Profs and Pints DC presents: “The Long Fight Over Voting Rights,” on today’s battles over political representation as part of a persistent struggle, with Jatia Wrighten, assistant professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University.
We often talk about election disputes as if they began only recently. The reality is that this nation’s fight over who gets to vote did not start yesterday and surely will not end with Donald Trump.
Learn how what feels like a modern crisis is actually a recurring theme of American history, and how the past offers lessons for the present and future, with political scientist Jatia Wrighten, a scholar of minority political representation.
You’ll learn how our nation has long been bitterly divided over questions related to who gets a voice in our government and how easy it should be to vote.
We’ll go back in time to the Reconstruction period after the Civil War, when the country engaged in debates over who counted as citizens and who had the right to vote. You’ll learn how during the Gilded Age of the late 1800s Americans were deeply concerned about the influence of big money, media, and corrupt political machines in elections. In the more recent past, we’ll look at how Black people fought for access to the ballot during the Civil Rights Movement.
To help you better understand what’s at stake in today’s debates, Dr. Wrighten will discuss how major shifts in political power can come about quietly through minor tweaks in the “machinery” of elections, including the rules governing voter registration, identification requirements, mail-in ballot management, and polling place locations. Gerrymandering—the practice of redrawing political maps to give one party an unfair advantage—also can have a huge impact.
This machinery is constantly being adjusted, influencing who finds it easy to vote and who faces significant challenges. Small tweaks in the rules brought about by politicians or the courts can change the outcome of an entire election before anyone even casts a ballot.
You’ll emerge from this talk better equipped to protect your vote by weighing in when the rules are debated. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: A December 2011 voting rights protest in New York. Photo by Michael Fleshman / Creative Commons.