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Protecting the Vote in the Land of Lincoln
As part of a nationwide mobilization, a Protect Our Vote! “votercade” in Illinois, was launched from the IBEW Local Union Hall in Warrenville to rally at the DuPage County Government Campus in Wheaton, in the purplish west suburban portion of the greater metropolitan Chicago area. Speakers included federal lawmakers Rep. Bill Foster (D-11), Rep. Sean Casten (D-06), Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-08) and other, more local elected officials and activists.
The event was organized as part of the Voting Rights Alliance by the DuPage NAACP along with sponsorship by local chapters of the League of Women Voters, National Organization of Women, National Council of Jewish Women and other local non-profit organizations, including religious groups.
Rep. Casten caught us up with the history, noting that in 1868, the election of Ulysses S. Grant was clinched by winning the southern states of Georgia, Louisiana and border state Kentucky because African Americans were legal voters in the United States for the first time in its history. Mississippi was disqualified from that election, Casten noted, because its legislature had not yet certified the 13th amendment outlawing slavery and, in fact, had not ratified the amendment in its state legislature until 1995; and without officially having done so until 2013.