Ruthelle Frank was able to vote in Tuesday’s primary elections in Wisconsin. But it took multiple lawsuits and 10 months to make it happen. And she still may not be able to vote in November.
Ruthelle is the ACLU’s 84-year-old plaintiff challenging Wisconsin’s voter ID law. She is only one of millions of people who are at risk of losing their right to vote this November as a result of wide-ranging state-by-state efforts to deny people access to the polls.
The right to vote is what makes a country a true democracy, and it is the most basic right we share as Americans. And yet, outrageous attempts to deny people the right to vote are under way in state after state — virtually guaranteeing that many Americans won’t really have the right at all. It’s estimated that up to 5 million people will be blocked from the polls in this year’s general election as a result of new voter suppression measures on the books.
The ACLU is launching Let People Vote today, a campaign that highlights stories of voters across the country who will be impacted by these voter suppression measures. From Wisconsin to Texas, Ohio to South Carolina, every person who loses the right to vote takes us one more step away from being a nation of free people.
Act now to make sure that our most fundamental rights are protected this November.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
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