Behind the scenes: Comstock's Art Director Carly Cornejo and photographer Rachel Valley, top left, check the lighting for our Women in Leadership
photo shoots. They spent three days working with the 19 women profiled in this issue.
with disabilities and people with felony convictions who had
completed their sentences but are banned from voting for life.
Purging voter rolls, if not done properly, is another signifi-
cant threat. A 2018 report from the Brennan Center for Justice
at New York University School of Law found that “between
2014 and 2016, states removed almost 16 million voters from
the rolls. … Almost 4 million more names were purged from
the rolls between 2014 and 2016 than between 2006 and 2008.
This growth in the number of removed voters represented an
increase of 33 percent — far outstripping growth in both total
registered voters (18 percent) and total population (6 percent).”
The time of exclusion must come to an end. All Americans
— people of color, those with disabilities, the elderly, students,
working parents who can’t leave a child at home to vote in per-
son, former felons who have served their time — should have
their voices heard in the political process. We need to expand
voter participation, not limit it, if we want our democracy to
truly reflect the will of the people.
Shortly after I voted in my first presidential election, I took
my first women’s studies class in college and read an essay by
Audre Lorde, underlining the first line: “I have come to believe
over and over again,” Lorde wrote, “that what is most important
to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the
risk of having it bruised or misunderstood. That the speaking
profits me, beyond any other effect.” This line has guided me
since. It reminds me that my voice — as does yours — matters.
It’s why throughout the course of my journalism career I have
tried to elevate the voices and stories of people who have been
marginalized. It’s also why I vote.
Sena Christian
Managing Editor
March 2020 | comstocksmag.com
19