“Who can vote?” session of MA Civic Learning Week (March 8, 2022)
The 2nd Annual Massachusetts Civic Learning Week occurred March 7-11, 2022 and was organized by MA Civic Learning Coalition as a series of virtual events, each of which was coordinated by institutions and individuals who applied to provide content. One session that week was on the topic of, “Who wants to vote? Who can vote? Who should be able to vote? Who decides?” and was led by Robin Chen and Sarah Edwards.
About Massachusetts Civic Learning Week:
seeks to empower all of us to see ourselves as participants and changemakers in our democracy
the week’s events will highlight the voices of youth and teachers
the theme of this year’s Civic Learning Week is “Building Communities Through Civics”
all events were free, and many were open to the general public or more specific audiences
SESSION LANDING PAGE & DESCRIPTION:
Early in the picture book, Vote for Our Future (by Margaret McNamara, illustrated by Micah Player, and published by Penguin Random House in 2020), with an election approaching and their elementary school expected to be closed to act as a polling station, student LeToya says, "We should all vote! We should all vote to make our future better." Her classmate Lizzie replies, "We can't vote until we turn 18." Accepting this, LeToya, Lizzie, and their peers learn all they can about voting and what's more, they get excited about helping out -- registering voters, passing out voter guides door-to-door, encouraging voters to make a voting plan, and so forth. Along the way, their optimism succeeds in activating eligible non-voters whose attitudes had been "I don't like standing in lines," "It's a pain to vote," "I'm not even registered," and "I didn't even know there was an election." We'll begin with this book, so that attendees with the shortest attention span can find value in tuning in and either leave early or stick around.
A lot of thought and debate has gone into ‘who can vote’ in Massachusetts. Since 1821, 18 constitutional amendments have changed who can’t vote in our state. Due to the most recent amendment in 2000, people in prison are not able to vote. Just last month a bill failed to advance which would have given cities and towns the authority to allow their 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in local elections.
Popular beliefs about who should/shouldn’t vote vary across time and within any given era. Our gathering will allow attendees to reveal where there is and isn’t consensus among us, noticing these beliefs non-judgmentally, so bring your curiosity and opinions!
With invited guests who love speaking about voting rights and who can field questions, this session will be interactive and bring together students, teachers, families, and members of the community. We'll provide basic background (and a detailed digital handout) about voting in Massachusetts. Then, we'll introduce today’s unsettled questions about who should/shouldn't be able to vote. We will co-generate some ideas about impacts on groups who can’t vote and ways to participate in public affairs beyond voting -- within your school, your town, your state, your country, and even internationally. There will be as much time as possible for participant engagement and story-telling. With a nod to the theme of the week, we’ll end by calling out civic communities that have been built around voting rights. Stick around if you have follow-up questions.
Think about in advance: Times when you’ve been asked to vote or help make a decision? Times when you have not been able to weigh in on a decision that affected you? What difference did it make to you and the outcome?
Homework-assignment-friendly: Attendees will be prompted to reflect on the ideas we explore by emailing/writing to themselves, their teacher(s), or a person of their choosing, their answers to the questions: What did you learn that you didn’t know before? Now, my next step is to...
