It’s Citizenship Day, so it’s a great time not just to celebrate the rewards and responsibilities of American citizenship, but to make sure you have access to one of the most important ones — the franchise.
Why? Because mass purges are the new voter suppression.
Because of that, a great thing to do today is check on your right to go to the polls in November, in what (and we realize you may have heard this before, but it bears repeating) is likely to be the most consequential election of your lifetime.
Maybe you live in a state where election deniers are already involved in the administration of the voting process. Maybe you live in one in which they’re trying to get involved (you can check Replacing the Refs to find out what the situation is like where you live). Either way, you should move to ensure your rights are safe. And frankly, even if you don’t live in a state where you’re directly affected by electoral machinations, you should read up on the growing movement to restrict people’s basic freedoms (yep, another move to restrict people’s basic freedoms).
The threat to voting is very real, as Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told us last week. There are dedicated people out there like Sec. Benson working to make sure everyone can vote as they’re entitled to (If you missed that one, just click below to read all about it), but you can do your part to check on any obstacles in your way.
For now, we encourage you to go check your voter status. Take a minute and visit Can I Vote, a lookup service provided by the National Association of Secretaries of State. There you’ll find a tool that links out to voter roll searches in every state, and if you find something amiss, you’ll find links to local election officials, absentee voter services, and more so you can do something to correct it. You can also use the tool at Vote.org, which requires a little more data from you but lets you check your status regardless of the state you live in with a single step.
Whichever you prefer, we’re only a couple of months out, so take a few minutes to check, fellow citizens!
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Photo by Wendy Maeda/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
This post was originally published on The.Ink.