Click here to add your name:I was raised in the first housing projects in Cleveland, and went on to serve our country in WWII, and then as the first African American elected to Congress from Ohio. I was afforded those opportunities because my mother had left the south years earlier in search of a better life, and found it as a domestic worker making $8 a day.We both witnessed the punishing struggle for equal rights, but I’ve lived the political and economic mobility of its success.
Neither would have been possible without Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who I first met in 1965. He was traveling around Cleveland registering voters from the back of a flatbed truck. He’d say that we must vote, because Southern blacks couldn’t. And fresh in our minds was the memory of the three boys killed for registering voters in Mississippi the year before.
So we registered voters, and we voted ourselves – and eventually, America passed the Voting Rights Act. Ever since, Dr. King’s long walk has resulted in expanded access to the ballot box and empowered citizens with a say in their future. That’s how each generation has bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice.
Today, Governor Kasich is restricting the vote – and the ability of Ohio’s citizens to make their voices heard. Once again, we need to make our voices heard: Join me and Ed and tell Governor Kasich that the right to vote deserves to be protected, not restricted.http://www.edfitzgeraldforohio.com/...
In 2012, 59,000 Ohioans voted during the Golden Week that Governor Kasich is eliminating, and 1.3 million voted absentee. With the swipe of Kasich’s pen, those absentee votes now face an uncertain and unnecessary hurdle.
Ohio’s Republican leaders are unraveling decades of progress expanding the vote. Stand with me – and Ed – and let’s fight to ensure every Ohioan has the right to vote without restriction:http://www.edfitzgeraldforohio.com/...
United together,
Louis Stokes
Former United States Congressman
Cleveland, Ohio
http://www.edfitzgeraldforohio.com/...
P.S. FitzGerald is not only calling out Kasich, he's introducing legislation to challenge his new voting rules:
If you want to get involved or donate to FitzGerald's campaign, you can do so here:Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald announced Thursday morning that he will introduce legislation directing the county to mail absentee ballot applications to all registered county voters, in a direct defiance of a recently-passed state law.FitzGerald, a Democrat who is running for governor, also said he would propose amending the county’s governing charter to make “voter protection and the promotion of access to the ballot” a core function of county government. Such a change would require approval from eight of county council's 11 members, as well as county voters in November.
The actions are a response to recent bills, passed by Republican state legislators and signed by Republican Gov. John Kasich last week, that reduce the number of days when voters can vote early at board of elections offices, and forbid counties from mailing out unsolicited absentee ballot applications.
FitzGerald also said the county’s law department is researching suing over a decision from Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted earlier this week to end in-person, early voting the Sunday before the November 2014 election.
Ed FitzGerald on voting changes Cuyahoga County Ed FitzGerald discusses why he plans to challenge recent changes in state voting laws.“This is a blatant and transparent attempt to make it more difficult, especially for lower and middle-income families, to vote,” FitzGerald said at a Thursday morning news conference outside the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections that was also attended by, among others, State Sen. Nina Turner, a Cleveland Democrat who is challenging Husted for Secretary of State, and Marsha Mockabee, president of the Urban League of Greater Cleveland. - Northeast Ohio Media Group, 2/27/14
