If you’ve listened to any of Donald Trump’s recent speeches, you’ve likely heard a familiar refrain about “rigged elections.”
In the last week of this contentious and untraditional presidential election, Trump has made the voting box his next target of attack. “The rigged election” has become sort of a slogan for the Republican presidential nominee in what some are saying is his attempt to assuage his home base in anticipation of his loss to Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.
With less than two weeks until the final vote is cast in the ballot box, the need to know whether or not the election truly is rigged has become a focal point in nearly all political discussions. And as one of the largest voting blocs in the nation, with an estimated 11.4 million potential votes, it is important to know how the votes of Black women play into these allegations of fraud.
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In last week’s episode of ESSENCE Live, we called on political strategist and co-founder of Higher Heights, Glynda Carr, to unpack the allegations of voter fraud and articulate what’s really at risk for Black women.
“It’s interesting that you talk about voter fraud, but in fact for over the last two cycles our voting rights have been rolled back,” Carr told ESSENCE Live host Dana Blair. “And that was purposefully done by some opposition.”
“When Black women are voting in record numbers, all of a sudden there is some unforeseen voter fraud. So now we need to tighten up our election system and when we tighten up the election system, what happens is you disenfranchise people.”
Despite the threat of voter suppression tactics that are slowly moving through Republican dominated states, Carr encourages us all to “show up and show out” on November 8.
“We know that when you fire up a Black woman to vote, she doesn’t go to the polls alone: She brings her house, her block, her church and her sorority.”
Learn more from Carr about what to do if you see someone being wrongfully turned away at the polls in the clip above.