This is our first real episode and we’re tackling a big issue - voter suppression, or disenfranchisement.

Most of us have never voted, due to our age, or won’t be able to vote in the country where we’re living due to our immigration status. This doesn’t make us less aware of the fact that the right to vote is one of the foundations of democracy. Worldwide, laws and actions that aim to suppress voting rights are contributing to the weakening of democratic processes.

Our conversation takes an inevitable turn towards the United States and the 2020 presidential election. Our aim, however, was to make sure to give an overview of different types of voter suppression around the world as well as some suggestions for ending disenfranchisement.

Anecdote: a French citizen listening to a rough cut of this episode couldn’t understand the expression “voter suppression”. After quite a few additional explanations and examples, his response was “Oh, so it just means anti-democratic”. Food for thought!

To learn more, here are some of the resources we consulted when researching this episode:

www.globalcitizen.org

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-47521208

aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/yt/yt20/lowering-the-voting-age

www.foreignpolicy.com

www.wsj.com

www.independent.co.uk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_suppression

Go to our Instagram @ispeaksonjustice for more resources.

Music credit:

"District Four" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

iSPeaks III - On Leadership, Continued. With Saachi, Grade 9.

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