Citizens who cannot vote need their voices heard

Column by Joe Gallenstein

This year, we saw a triumph of democracy, as not only did the number of new voters surge, but we also saw many people voting for the first time. We saw people all across the country celebrate democracy, join together and make their voices heard. A majority of Americans came together and handed to our public figures a mandate of change saying that it is time we, again, honored the hardworking men and women of this country, and not forget their interests. It is time that we followed through on that promise, the promise that this is a country by, for and of the people.

Yet during this election there were over 186,000 people in Kentucky alone who are U.S. citizens and could not make their voices heard. More than 100,000 people in this state who pay taxes, send their children to school, go to work or attend classes right next to the rest of us, are continually being told that this process is not for them. That their voice is not needed, and that their opinions are not valued.

An interesting fact to note is who this law affects the most—the least privileged of our state. One in every four African Americans who are of voting age are denied the right to vote in this state, according to the League of Women Voters. This is especially the case in the poorer communities, a fact that transcends race. I am not saying this part of our constitution was racially or economically designed, but what I am saying is it has demonstrated that it disproportionately denies the voices of those who already feel their voices strained. When looking at others who have lost their voting rights, we see again and again that they are the poorer among us.

Of course talking about an impoverished minority does not necessarily bring the point home. Sometimes it takes going up to the door of a family in a place like Carlisle, Ky., a very white, small Kentucky town in the central part of the state, and you knock on the door of a middle-class couple, only to find the lady of the house is not allowed to vote in the state of Kentucky. Or, perhaps, visiting in Maysville, Ky., where a lady invites you into her home to talk about how her son or grandson has lost his right to vote. Or, you are doing a week-long voter registration drive on campus, and every day another student informs you, ashamed, that they do not have the right to vote because of a mistake they have made in their past.

Those who oppose the practice of denying voting rights to former felons would not do so if they met the people I have met in these communities. If they had the chance to speak with a woman like Tayna Fogle, a former UK student, who, herself, lost her right to vote. However, with the strength of her faith, her friends and her own tenacity, she eventually was able to receive her voting rights back.

What is most striking about her struggle is the emphasis she puts on her son and grandchildren. After watching her rights being taken away, and watching how she had to go through the system again and again, her son lost faith in the democratic process. Over four years after the first time she got her right to vote back (a paper mix-up forced her to re-apply in 2005, and another mix-up forced her to resubmit her work), she finally convinced her son to vote in his first election this year. For her and her family, this election was an especially important one.

This election was a defining point in our history, and in January legislatures in both Frankfort and Washington, D.C., will begin to act on the mandate sent on Nov. 4. With any luck, our legislature in Frankfort will realize that the right to vote is too important to be infringed. They will realize that it is the basic foundation on which our society is built, and that any affront to it is an affront to this democracy we cherish. This was a great year for our nation because of the great turnout we saw all across the nation. We have the opportunity to make 2009 a great one for our Commonwealth by restoring the voices to 186,000 individuals who desperately desire to make their voices heard.