As Americans, we hail our democracy as a beacon to the world. And all agree the right to vote is the fundamental cornerstone of democracy. Yet in our election last fall, fewer than half of all eligible voters cast a ballot – and that is considered a relatively high turnout. We need a nationwide drive to extend and promote the right to vote, the most fundamental of all political rights in a democracy. Let’s start by automatic voter registration – registering every eligible voter automatically on his or her 18th birthday.

Automatic voter registration would change our elections. Politicians would have to appeal to a far broader electorate, not simply write off those they know aren’t registered. That alone would bring more people to the polls. The millions now expended in drives to get people to register could now be focused on voter education and turnout to vote.

In current elections, the registration and turnout of minority voters is lower than that of white voters, young voters lower than that of seniors, poor and working-class voters lower than that of the affluent. If all were registered, with the possibility of turning out to vote, politicians would have to learn to appeal to their concerns. That in itself would change the substance of our political debates.

Who votes matters. That’s why there has been such a fierce battle over the right to vote throughout our history. After the Civil War freed the slaves, new interracial fusion coalitions developed across the South, often passing major reform legislation on jobs, health care, and education. The plantation elite responded with violence, terrorizing the newly freed slaves and their allies. Eventually, they implemented segregation – the American version of apartheid – and suppressed the right of Blacks to vote. It took the civil rights movement and the second reconstruction to move the federal government to end segregation. The passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 enabled the federal government to protect the right to vote through the South. There was a massive increase in turnout, in voting, and in representation of those previously locked out.

Once more there has been a fierce counter-assault. Conservative Supreme Court justices have led the way. They ruled that money is speech, opening the floodgates to big money in our elections. They ruled that the courts wouldn’t review partisan gerrymandering. They ruled that courts wouldn’t overturn voter suppression laws close to an election, giving legislatures every incentive to pass them. And worse, they have gutted the Voting Rights Act.

This has triggered a surge of voter suppression laws. These include restricted ID laws that discriminate against students, the poor and minorities, limits on early voting days, limits on voting by mail, closing down polling stations in targeted neighborhoods, Prohibitions against providing aid – even water –to those seeking to vote, restricting registration, purging voting lists.

Efforts in the last session of Congress to revive the Voting Rights Act, to curb big money in politics, to make registering and voting easier were all stymied in the Senate by Republican filibusters. Increasingly in these partisan times, we have politicians who believe in democracy but only if the right people vote.

In his State of the Union address, President Biden noted that “For the last few years, our democracy has been threatened, attacked and put at risk. Put to the test here … on January 6th.” “Democracy,” he said, “must not be a partisan issue,” and he called for protecting the right to vote and against political violence in America.

The sacking of the Capitol on January 6 did not succeed. The efforts to deny or overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election failed. But the continuing efforts to suppress the vote, to make it harder for some to vote and make it easier for big money to influence our elections continues.

In the 1860s, the slave states lost the Civil War; the slaves were freed. But the free states tired in their effort to reform the South. The result was segregation that erased the right to vote for the newly freed slaves. Now, on January 6, the effort to overturn an election failed. But we cannot allow the deniers to reach a similar goal by suppressing the vote and skewing our elections.

Once more there must be a democratic movement demanding measures to secure the right to vote. Automatic voter registration at the age of 18 – removing the hurdles of registering separately – would be a sensible first step.

You can write to the Rev. Jesse Jackson in care of this newspaper or by email at jjackson@rainbowpush.org. Follow him on Twitter @RevJJackson.

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