Holly Gauthier and David Harris Discuss Voter Suppression

Voter suppression is on everyone’s mind these days. But how is it playing out right here in New Jersey? David Harris and Holly Gauthier, Co-chairs of the Voter Rights Committee, shared some thoughts.

What  voter suppression initiatives are happening locally?   

A number of bills in New Jersey state legislature have been proposed by Republicans.  They’re not going anywhere.

 How likely are they to succeed?  

Very unlikely.  Democrats just passed a voter expansion bill  (see below) But these voter suppression bills expose the potential threat and the attitude of their Republican sponsors. 

What are the stakes here?   

Democracy.  This may seem like a simplified answer, but that’s the truth.  

What do we need to be doing to stop this from happening?    

• This is only a threat if we become complacent.    

• Pay attention and remain vigilant. 

• Vote. 

  If more people that vote than those who want to suppress the vote, then voter suppressors will lose momentum.        

• We need to expand the vote, i.e., early voting as was just passed in New Jersey, and  promote other voting expansion efforts such as same day voter registration and mail in voting.        

• Voter education is very important.  

• The Essex County voting system is changing to hand marked paper ballots with optical scanners.  This will be new to voters and they need to know about it.  Anything new has the potential to turn voters away.   

• Keep advocating for voter expansion, the best way to stop voter suppression.  And there are number of bills that go for more voter expansion in legislature that we should support.    

• Also, we need to thank those representatives who voted for voter expansion or stymied bad bills going forward ,  i.e.,

o Gov Murphy for signing the recent voter expansion bill. 

o   Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker was a lead in this and our own Mila Jasey was a co-sponsor and both John McKeon and Richard Cody supported this bill.    

What is the Voter Rights Committee doing to take action?    

We are monitoring the bills in the legislature and supporting efforts to expand voter registration as well as turn out the vote efforts and voter education. it should also be noted that the SOMA Action Voting Rights committee was instrumental in getting the new voting machines in Essex County.  They are the most secure and least expensive voting “machines” and also the ones that provide the most voter engagement.  

What sort of help do you need to keep Democracy flourishing here in New Jersey?   

The best thing is to VOTE. Volunteers can help with voter education and get out the vote efforts.  Explore ways to make voting easier and more efficient, i.e.,  ranked choice voting. 

If you are interested in working with the Voter Rights Committee please reach out to Holly (hollygau@gmail.com) or David (dlharris49@gmail.com).