Voting should not be an option

President Lyndon B. Johnson spoke these words when he signed the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965: “The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.”

According to the U.S. Justice Department website, the law, which closely followed the language of the 15th Amendment, applied a nationwide prohibition against the denial or abridgment of the right to vote based on the literacy tests on a nationwide basis.

Among its other provisions, the Voting Rights Act contained special enforcement provisions targeted at those areas of the country where Congress believed the potential for discrimination to be the greatest.

I never get tired of reminding anyone I meet, especially members of the black and Hispanic communities, of the importance of voting.

I cannot recall a time I did not vote. It is so easy to get registered to vote, and you have all day Tuesday — from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. — to exercise your right to cast a ballot. The process should not take any more than five minutes.

If you can’t spare five minutes, you are either too busy, too lazy or too apathetic.

Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy, and if you are black or a woman, you should feel embarrassed for not doing your patriotic duty.

I say this because at one time in the United States, only white, male landowners, or those who had taxable incomes, could vote. Black men didn’t get the right to vote nationwide until ratification of the 15th Amendment in 1870. Women didn’t get the right to vote nationwide until ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920.

Someone needs to give me a sound, logical and well-thought-out reason why they find it so hard to vote or why they won’t vote.

Every year there are issues on the ballot that affect your property taxes, whether you can buy alcohol daily or on Sundays, and who will represent you on the local, state and national level.

Tuesday, voters will decide if the incumbent Mahoning County auditor will be re-elected while facing indictment on criminal-conspiracy charges.

If you believe Michael V. Sciortino’s record of service trumps his pending criminal case, then vote to retain him. If not, vote for his opponent, Ralph Meacham.

The important matter is to get out and vote.

And if you don’t like the candidates on the ballot, how about deciding for some key tax issues, especially the additional sales tax you will have to pay the next five years to support Mahoning County’s criminal-justice system.

Issue 1 is the renewal and additional sales tax for the county. Will you be the person complaining if the tax passes or fails? Your vote could make the difference either way.

Ohio voters will either retain or elect a new governor, auditor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer and Supreme Court justices.

In Mahoning County, there are five school levies on the ballot. There are six in Trumbull County. The Jackson-Milton School District touches both counties, so whether that renewal levy passes or fails could come down to whether a voter in either county decides to come out to cast a ballot.

Will the thrice-defeated Community Bill of Rights, which would ban fracking in Youngstown, finally pass?

What about the proposed Youngstown charter amendment that essentially would reduce the city’s wards from seven to five? Some opponents see that as an attempt at gerrymandering and diluting the black vote in the city.

Those two issues alone should generate enough interest to get you to vote if you are a city resident.

Every year, I get frustrated when I read or hear from elections board officials on the projected voter turnout for elections.

In Mahoning County, as of the May primary election, there were 166,786 registered voters. In Trumbull, the number of registered voters totaled 144,913. In Columbiana, 65,280.

Yet, even in a presidential year, when voter turnout is usually stronger, rarely do 50 percent of registered voters make their way to the polls.

In fact, David Skolnick, the newspaper’s politics writer, wrote that in last year’s November election, elections officials expected turnout in Mahoning and Columbiana counties to be between 35 percent and 40 percent, and 30 percent in Trumbull County.

That is truly sad.

That trend does not have to continue. It is your duty to shake off the apathy and participate in this important process.

In Youngstown, the Youngstown Area Community Mobilization Coalition, comprising several religious and civil-rights organizations, can help you get to you polls if you are without transportation. Call 330-747-2125.

Again, I urge all registered black and Hispanic voters to cast ballots. Don’t belittle the sacrifices of those in the 1960s and 1970s who fought, and died, to secure this basic right.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “I have come to see more and more that one of the most decisive steps that the Negro can take is that little walk to the voting booth. That is an important step. We’ve got to gain the ballot, and through that gain, political power.”

Amen.

Ernie Brown Jr., a regional editor at The Vindicator, writes a monthly minority-affairs column. Contact him at ebrown@vindy.com