Send Us Your Stories

As more and more states put obstacles in the way of voters trying to exercise their right to vote, we want to hear from you, our CWA brothers and sisters, about some of the challenges you and your family have faced out there as you try to register and vote.

Have you gone to the polls to find you're not on the registration list? Did you change your name after getting married and have had difficulty voting with ID as a result? Do you not have the required identification at all? Or is it something as simple as moving your place of residence, and not being able to register in time? Or confronting long lines at the polling place?

CWA is not taking it lying down. We are starting a "Voting Rights Denied Story Project." Tell us your story by filling out this form – we are collecting stories until Tuesday, November 3 – and sending it to Tova Wang at twang@cwa-union.org. Or send a letter to:

Tova Andrea Wang
CWA Director of Democracy Programs
501 3rd Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C.20001

Alabama is just the latest example of discriminatory disenfranchisement in the states. The state where rampant voter discrimination and disenfranchisement of mostly African Americans led to the nation's first Voting Rights Act 50 years ago is at it again. So are Wisconsin, North Carolina, Texas and many states across the nation which are showing new zeal in erecting obstacles to voting.

In Maryland's Montgomery County, the Republican majority on the board of elections has decided to close two early voting sites with more blacks and Democrats and moved them to lower population, white, Republican communities.

The effort got underway last week as a group of local leaders participating in the Minority Leadership Institute discussed the challenges that voters are facing and took up the cause of collecting our individual stories. The Minority Leadership Institute brings together active CWA members for an intensive leadership training program that features classes on diversity, leadership, public speaking, and effective teaching that allows participants to return to their locals with a range of skills and abilities to help them become better organizers, motivators, and leaders.

CWA District 6 Vice President Claude Cummings with Minority Leadership Institute class members at a training session at CWA Headquarters last week.

If we are going to win on any of our issues, including the right to organize and collectively bargain, fair wages, and ensuring the health of our families, we must protect the right to vote. To fight back, we need to know more about the kinds of problems that you are encountering.