Blog Post 2

Tami Sawyer The Present Vote

            

             During the discussion with Tami Sawyer on voter suppression, many aspects of the approaching election were discussed. She specifically spoke about the different ways in which the black vote was being silenced in the current elections. One aspect of voter registration that was discussed was the recent purge of registered voters. Many people were going to the poles to find out that they were not registered to vote. Recently, the government has been purging the system of certain people. For example, if you had not voted in a recent election, then you were not registered now. Another aspect of voter eligibility that was discussed was criminal eligibility.

            There was a case in which a criminal asked if he could vote before he was sentenced. This trail brought up questions regarding voting rights for those going and returning from prison. In the past, many have thought that those who were convicted felons forfeited their rights to participate in societal activities, such as voting, by committing felonies. Ms. Sawyer then spoke about the importance of educating the public about voter’s rights. Education on voter’s rights gives insight on legislation and the processes as how to change legislation. Education also allows to for society to understand the processes of the election. A lot of the election is statistics being shot up on a screen with red and blue flashing everywhere. Terms like “turn-out rate” and “battle ground states” are thrown around and people are expected to know what they mean. As the discussion progressed, the topic steered towards battle ground states and their importance in the election.

She explained battle ground states as those where the votes are perennially close during early voting. During this election, battle ground states were especially important, more so than in the past. There were more states where the outcome was uncertain due to a number of factors. For one, the candidates past drama and fame affected these states. The most notable was Texas. Texas is said to be going through a transitional period because it is majority minority. It is states like Texas that have caused the outcome of the election to become more questionable. This talk centered a lot around the lack of knowledge about the current election. Many people were unaware of the effect of statistics in the election. The truth is, those statistics cannot be explained without education, which is deprived of the black community because of imprisonment and lack of resources.