#SayHerName... It's Time to Vote Ya'll

National Voter Registration Day is one of my favorite days of the calendar year. In the time between the 2018 midterm election and these fraught moments leading up to the 2020 election, I have been getting more prepared and even more excited about casting my ballot and making change. There are tons of obstacles ahead but I’m ready. I mean, 20 years ago I voted for the first time in a purple state during the Bush v. Gore election. No AP Gov or AP Comparative Political Systems course could have taught me what I actually learned by participating in that election at 18 years old. In that moment, I was introduced to the intricacies of voter suppression, the confusing importance of the electoral college, and the role that the Supreme Court plays in moments of intense election drama. 

This week however, as the sun set on National Voter Registration Day, we all learned that Breonna Taylor’s assailants were charged with a class D felony and not her murder. When I heard the verdict, I cried inconsolably alone into my iPhone screen. Breonna Taylor could be me, a child, a sister, a mother, a cousin, an aunt, a friend. Her unfortunate death means that yet again, the systems that we pay taxes into can fail miserably and produce devastatingly disappointing results which echo messages from the pre-Civil Rights era. 

Many of us fighting racism in our own microcosms -protesting in streets and town squares, in meetings with school boards, or within the organizations we work- we know that this is exhausting, labor intensive work. And before the verdict, I could see how the light that was burning so brightly during the summer was beginning to fade. But we can’t give up. We can’t throw away the whole thing even when it hurts so bad. We have to see the large and small opportunities to make change. We can’t be discouraged. We can’t discourage others. 

​Breonna Taylor’s verdict proved just how important it is for us to vote. To be informed voters. To be anti-racist voters. In this podcast episode, my daughters and I discuss how informed voting can be an act of anti-racism. We discuss how important it is for eligible voters to show up and take their vote seriously and hold their elected officials accountable. 

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