By Ava Burchell, Contributing Writer
On Thursday, February 24, the Eisenhower Institute hosted Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science Lucy Britt and Former NAACP President and CEO and Gettysburg College Trustee Emeritus Bruce Gordon for a discussion on voting rights. The discussion was moderated by Tracie Potts, the Executive Director of the Eisenhower Institute. The event was free and open to the public, who could attend in Mara Auditorium or on Zoom.
Gettysburg College President Bob Iuliano gave the opening remarks of the discussion, emphasizing the importance of hosting a discussion about voting rights and education during Black History Month.
“There is a long history of African American access to the franchise being compromised by actions both legal and extralegal. It is important, indeed essential, that we acknowledge the history and evaluate current actions with a critical eye about the purposes as well as their impacts on underrepresented groups’ influence in the political process,” Iuliano said.
Following the opening remarks, students Owen Labruna ’24 and Miranda Zamora ’23 spoke about their contrasting viewpoints on the Freedom to Vote Act.
Potts then asked questions to Britt about whether or not it makes sense to implement more voting laws that might serve as barriers to certain citizens.
Britt said, “There is no good evidence that there has been widespread voter fraud in the United States in modern political American history…If that’s the case, ought we to make it easier for everyone to vote?”
Gordon spoke on the history of the debate over whether voting is a right or a privilege.
Gordon said, “One thing is very clear to me, from the day our nation was founded, until today, there has been a belief amongst some part of our citizenry that voting is not a privilege and not a right…Because for some, they don’t want to share the power, and voting is a power-sharing mechanism that I believe democracy demands.”
