Michelle Obama released a new PSA this week about the importance of voting in the election on Nov. 3. Whether you’re opting to vote in person or by mail-in ballot, the stakes are incredibly high this time around, and now more than ever, we need to make sure our voices are heard.
“From the ongoing pandemic, to the passion and protest we’ve seen for racial and social justice, it’s clear that we’re in the middle of a big moment in this country, and that means we need leadership that honestly reflects who we are and what we stand for,” Obama says in the video. “Our job between now and November is to make sure everyone we know understands that the power to make change rests on our ability to cast a vote.”
Elsewhere in the video, Obama says that citizens need to hold their “friends, families and communities” accountable by making sure that they’re registered to vote in the presidential election. She then urges listeners to go to the website for the nonprofit When We All Vote in order to find out more about how to register if they’ve not registered already.
When We All Vote is an organization that encourages voter registration and participation, and focuses on closing the age and race gap. It was reported that voter registration experienced an uptick during the Black Lives Matter protests in June, so it appears that people are taking things seriously.
We’re glad that Obama released this PSA when she did. Donald Trump made headlines for announcing that he plans on opposing additional funding for the struggling U.S. Postal Service, in order to discourage mail-in voting (but we knew that anyway). The comments were made during a conversation with Fox Business Network on Thursday, per the Washington Post.
“Now they need that money in order to make the post office work, so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” he told the network’s Maria Bartiromo. “But if they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting, because they’re not equipped to have it.”
“They don’t have the money to do the universal mail-in voting. So therefore, they can’t do it, I guess,” he continued. “Are they going to do it even if they don’t have the money?”
Please vote. Please.
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