Arnwine calls on blacks to fight for further election reform
The Wilmington Journal reports: With Tuesday’s heated election now history, activists across the nation say it will take much more than new standardized voting machines to increase the confidence of African-Americans in the electoral process.
“The number one thing that African-Americans are going to have to start doing is exercising voter vigilance,” says Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, the organization that founded and initiated the “Election Protection” program after the botched Election 2000. “We have to demand of the very candidate that we support, ‘What are you going to do about electoral reform? Where are you on early voting? Where are you on registration? Where are you going to be on getting rid of the ‘you gotta vote at the right precinct’ laws, knowing that that’s going to disenfranchise thousands and thousands of voters?’”
Increasing the level of activism that holds politicians accountable to the Black community will engender the confidence needed beyond Election Day to force lasting change – not only in elections – but in America’s democratic process, says Arnwine, “Since people fear our particular political dynamic so much, the only anecdote is for African-American voters being as vigilant as they can be,” she says. “We’ve got to become the number one voice in the fight for election reform.” -- The Wilmington Journal - Article - more national