Shaniqua: Well, I wish we were meeting under different circumstances, but here we are. 

Hannah: I know, it’s an unsettling time for our democracy, but I’m glad we’re meeting up like this to explore some ways we can fight back. Let’s dig in! 

Shaniqua: To start, a lot of people grew up thinking the right to vote was settled law. But now we’re seeing attacks on vote by mail, new restrictions, and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act itself. How serious is this moment?

Hannah: It’s very serious. For a long time, there was this feeling that the country was slowly moving toward broader access to voting. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was one of the clearest examples of that — it was landmark legislation designed to stop racial discrimination in voting and protect access to the ballot.

And it wasn’t ancient history. The Voting Rights Act was reauthorized with overwhelming bipartisan support in 2007. President George W. Bush signed it into law. So there really was a sense that protecting voting rights was something Americans broadly agreed on.

But over the last decade, we’ve seen key protections weakened — through court decisions, new state laws, and growing efforts to make voting harder.

S: And now those threats are much more visible.

Our current leadership wouldn’t be trying to restrict our access to the ballot box if it didn’t matter.

– Hannah Fried, All Voting is Local Action

H: Exactly. We’re experiencing such forceful attacks because voting works. Our current leadership wouldn’t be trying to restrict our access to the ballot box if it didn’t matter.

When people hear proposals to limit vote by mail or add burdensome voter ID requirements, it can feel sudden. But a lot of these efforts are part of a longer history of restricting access to the ballot.

What’s different now is that more people are personally experiencing these threats. In 2024, 47 million Americans voted by mail. That includes Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Americans like options when it comes to voting — voting early, voting by mail, voting on Election Day. And once people have those options, they don’t want them taken away.

S: Right, and I want people to know that they aren’t alone in this. It takes thousands of people to run elections, and there are advocates across the country (like us!) fighting back every single day. 

H: Yes. There’s a whole community of people working to protect your right to vote, including voter protection groups like the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, local organizers, and election workers in your own community. 

These systems only work because ordinary people keep them running.

Elections are run year-round by poll workers, election officials, volunteers, lawyers, and logistics experts. These are your neighbors. They make sure ballots get mailed on time, polling places are open, votes are counted, and elections are certified fairly.

Most people never even thought about certification or election administration until 2020, and that’s okay. A lot of this work happens behind the scenes. But it matters.

S: This is a pretty heavy moment, is there anything giving you hope right now? 

H: I think there is. The attacks are scary, but they’ve also made more people pay attention to how elections actually work and why voting rights matter.

And this creates an opportunity not just to defend what exists, but to imagine something better: an election system designed to include people instead of shutting them out.

Because for much of American history, voting systems were intentionally designed to exclude certain groups. The Voting Rights Act helped break down many of those barriers. The question now is whether we keep moving toward a more inclusive democracy — or allow those protections to erode.

S: What can people actually do to fight back?

H: Get involved locally! That’s where so much of this work is happening. You can become a poll worker, help process absentee ballots, volunteer with voter protection groups, or even work in election administration. Democracy depends on regular people stepping up. All Voting is Local Action can help you get involved on the ground in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

S: And if you’re not in those states, Vote Save America is here to help you plug in, too! Hannah, any last words for our readers?

H: Remember this: Voting may feel like an individual act, but protecting democracy is collective work. And the more people who participate in that work, the harder it becomes to take voting rights away.

S: Exactly what we all needed to hear. 

Note: This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

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