In my last post, I talked about my great-aunt and her work for passage of the 19th Amendment, a centennial we celebrate this year.  August is also the anniversary of the signing of The Voting Rights Act of 1965. Recent commemorations of the life of John Lewis remind us of what a very hard battle was fought. 

Let's not stop fighting for voting rights now.  In this post, I am sharing a few links  related to voting by mail, as well as actions you can take to address pressures on the Postal Service that could undermine mail-in voting.

The Brennan Center for Justice provides a very good discussion of voting by mail as one way to protect public safety and fair elections during this pandemic. 

But The Boston Globe report and Associated Press report that the efficiency of voting by mail is threatened by  measures  implemented under the administration of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. Budget cuts and new regulations are leading to slower mail delivery. Slow enough prevent the timely receipt of ballots.

You can help by contacting your Senators and telling them to fully fund the US Postal Service and remove barriers to efficient, timely service. Call or email to get your message through quickly, but follow-up with a postcard. You'll be directly supporting the U.S. Postal Service.

And speaking of direct support, buy stamps.  And share that message.   It's a thing.

​  #VotebyMail    #VoteByMail2020   #SaveThePostOffice    #BUYSOMESTAMPS

​In honor of her work for Women’s Suffrage, and in celebration of the ratification of the 19th Amendment in August of 1920, this month I am changing my profile picture to my beloved great-aunt and namesake, Anna Forbes Liddell. She is the beautiful, small woman waving, second from the right. No White man would rent them a car to pull their float. They borrowed a horse from a Black man.

Anna Forbes helped establish the Suffrage Movement in North Carolina, and was still fiercely fighting for women’s rights before the Florida Legislature in the 1970’s, raising her small, arthritic body out of her wheelchair to advocate for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

In 2016, I dreamed I saw her at the Democratic Convention.  But of course. She WAS there. As was every woman in that picture and every woman on every float in the county 100 years earlier.

Why did Anna Forbes work so hard, in the face of contempt, for the right to vote? Why did African Americans (and White Civil Rights advocates) die for the right to vote? You know the answer. Because it matters so much.
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And why did some White men work so hard to stop them from voting? Same reason.
So, it’s not enough for me to honor Anna Forbes by changing my profile picture.  I am dedicating this month to voter turnout and voting rights.  Please join me. I will be sharing information about voter turnout and fair elections throughout the month (and beyond). You can help by sharing information, too.