Elections Have Consequences. Always Cast Your Vote.
The election season is winding down, but you wouldn’t know it given the sheer volume of texts, ads, and mailers flooding your daily life. As I write this, there are 20 days left till Election Day on Tuesday, November 5. By the time you read it, there will be about one week left.
Have you turned your ballot in yet? Mine is on my desk. I’m planning to walk my 15-year-old through it and show her how to vote. More importantly, it’ll serve as a conversation piece about why we vote.
Voting is perhaps the most taken-for-granted aspect of American life. Too often, I have heard a disenchanted person say they might not vote at all given the choices. That attitude dismisses the significance of voting and the journey of struggle and sacrifice that accompanies our history. It’s a right and privilege we ought to regard as sacred. And it wasn’t always open to all of us.
In fact, from the beginning of our democracy, voting was a right reserved mostly for well-off landowners. It wasn’t until the 15th Amendment in 1870 that black men gained the right to vote, although barriers were put in place to prevent them from exercising that right. For decades after the amendment was passed, black men were confronted with literacy tests and poll taxes that effectively disenfranchised them. Women, too, faced a long and arduous path to the vote; the 19th Amendment finally ensured them their right in 1920, but only after years of tireless activism and protest.
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s would be the next pivotal moment in the fight for voting rights. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed to eliminate racial discrimination in voting, allowing countless citizens to exercise their democratic rights for the first time. Yet, even today, voting rights remain a contentious issue, with various laws and regulations threatening to suppress the votes of marginalized communities. Just over 10 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court gutted a key component of the Voting Rights Act, and since then, we’ve seen more than 100 new laws created that directly and deliberately limit a person’s ability to cast a ballot.
For members of the trades, participating in an election is not only key to upholding hard-won rights. It’s also essential to influencing policies that affect our livelihoods, be it affordable housing, transit development, or public infrastructure investment. Elections impact not just our jobs but the fabric of the City itself.
Moreover, voting is a powerful act of solidarity. It sends a message that building trades workers are united in their commitment to creating a better future. When we show up at the polls, we demonstrate our collective power and remind policymakers that our voices matter. In an era where corporate interests often overshadow the needs of working people, this solidarity is more important than ever.
This council has stood up time and again to pass pro-worker legislation, entitle projects with strong labor protections, and hold accountable those politicians who attack workers’ rights. Please don’t take for granted that we have an election and that your voice matters. I hope you take the recommendations of the council with you to the voting booth (see page 14), but either way, don’t give up your voice. Go vote!
Click here to learn more about voting history.