettes who died for this right!

More recently I’ve been thinking about how certain politicians like to exaggerate the prevalence of voter fraud and how those same politicians are benefitting from what is perhaps the form of voter fraud that is the most difficult to trace: women giving their vote to a man in their life.

Let there be no mistake; any time a person is granted more than one vote, it is voter fraud. One person, one vote. That is what our right to vote ensures. And in the U.S. we even have the right to refuse to vote. We can choose to cast our ballot for whomever we wish, or choose to not vote at all.

There is no mandatory voting here. If you are a woman who believes that you shouldn’t have the right to vote, then don’t. But letting someone else dictate who you vote for, that is committing voter fraud. If given information about the candidates, you decide that you are in agreement with another person, that is fine. You have made up your mind, cast a ballot that reflects your decision, and experienced the process of a fair election.

Just remember, your vote is yours. The second it isn’t, you have broken the law.

 

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