Op-ed: Fight for fair maps a win in Alabama. Now we must protect that power.
By Tom Lopach, President and CEO of Voter Participation Center and Center for Voter Information
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in Allen v. Milligan, declaring what Black Alabamians have long known – that voting power was being suppressed. The court upheld a lower court decision that Alabama’s congressional maps illegally weakened the power of Black voters and ordered them redrawn.
After decades of distorted district lines, Alabama now has more representative congressional maps. The Supreme Court’s ruling in Milligan was a long-overdue acknowledgment that Black Alabamians and other historically underrepresented communities belong in our democracy. In a state central to the civil rights movement, it once again affirmed that when people organize, fight, and demand fairness, change is possible.
Even as court rulings affirm fair representation, some Alabama officials continue to resist. Alabama has a long, well-documented history of using policy and intimidation to silence voters, especially Black voters. Civic and grassroots organizations have long stepped in to close the gap, working to ensure voters are informed and empowered to participate in elections. Just last month, a federal court held a hearing to determine whether Alabama should be placed back under federal pre-clearance, a provision once used to prevent this exact kind of voter suppression, emphasizing how urgent this fight remains.
In recent years, some Secretaries of State across the country have targeted civic engagement groups, citing so-called concerns around “election integrity.” Last year Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen publicly criticized a nonpartisan voter registration mailer sent by the Voter Participation Center (VPC) and Center for Voter Information (CVI) despite it including the official, state-recognized form. Allen’s attacks are part of a broader pattern of undermining crucial nonpartisan civic engagement and voter education that helps more Alabamians participate in our democracy. These aren’t just political maneuvers. These are efforts to intimidate the very people whose access to the ballot has been most fragile: people of color, young people, women, people from rural communities, and low-income Alabamians.
At the Voter Participation Center, we’ve spent more than two decades helping underrepresented Americans – people of color, young people, and unmarried women – register to vote and turn out to vote. Since 2003, we’ve helped more than 6.6 million people submit voter-registration applications.
Tom Lopach is President and CEO of the nonprofit and nonpartisan Voter Participation Center (VPC) and the Center for Voter Information (CVI). VPC and CVI use data-driven methods of direct mail and digital engagement to register to vote and turn out to vote underrepresented voters, with the goal of helping to ensure a representative electorate in US elections.