Electoral Access Quotes

When I was growing up in rural Alabama, it was impossible for me to register to vote. I didn't become a registered voter until I moved to Tennessee, to Nashville, as a student.

To make it hard, to make it difficult almost impossible for people to cast a vote is not in keeping with the democratic process.

Our ability to participate in government, to elect our leaders and to improve our lives is contingent upon our ability to access the ballot. We know in our heart of hearts that voting is a sacred right - the fount from which all other rights flow.

I would like the Supreme Court to understand that voting rights are still a big problem in many parts of our country [America], that we don't always do everything we can to make it possible for people of color and older people and young people to be able to exercise their franchise.

I don't think everyone should vote. If you have to be dragged into the polls, carried into the polls and smelling salts have to be used, you probably shouldn't be voting. However, we shouldn't be putting up barriers to voting that target certain groups.

As an organizer in the most underrepresented communities in my state, I have felt the frustration that so many voters must feel when other states limit polling locations, require photo IDs, and put unnecessary barriers in front of voters.

They talked about how it was our rights as human beings to register and vote. I never knew we could vote before. Nobody ever told us.

We must continue to have voting rights in the state, not to politicize this, but they must have a voice in the rebuilding effort in the community from which they have been displaced.

Particularly in the South, efforts continue to be made to deny blacks access to the polls, even where blacks constitute the majority of the voters.

I just think it's really important that we don't put people in a position where they're trying to decide between their health and wellbeing and their fundamental right to vote.