Let’s Talk About Voting
Give me a minute while I channel Her Majesty. Remember how the Queen, in her coronavirus speech earlier this year, did not ask anyone to do anything? She simply thanked those who were following the government rules to stay home. Much like Her Maj, I am not going to ask you to vote in November! I’m simply going to quote the brilliant title of my dear friend’s new book and say: Thank You for Voting!
Erin Geiger Smith has penned a nonpartisan look at the history of voting rights and a guide to how to encourage your friends and family to participate this fall. Buy it! Read it! Use it to be a better voter!
Erin and I go way back, and I was so excited to chat with her about why she wrote it, why we all need a voting plan and — obviously — the role of fashion in the Suffrage movement (my fave part, obviously). Check out our Q&A below, buy her book from your favorite indie bookstore, and share in the comments what your voting plan is for November.
Why did you want to write this book?
After 2016 there were so many questions about the election process itself -- what happens when the popular vote winner loses the Electoral College, what went wrong with polling, what part did misinformation play in voter turnout? I wanted to know more about all of that, but no matter how I thought about it, it all came down to voting. The power of people showing up!
Once I fully grasped how low voter turnout is in our country -- 61% in 2016 and under 50% for voters ages 18-29, I felt like we had to do better. The goal of the book is to help increase voter turnout by giving readers all tools they'll need to vote, and feel motivated and empowered while doing it. And if you're a vote-every-time type, there's a lot of info about how to make voting more accessible, and how to best encourage friends and colleagues to vote, too!
Why did you want to include the history of voting?
The fact that every of-age American gets a vote is something we're really proud of as Americans, but we don't spend enough time acknowledging how long it took those that weren't wealthy white men to get the right to vote. Even with the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage coming up in August, we need to acknowledge the huge asterisk: though the 19th constitutional amendment did give women the vote nationwide many black women in the South were still kept from the polls in a variety of ways until the Voting Rights Act in 1965. This is our truth, even though Black women were a huge part of the suffrage movement, fighting for the right to vote as they dealt with racism both inside and outside the movement.
We also too often gloss over current voter suppression, like the closing of polling places and voter roll purges, and understanding history hopefully tackle those problems. Even something that seems simple, like voter registration, has roots in keeping members of minority groups from voting. History has great stories, too -- there were so many amazing, tenacious, creative Americans who pushed and pushed and pushed until the country finally recognized their right to vote.
Did fashion play a role in the Suffrage movement?
It played a huge role! Near the end of the suffrage movement, the women organized huge parades and protests to make their cause more visible and force people to recognize the power in their numbers. They wanted to have a unified look as they marched, which is why pictures of suffrage parades (held from around 1910 to 1918) show a sea of white dresses. A really rich purple was another suffrage color. When I attended the opening of the suffrage exhibit at the Library of Congress earlier this year, all the speakers, including our current, brilliant "Librarian of Congress" wore purple.
Fashion also has a place in considering the full arc of the movement, from 1848 to 1920. At first, tight corsets and wide, floor-dragging skirts and dresses really hindered a woman's movement, and made long days of traveling by train and carriage truly painful. A famous suffrage cartoon called the huge skirts "a squelcher" for women's suffrage, depicting women as unable to fit in a voting booth. During a short period in the 1850s when suffrage champion Susan B. Anthony wore "bloomers" -- blousy pants that went down to her ankle, worn under a less restrictive dress or skirt -- she said she felt freer and better-suited to do work. But she got so much pushback for "hurting the movement" that she switched back. By the time the amendment passed in 1920, what we think of as midi-length skirts or dresses and an overall looser fit was the fashion. I visited another suffrage exhibit in Austin that displayed women's clothing throughout the 70 year fight to show that as women inched closer to increased rights, their clothes became less restrictive. I laughed when I realized I was dressed exactly like the ladies in a photo from the end of the movement -- a loose calf-length skirt, and a wide-brimmed hat to protect me from the Texas sun.
You talk about making a voting plan — tell me what one is, why we need one and how to do it.
Every voting advocate I interviewed, whether members of Michelle Obama's team, actress and activist Yara Shahidi, or a 25-year-old who drives around Pennsylvania helping high schoolers register to vote, stressed the importance of understanding the mechanics of voting. That includes knowing when you need to register, whether you can vote by-mail or vote early, and what ID you'll need. When you take a general statement like, "I plan to vote," and update it to, "I plan to vote early next Wednesday before work, and I know everything I need and what's on the ballot," you're just more likely to get it done! Vote411.org is a great resource that tells you all the rules and deadlines for your state. A few other Instagram accounts that will keep you entertained and up-to-date: @iamavoter, @eighteenx18, @leagueofwomenvoters.
I can't do anything without a checklist, so I put two in the back of the book. The first is a list (boxes to check included!) of everything you'll need to do 40, 30, and 10 days before an election, and then on election day. I have a page to jot down the handles of five friends you're going to help vote, too. Post a picture of it and tag them on social media. And tag me on Insta, too: @thankyouforvoting!
Thank You for Voting is out today from Harper Collins.