BY BRIGITTE TOULON
ST. PETERSBURG – On the evening of September 24th, The League of Women Voters of the St. Petersburg Area in partnership with The Florida Holocaust Museum, The Pinellas County Urban League and Pinellas Technical College (PTC) hosted the event, Voices of Experience: Personal Stories of the Civil Rights Struggle and Insights on the Voting Rights Act at PTC.
The event was held as a way to commemorate the passing of the Voting Rights Act 50 years ago. It began at 6 p.m. with opening comments from the sponsors of the event. The moderator was Rene Flowers, who made sure that all of the questions were addressed by the panelists before questions were turned over to the audience.
The panel was comprised of Harry Harvey, Dr. Joyce Henry, Imam Aquil and Stephanie Owens- Royster. Each individual, aside from Mrs. Owens-Royster, was able to shed some light on the experiences they went through during the time before the Act was passed. Owens-Royster, the youngest of the panelists, instead chose to shed some light on her insights into the Voting Rights Act and the improvements that could be made today in regards to voting.
Technology
“How safe do you think the American people will actually feel knowing that technology has proven not to be as beneficial and safe and as secure as some people feel going in with their own ballot?”, Flowers addresses to the panel.
Owens-Royster said, “We have some amazing technical people in Silicon Valley that if we put it to the test, in the private sector, in an open way, that we would get the kind of end to end security that would be needed to protect the vote, just like when we collect medical information.”
“Florida just passed online voting registration legislation. It was signed by the governor, it will take effect in 2017. So we’re moving in the right direction to use live technology to make it easier to register to vote”, said Henry.
Aquil made a comment regarding voting in general, “if voting was so important in our society, make it a holiday.”
Restoration
Flowers brought up the topic of restoration of voting rights to those who have had theirs taken from them. Currently, Florida is one out of three states that does not automatically restore these rights back to individuals that have been incarcerated.
“Florida disenfranchises nearly two millions individuals, they are unable to vote due to a felony. You should never lose your right to vote, it should be automatic when you’re realized from prison”, said Henry.
Youth Voting
Owens-Royster said, “You shouldn’t only be voting in presidential elections, or midterms or specials. If there was an election for dog catcher, everybody ought to be out there deciding who it is that they want.” She briefly quoted Rev. Al Sharpton, “you can’t turn them out, if you can’t turn them on.”
Harvey stressed the importance of voting by mail and that people who are 16 or 17 should be registering to vote so that when they go off to college, they can vote by mail instead. Henry’s concern is the problem that they, “need to find a way to engage” the youth, so they go out and vote.
The event closed with questions asked by members of the audience. Some members of the audience were left with more questions that could not be answered because the program ran over time.