How to Become a 'Trayvon Martin Voter'

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In a piece for the Washington Post, Benjamin L. Crump, the lead attorney for Trayvon Martin's family, is encouraging supporters of the Trayvon Martin movement to sign a petition on Change.org to amend "Stand your ground" laws in 21 states. He also says that these "Trayvon Martin voters" should come out in droves during the midterm elections — political cycles that often experience less voter turnout.

This vote, your vote, will be historic. It starts when you sign the Change.org petition by Trayvon’s family to amend “stand-your-ground” laws in 21 of the 31 states where they are on the books. It continues when you cast your vote in the 2014 midterm elections and each election cycle beyond until we make history by passing a Trayvon Martin amendment to the stand-your-ground laws in every state that has them. These actions will make you part of new voting bloc: The Trayvon Martin voter.

Trayvon Martin voters have the potential to become a critical mass influencing several important issues, including stand-your-ground laws, racial-profiling laws and stop-and-frisk policies. Typically, the voter turnout in midterm elections is dramatically diminished from presidential-election years. We can, however, make sure that in the upcoming midterm election Democrats, Republicans and independents across the country turn out to vote for Trayvon Martin amendments. Trayvon voters have a clear cause: capturing the passion over the devastating verdict returned in the trial of George Zimmerman and transforming these feelings into actions that can and will make a difference.

Read Benjamin L. Crump's entire piece at the Washington Post. 

The Root aims to foster and advance conversations about issues relevant to the black Diaspora by presenting a variety of opinions from all perspectives, whether or not those opinions are shared by our editorial staff.

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