The following article summarizes the original event which is listed below the summary.
'A project for all of us'
Now more than ever, protecting the right and access to vote is “a project for all of us,” John Gordon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, told those attending the UMRA A.M. forum on June 8.
The ACLU has long had a Voting Rights Project, but it was directed to limited areas of the country where voting rights were threatened. Today, efforts to limit voting are everywhere. And with the situation at the local, state, and federal levels changing daily and hourly, “We are in the thick of it,” Gordon said.
Voting is “one of the of the most basic rights in our democracy,” Gordon said, and many of us have taken access to the vote for granted. He described five current forms of voter suppression being pushed in legislatures all over the country. Many of these measures disproportionately affect citizens of color:
- Making voting more expensive and inconvenient
- Imposing voter I.D. requirements that don’t help voting integrity but disproportionately affect low income and disabled voters
- Limiting early voting and registration
- Purging names from the voting rolls of people who have not voted in recent elections
- Disenfranchising people with felonies on their records
- Partisan gerrymandering
Due to felony disenfranchisement alone (in 48 of 50 states), five to six million Americans do not have the right to vote. In Minnesota, an ACLU case on this issue headed to the Minnesota Supreme Court is Schroeder et al. v. Minnesota Secretary of State.
Proposed legislation in Congress to sustain and restore voting rights include the For the People Act (H.R. 1 and S. 1), a broad voter protection effort that also addresses gerrymandering, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act (H.R. 4), which is narrower but would effectively undo the Shelby County v. Holder decision that eviscerated the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Both bills were in play at the time of this writing.
A menu for change
The ACLU does its work related to voting rights through litigation, legislative advocacy, and volunteer activism. Gordon recommended a nine-point “Menu for Change” that included such basic steps as imposing minimum standards across the thousands of jurisdictions that supervise voting, registering citizens to vote automatically, and making Election Day registration available in every state (Minnesota and 20 others have this already).
Other recommendations, more complicated perhaps to accomplish, include fixing or eliminating the Electoral College; granting statehood for the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, where millions of citizens do not have full voting rights; and ending partisan gerrymandering, in which legislators of the party in power at the time of the decennial redistricting get to pick their voters instead of the other way around.
As for actions we can all take as citizens, “keep the fires lit under your elected representatives,” Gordon said. Even though things go relatively well here in Minnesota, make sure your elected officials know how important voting rights are to you.
—Jan Morlock, UMRA president-elect and Program Committee chair
Voter suppression—we need to talk
Tue, June 8 2021, 9am
John Gordon
Executive Director
ACLU of Minnesota
Event to be held via Zoom.
Access to absentee voting and to the polls on Election Day was much in the news during the pandemic, leading up to last November’s general election. Since the election, misinformation about the integrity of the vote has become a pretext for changes in numerous states that will limit access to the vote, in many cases eroding the protections of the Voting Rights Act that was hard-fought in 1965. What do we have to lose if we don’t preserve these rights? What tools do we have to protect them?
Under the leadership of John Gordon, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota has brought its skills to bear to reduce voter intimidation, to make voting safer during the pandemic, to ensure those who need help at the polls will get it from the person of their choosing, and to protect the victories made since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The ACLU of Minnesota is also engaged with a campaign to restore the voting rights of 53,000 Minnesotans who are serving felony probation but are not in jail or prison.
UMRA Summer Programs 2021
Would you like to stay in touch over the summer? The UMRA Program Committee will offer an all-member program each month during June, July, and August. Watch for an email invitation for our program in July, and hold the date of Tuesday, August 17, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., for an outdoor, in-person summer social. Details to follow.
As executive director of the ACLU of Minnesota, Gordon is responsible for achieving the organization’s mission to promote, protect, and extend the civil liberties of people in Minnesota.
Before joining the ACLU of Minnesota, Gordon practiced civil litigation with the law firm of Faegre Baker Daniels in Minneapolis, representing a variety of clients in trials and other contested matters. He has represented students harassed because of their sexual orientation, victims of domestic violence, and immigrants seeking asylum.
Gordon has also been a mediator and an adjunct professor of law at the University of Minnesota and the University of St. Thomas. He received a B.A. from Princeton University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Please register to join John Gordon for our June forum via Zoom. We look forward to seeing you at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, June 8.
—Jan Morlock, UMRA president-elect and Program Committee chair
Upcoming Events
Our July 15 "hike" is going to be a kayaking adventure on Bde Maka Ska (formerly Lake Calhoun) and Lake of the Isles! If you don't have a kayak (or paddleboard), Wheel Fun Rentals, located next to the new concession stand rents single kayaks at $15 an hour and double kayaks at $25. The second hour is free if we rent before noon. Life jackets are provided with the rental.
Laura Ericksen will lead the discussion of How Stella Learned to Talk by Christina Hunger, a true story by a speech-language pathologist who taught her dog, Stella, to communicate using buttons associated with different words.
Our August 5 hike will be a reprise of our hike last summer at William O'Brien State Park. This is a beautiful park with a winding trail and a great view of the countryside. The hike is about 5.5 to 6 miles and we'll go at a moderate pace with frequent water breaks. After the hike, we will eat lunch at Rustic Roots Winery, a half mile north of the park.
Kathy Cramer will lead the discussion of The Bookbinder by Pip Williams, a book set in 1914 Oxford chronicling the life of Peggy who works in the University bindery, but craves a life beyond binding books but to being a scholar herself.
Enjoy a two-hour cruise on the Jonathan Padelford, leaving from the Harriet Island dock in St. Paul, boarding time at 5:30 p.m. We will have a brief program on board by Patrick Nunnally from the River Life Program of the Institute on the Environment.
August 31 is the due date for annual reports and updates. Annual Reports, Toolkits, web page updates, operating document updates and archives collections are all due each year on this date.
Autumn is a wonderful season in Minnesota so plan to join UMRA at the Andersen Horticultural Library at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Kristen Mastel, head librarian and curator, will reveal its treasure trove of publications and artifacts relating to plant history, horticulture, and natural history. After the tour, those who are interested may stay to eat lunch together, sitting outside if the weather is nice. Later, you are invited to a one-hour tram tour of the entire Arboretum that includes natural areas of flowering shrubs, bogs, and forests, family garden and landscaping showpieces, and the red barn farm
After a summer break the UMRA Photo Club will next meet September 10, 2024 in the meeting room of the Hennepin County St. Anthony Branch Library. For those interested in lunch, meet at the Great Dragon at 11:30 am. For September the THEME will be Curves
We will continue to discuss the pros and cons of Medicare Advantage. You will also hear about notable non-health plan and non-broker resources.