All Americans, 18 and over, have the Constitutional rights to vote in our elections. Here are the Amendments that define our voting rights.

• AMENDMENT XV – Passed by Congress February 26, 1869. Ratified February 3, 1870.
  • Section 1.
    • The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude–
  • Section 2.
    • The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
• AMENDMENT XIX – Passed by Congress June 4, 1919. Ratified August 18, 1920.
  • Section 1.
    • The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
  • Section 2.
    • Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation
• AMENDMENT XXIV – Passed by Congress August 27, 1962. Ratified January 23, 1964.
  • Section 1.
    • The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax.
  • Section 2.
    • The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

• AMENDMENT XXVI – Passed by Congress March 23, 1971. Ratified July 1, 1971.
• Note: Amendment 14, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by section 1 of the 26th amendment.
  • Section 1.
    • The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.
  • Section 2.
    • The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/education/all_amendments_usconst.htm

Throughout the country we are facing challenges about the November 2020 election (still) with 1/3 of Americans (https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/21/politics/biden-voter-fraud-big-lie-monmouth-poll/index.html) and 2/3 of republicans under the belief of the “big lie” that the election was stolen (not believing the 7 million votes that President Biden had over former President Trump) (https://www.prri.org/spotlight/the-big-lie-most-republicans-believe-the-2020-election-was-stolen/). Republican held state legislatures are working to do all they can to make it more difficult for everyone who is eligible to vote to do just that… VOTE. The republican legislatures across the country are continuing to cast doubt about the legitimacy of the 2020 elections and the process that we go through to elect out officials (except the very same elections that gave them their seats of power).

There are NO OFF YEARS! We must, as Americans, work together to make sure that ALL AMERICANS WHO ARE ELIGIBLE to vote have the easiest way possible to get out their vote.

The works confronting voter suppression each illustrate the rise of all (minorities as the exemplar – this is who the GOP is pushing down with the new Jim Crow approach to the legislation) over the efforts of those in power to suppress those rights. The quilt and the multicultural lines that run throughout and off of the handmade Gee’s Bend (and the history of quilting from the days of the earliest quilts) inspired quilt, represent all those who are being suppressed (or are at the least being attempted to be suppressed). The rough topped red, white, and blue topped block, wrapped in the Constitutional Amendments support the quilt but the rough surface also separates the quilt from the Constitution. The hard board base is collaged with the very anti-voter legislation that the WI GOP led legislature is proposing. All topped in the red of the GOP and the immovable and centralized hard black line, self-contained, moving around nothing but itself has worked its way into the amendment. The gold of the outside edge of the work represents the golden rights, the classical leaf that frames the building blocks of the republic, the democracy we live in.

Make sure you get out YOUR VOTE and HELP OTHERS to get out their vote as well. Mail in ballots, absentee ballots, drop boxes, voting sites, registration are many of the issues that are being legislated upon. Make sure you CONTACT you state legislation as well and voice your beliefs about what is being debated.

Frank