Sheila Kennedy’s 6 Reasons for Women to Vote in 2024
Women4Change Voices
6 REASONS FOR WOMEN TO VOTE IN 2024
Sheila Kennedy and Women4Change Indiana
Tomorrow, July 4th, 2024, the United States will celebrate its 248th birthday as a free nation. On July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed by Congress, rejecting both King George’s rule over America and monarchy as a form of government in the new United States.
The founding fathers created democracy in monarchy’s place, with three governing bodies to ensure the equal balance of power: The Executive, Judiciary, and Legislative branches.
The Executive (President) and Legislative branches (House and Senate) are elected bodies by and for the people, but the justices of Judiciary (Supreme Court) are lifetime appointments of the Executive branch and serve beyond the one or two 4-year term(s) of the President who appoints them, sometimes for decades.
On July 1st, 2024, in the 6-3 landmark ruling, United States vs. Donald Trump, the Supreme Court of the United States usurped the balance of power between all three branches and ruled that the President of United States has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts while serving in office, thwarting a drastic shift in power toward the Executive branch, leaving Americans and constitutional scholars asking:
Is the United States’ form of government still Democracy, or is it something else?
As we struggle to answer this question and many others surrounding our future, we asked constitutional scholar Sheila Kennedy, who served as a leading voice in W4C’s Constitution Video Series, to underscore why women must vote in 2024.
1. Return to a non-partisan judiciary and rule of law
In the upcoming election, women especially need to vote for candidates who will support the return of America’s traditional, non-partisan judiciary. When ideological or corrupt judges are on the bench, women and minorities suffer, and the public loses respect for the legal system and the rule of law.
2. The Dobbs decision
This next election is really about one, over-riding issue: what is —and isn’t-- government’s business? The Dobbs decision did more than allow legislatures to eliminate women’s reproductive rights; it challenged the longstanding constitutional “substantive due process” doctrine and “the right to privacy” which prevents government from making decisions that should be left up to the individual. What you read, who you marry, whether, when and to whom you pray, what political opinions you hold.
“Who decides?”
The current Supreme Court says, “The government decides.”
3. The gun violence epidemic
In June 2024, the U.S. Surgeon General classified gun violence as a public health crisis. Since polling shows that large majorities of Americans—especially women-- care about gun violence, women should take care to explore candidates’ positions on guns and gun ownership. Indiana passed permit-less carry in 2022, and the SCOTUS has removed the ban on bump stocks, a device that turns a rifle into a machine gun.
What do the candidates say about the “right” to own and carry assault weapons? Do they support “red flag” laws that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals and perpetrators of domestic violence? Do they oppose reasonable background checks?
4. Vote to protect future generations
Women care about what they are leaving behind for future generations. Americans are already experiencing the effects of a warming planet. Women who worry about the livability of the world we’re leaving to our children and grandchildren need to vote for candidates who support government’s efforts to combat climate change, and need to oppose candidates who are trying to slow the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.
5. Disallow *isms & “us” and “them” in our communities and laws
In order to leave our children and grandchildren a better world, women need to withhold support for candidates giving aid and comfort to racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, misogyny, homophobia, and all the other “isms” -the bigotries that divide Americans into armies of “us” and “them.” Real Americans understand that people should be evaluated on the basis of their behavior, not on the basis of their gender, religion, sexuality, or skin color.
6. Vote to stop religious extremism
Mothers and fathers both have important stakes in their public-school systems—especially in maintaining and protecting the professionalism of teachers and librarians. Women are disproportionately harmed when religious fundamentalists take control of school boards and libraries, because the books that are censored when that occurs are most often those that portray “non-traditional” families in a positive light, but everyone is harmed when teachers are told what they can and cannot teach, and the entire student body is prevented from accessing library books that may offend some citizens, because of their religious beliefs.
America’s civil society is in peril. Women must vote to restore civil society in America.
The election of Donald Trump n 2016, the January 6th insurrection, and the Supreme Court’s Donald Trump vs. the United States” immunity ruling have all ushered an era of power grabs, civic disorientation, incivility, and political violence which have harmed American society.
We believe it is possible to restore civil society in America if women vote for candidates who will work to restore it.
Where do you stand? What do you think will help Hoosier women turn out to vote in 2024?
Add your voice to W4C Voices: Reach out to our newsroom.
Contact: Aimee West at aimee@women4changeindiana.org
Learn more about our GOTV efforts visit: www.women4changeindiana.org
We developed voter guides to help demystify voting in Indiana, and included resources to help Hoosier voters register to vote, to check their voter registration, to find their polling location, and identify what offices and who will be on their ballot in 2024.
Important election dates in 2024
Monday, October 7 - Voter Registration Deadline (11:59pm)
Tuesday, October 8 - Early Voting Begins
Thursday, October 24 -Application to request a vote-by mail ballot
must be received by 11:59pm
Monday, November 4 - Early Voting Ends
Tuesday, November 5 - General Election Day
Desarrollamos una guía bipartidista
para el votante para ayudar
Fechas electorales importantes en 2024
Lunes, 7 de octubre - Fecha límite para el registro de votantes (11:59pm)
Martes, 8 de octubre - Comienza la votación anticipada
Jueves, 24 de octubre - La solicitud para solicitar una boleta de voto por
correo debe recibirse antes de las 11:59 p.m
Lunes, 4 de noviembre - Termina la votación anticipada
Martes, 5 de noviembre - Día de las Elecciones Generales
