By Erica and Karen

We were moved by Norman Lear’s essay about his (long) perspective regarding voting rights. He speaks about the Black and Brown men who saved his life in World War II, about his distress at their treatment after they returned home—and about his great distress today that their right to vote is under attack.  

By the time we became lawyers, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, had been in effect for nearly a decade. We did not think much about voting rights, because we assumed it was generally accepted that the fight for the right of any American citizen to vote had been won. (For women—white women, at least—the fight had been won earlier, after an intense battle.) 

As lawyers, we came to understand that the right to vote—and the exercise of that right—were foundational to democracy. We had been and continue to be active participants in many campaigns, often passionate about our candidates. Sometimes they win. Exhilarating. Sometimes they lose. Crushing. But we never conclude that democracy has failed if our candidate does not win. Sometimes we are concerned by how low the turnout is. We think voting is not only a right, but also an obligation. But we accept outcomes.

Our candidate lost in the 2016 election, but the voters spoke and we accepted their verdict. Our (ultimate) candidate won in 2020, participation was high and we were pleased with the verdict.

In both elections, democracy worked.

Now voting rights are under attack. Like Mr. Lear, we are taken aback. How did we get to a place where some American citizens don’t want to let other American citizens exercise their most fundamental citizenship right? There is broad bipartisan agreement that fraud has not been a factor in recent elections, so why come up with burdensome new rules that prevent working people from voting? Why seek rules that would overturn the vote of the people and allow a small group of officials to determine the outcome? What could be less democratic?

Let’s not go there. We are patriots. We love our country. We love our democracy. We want to keep it strong. Undermining any citizen’s right to vote is wrong.

We vote to protect the vote.