NAME Statement on Voting
September 29, 2022The National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) recognizes the growing importance of the midterm elections on Nov. 8, 2022. Those who can vote need to carefully study local, state and national candidates and issues on ballots nationwide. That includes where candidates stand on many of today’s issues – most of which are about limiting human rights. Some of those are voting rights and an unwillingness of insurrectionist candidates to accept the outcome of clean and fair elections. A Sept. 14 report from States United Democratic Center, says that as of the last primary races in September, 55 percent of the U.S. population living in 27 states have an election denier running to oversee their elections. “Election Deniers are on the ballot for the November election in half (50 percent) of the races for governor, as well as more than one-third of races for secretary of state (44 percent) and attorney general (33 percent). And there are still three states with Election Deniers running for all three top statewide positions — Alabama, Arizona, and Michigan…,” the report states. “The anti-democracy playbook is simple: If you change the rules of elections, and you change the referees who oversee elections, you can change the results. But an informed voter is a powerful voter. Pro-democracy candidates of both parties are on the ballot this fall. It’s never been more important for our state leaders to believe in free, fair, and secure elections.”
LGBTQ-plus rights are also under legislative attack, particularly in the transgender community. NAME knows that electing leaders who will use their political power to block anti-human legislation, while proposing legislation that protects LGBTQ-plus rights, is foundational to a democratic society.
Pre-K through college educators and librarians also are under siege, being bullied for teaching multicultural education or for stocking books in libraries that recognize that people of color and LGBTQ-plus communities exist. NAME urges voters to pay close attention to local school board races because the persons elected can help prevent censorship and the removal of previous gains in culturally responsive approaches, and instead focus on equipping students with needed education about the beautiful multicultural communities that make the U.S. home.
NAME acknowledges that an additional concern centers on women’s rights and the U.S. Supreme Court this year overturning Roe v. Wade. State lawmakers, state courts and voters themselves — as was the case this year in Kansas — must now motivate to protect women’s reproductive rights. In the Kansas ballot issue, voters overwhelmingly defeated a constitutional amendment that would have eliminated women’s abortion rights. Despite the efforts of our anti-human rights Supreme Court, the right to our own bodies remains in hands of voters in local, regional, state, and national polls.
NAME insists that we move forward, increasing the protection of human rights, and expanding the focus on eliminating systemic oppression, including racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, classism, religious persecution, Islamophobia, and related anti-human attacks. Education is inherently political and, as educators, it is our duty and responsibility to vote and help get out the vote.
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