Diverse voices and the vote

November 4, 2024 Sigrid Peterson Leave a Comment

In the midst of an election, particularly a general election where the American presidency is on the ballot, our nation reflects on the democratic process that powers our federalist system of governance. While today, voter eligibility has relatively straightforward and accessible requirements, historically access to the franchise was anything but equal. For gender minorities, Black Americans, members of our First Nations, people with disabilities and many marginalized people, the right to vote has been codified only through difficult, sometimes violent political struggle.

Beyond the basic right to vote, how individual U.S. states administer elections — from the voter registration process, to absentee voting parameters, to the availability of early voting, the use and location of ballot drop boxes, the number of polling sites, the accessibility of those sites and how elections and ballot counts are monitored — determines the extent to which elections are considered fair and free, and for whom. Historians, political scientists and sociologists show evidence that certain changes to state election administration have placed disproportionate barriers to voting on BIPOC and marginalized communities.

Moreover, gender and racial ethnic identity groups are courted by candidates and defined by election statisticians in groups, sometimes designated as “crucial voting blocks” to win over at the ballot box. This type of categorization can have the effect of obscuring the complexity and diversity of these communities who hold varying ideological beliefs which determine who they want to represent them in government.

During this week of another historical presidential election, PBS Wisconsin invites you explore the intersection of voting rights and identity with national and local selections from our Diverse Voices collections.

Who Has the Right to Vote in Your State? | Roots of Resistance

Root of Resistance, a new series from PBS Digital Studios, devotes their most recent episode to unpacking the enduring question: Is voting a privilege or a fundamental right? Host Felicia for the Win shares the legacy of disenfranchisement in America and the ongoing struggle for voting rights, particularly for those with a felony conviction.

The Fight Against Voter Supression (A Brief History) | FRONTLINE Short Docs

FRONTLINE Short Docs offers further context, giving us a graphic visual journey through a brief history of voting rights in America, in particular the impact voter disenfranchisement has had on Black voters. The doc goes inside the fight over the right to vote, explores how the roots of voter suppression trace back to post-Civil War America and examines what’s happening today.

Kit Kerschensteiner on Absentee Voting by Disabled People | PBS Wisconsin News

People with diverse disabilities in America have had to struggle for a range of voting rights across our nation’s history. Today, they continue ongoing efforts to demand that voting be more accessible. PBS Wisconsin’s Here & Now team hosted Kit Kerschensteiner, director of Disability Rights Wisconsin, to discuss a recent court ruling that allows absentee ballots be emailed to disabled voters for the 2024 election. Kerschensteiner also elaborates on how much further election administrators need to go to render Wisconsin elections broadly accessible.

An in-depth piece from our partners at Wisconsin Watch, published last April, provides context for the Here & Now interview, reporting on the details of the lawsuit filed in Dane County seeking accommodations for electronic voting.

The issues voters with disabilities want to see addressed | PBS News Hour

Two days before the November 2024 election, PBS News Hour reports on feelings of exclusion held by disabled communities around voting, access, and the representation of their needs in government. A reporter from PBS Austin profiles how one group is boosting accessibility and visibility for disabled voters.

Four key issues for Native voters this election | PBS News Hour Shorts

Native Americans in the U.S. were not granted citizenship until 1924, four years after the ratification of the 19th Amendment granting the franchise to white women and some women of color. It would take another four decades before every U.S. state would recognize their voting rights.

Native voters persist in ongoing struggle to ensure their voices are heard in the halls of representative democracy. This PBS News Hour short features political correspondent Pauly Denetclaw outlining four key issues for Native voters this election cycle. In a companion short, Denetclaw outlines what she’ll be watching for on Election Day on behalf of the Indigenous electorate.

Wisconsin Women Vote | PBS Wisconsin Documentaries

The campaign for women’s voting rights at the national level began in July 1848 when suffragists convened in Seneca Falls, New York. Considered one of the largest reform movements in U.S. history, the struggle for women’s suffrage would last more than seven decades, leading to the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution and its successful ratification by the states on Aug. 18, 1920. U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on Aug. 26, 1920.

Wisconsin played a pivotal role in this movement as the first state to officially ratify the 19th Amendment on June 10, 1919.

In the summer of 2020, PBS Wisconsin joined the nation in commemorating the centennial of this landmark moment — emphasizing its complexity, contradictions and connections to historical and contemporary struggles for voting rights, equal rights, Indigenous rights, civil rights, free and fair elections, and the diverse representation of women and gender nonconforming people at all levels of government.

We curated the Wisconsin Women Vote special into a special collection of resources to honor the occasion in tandem with the two-part documentary The Vote from American Experience produced for the centennial (watch with PBS Passport).

***

We hope these selections remind us all to reflect historically and critically about voting and representation in America. Learn more from our PBS Wisconsin Voices collections and follow Wisconsin Vote during this historic election.

Women's voting rights BIPOC voting rights disabled voters voters with disabilities PBS Wisconsin Voices voting rights Native American voting rights Black voting rights