CLICK the link for the voting toolkit from the ACLU, download it to your phone if you think you are going to need it. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS, do not leave without voting, call the ACLU first. The article from the Washington Post shows why every voter needs to be ready to fight to vote!!!!!
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However you're feeling about Tuesday, I'm here to provide a few assurances about our free and fair elections – and the work the ACLU is doing right now to protect your rights as you head to the polls. I'm Molly, Director of National Campaigns with the ACLU's National Political Advocacy Department. My work centers around ensuring voters across the country are informed and able to cast their ballots, that those votes are counted, and that voting maps and laws are fair and equitable. With Election Day just four days away, I'm helping every voter know your voting rights through our toolkit you can check out now. You may already know that we might not have all of the results on Election Night. And that's okay. Some of the states where close margins are projected do not even start to process mail ballots until Election Day. So this all just means that our election officials are doing their job by making sure every single vote is counted. And no matter what happens on Election Night and the following days, the ACLU's lawyers, advocates, and organizers are ready: ready to protect your rights, and ready to protect a free and fair election. There's only one thing we're not ready to do: back down. We have been scaling up our work to ensure votes are counted and certified, and the will of the people prevails. We are prepared for every turn and procedure in the post-election period, from the county level to Congress. Our legal and advocacy experts are on the ground to ensure each voter's fundamental rights are safeguarded. And our teams have been monitoring the situation across the country to help ensure that everyone is able to cast their ballot free from voter suppression or intimidation. We are here and doing our jobs, so voters can vote. Here's that toolkit again:
I know how nerve-racking election season can be. So please vote and take care of yourself – and, with your support, know that the ACLU is equipped to take on the rest. Together, Molly Mcgrath | ||||
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A Virginia principle went to vote. She was asked whether she was a citizen. |
She said she was. The worker then asked whether Burrell-Aldana had proof of citizenship in her purse, she recalled.
“Who asks that question? I was like, ‘Why would I carry that with me?’” Burrell-Aldana said.
Burrell-Aldana, who immigrated from Colombia in 2002 and became a U.S. citizen in 2011, hadn’t been asked such questions when she voted in three previous presidential elections, and said the political climate seems to have given license for people to ask.
The incident played out as Donald Trump and many Republicans have falsely claimed that waves of noncitizens are voting, stoking fears. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has embraced the issue, pushing for a daily scrub of voter rolls. Voting rights activists throughout the country, meanwhile, are worried that this rhetoric will lead to eligible voters being harassed or afraid to cast their ballots.
It is a violation of Virginia law for a poll worker “to require or even to ask a voter to provide anything more than” a form of identification when they check in to vote, said Ryan Snow, a voting rights attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
It is a violation of Virginia law for a poll worker “to require or even to ask a voter to provide anything more than” a form of identification when they check in to vote, said Ryan Snow, a voting rights attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
On Saturday, elections officials in North Carolina felt compelled to issue basic reassurances about who is allowed to vote. “It does not matter if you were born a U.S. citizen or were naturalized or acquired citizenship. And it does not matter if you are a citizen, but your family members are not. Citizenship is citizenship, and it pertains to you,” according to the statement.
Attempts by noncitizens to vote are extremely rare. An audit by Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, released last month, showed 20 noncitizens were registered to vote — out of 8.2 million citizens on the state’s voter rolls.
Snow said rhetoric to the contrary is dangerous because it can lead to incidents such as the one in Virginia, or worse. “It ends up being a barrier to voting,” Snow said.
Burrell-Aldana, in considering why her citizenship was questioned this year and not in past years, noted an environment where demeaning jokes about Latinos and others seem to be thrown around easily — as they were at a recent Trump rally at Madison Square Garden.
“I do look like a Latina and I sound like a Latina,” Burrell-Aldana said. “I think that was the reason why.”
Whatever the reason, officials at Fairfax County’s Office of Elections said the poll worker at the Franconia Governmental Center has been removed.
The worker “acted unilaterally and in violation of check-in procedures by improperly questioning a voter’s citizenship,” the Office of Elections said in a statement in response to questions from The Washington Post.
Such actions violated the training given to workers, according to the statement, “and we find any deviation from these standards unacceptable. Effective immediately, the election officer will no longer serve in this election.”
Burrell-Aldana said the poll worker pointed to a “restriction” noted on her driver’s license as a basis for the questioning, but a poll manager turned the license over to establish that the restriction concerned the need to wear corrective lenses at night. After the manager intervened, Burrell-Aldana was allowed to vote.
According to the Virginia Department of Elections, acceptable forms of identification, among others, include current or expired Virginia driver’s licenses, employee or student IDs with a photograph, or current utility bills or bank statements.
If a voter forgets identification, they can sign a statement affirming their identity and vote with a regular ballot, according to the department.
A spokeswoman for the department, Andrea M. Gaines, said she could not comment on the incident with Burrell-Aldana but said Virginia law directs election officers to ask voters for their full name and current address and to provide a form of identification.
Under state code, Gaines added, “any qualified voter may, and the officers of election shall, challenge the vote of any person who is listed on the pollbook but is known or suspected not to be a qualified voter.”
Burrell-Aldana was named The Post’s 2023 Principal of the Year for her work in Alexandria and now heads Arlington County’s Claremont Immersion Elementary School.
Burrell-Aldana said her partner, Brandon Broughman, who served in the Air Force for 30 years, was silent as they drove from the polling place after hearing what happened. He soon turned around and insisted they lodge a complaint with a site manager.
“That’s the beauty of becoming a citizen, that you get to vote,” Burrell-Aldana said. “That’s your responsibility. You owe it to the country and you owe it to yourself.”
She worried a newer voter could have given up or had their vote influenced in the same situation. Running into such behavior even in Northern Virginia, a place characterized by its diversity, also made her concerned about what might be happening elsewhere in the commonwealth, she said.
But being singled out also strengthened her sense of duty, she said.
“It’s hard to see that and to hear it and to experience it,” she said. Now, she added, “I appreciate it even more. … I’m going to tell every immigrant, every child who was born here, we have to vote.”
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