UMS Community,
Just like tomorrow, ten years ago today was election day in America.
I was on the ballot as the Democratic candidate for Governor of Connecticut. As polls closed that night, my campaign staff and I were confident that I won a close election – but the final certified margin of just over 6,400 votes wasn’t announced until six days later. Through that week, Connecticut citizens honored the democratic process to peacefully await certifying the ballot count to officially decide the election’s outcome. And once the election was over, my challenger’s supporters and all of Connecticut accepted me as the duly-elected Governor of Connecticut.
Ten years earlier still, the November 7, 2000 presidential election results were not finally declared until December 13, a day after the U.S. Supreme Court ended a Florida recount to effectively decide the election. Though surprised at not having the result of the presidential race declared late that election night, American voters who evenly split their ballots between Al Gore and George Bush waited peacefully for more than five weeks for the recounts and legal disputes to play out before Bush was declared the winner.
Democracy worked in these close elections – as it does in all elections – because people like you and me exercised and respected the most fundamental powers in our democracy: the right to vote, and the right to count our votes.
Noted women’s suffragist Susan B. Anthony observes across history, “Someone struggled for your right to vote – use it.” She herself set the example, casting one of the first woman’s votes for President for Ulysses Grant in 1872 and suffering the indignity of being criminally prosecuted for doing so, some 48 years before women finally achieved constitutional parity with men with the right to vote.
I hope you’ve already voted, or that you will tomorrow. Citizens and soldiers alike have fought and died through the American centuries so that your vote could be cast and counted.
I call on you too, as members of the UMS community, to respect the democratic and legal processes that may be pursued by either campaign to review the vote counts before the final outcome can be officially declared.
Across our diverse university communities are supporters of both major party candidates for President. If the results are not immediately and decisively clear, our community members may choose to exercise their constitutional rights of free speech and assembly to express support for their candidate in the days or even weeks that may pass until the next president can be democratically determined.
Our Constitution expects as much. But it also expects us to be responsible citizens.
The U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment right of assembly is to peaceably assemble, and the Maine State Constitution’s right to free speech makes citizens responsible for the abuse of that liberty. Our own governance policies incorporate those same rights and responsibilities for good citizenship.
Although all members of the University community are free to criticize and contest views expressed by others on our campuses – indeed, a guiding premise of free inquiry in higher education is that truth is more likely to be discovered if the opportunity exists for the free and robust exchange of opposing opinions – no member of the University community may obstruct or otherwise interfere with another’s freedom of speech or assembly, even if they disagree with, oppose, or even loathe the other’s views or voting choices.
And to be perfectly clear: None of us has the right to destroy property or use violence in any way to prevent our community members from peaceful assembly in the coming days.
Ours is not a perfect democracy. For too long, the power of voting was denied to too many. Even when it was granted on paper and in law, it was denied in practice to Black citizens for nearly a century more.
“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived,” Maya Angelou told Bill Clinton’s inaugural crowd in 1993. But she went on to note that, if faced with courage, painful history need not be lived again.
In celebrating the peaceful transfer of the presidency from one political party to the other that day, Angelou’s “On the Pulse of Morning” poem gave voice to words of hope in democracy that still ring true today.
“Lift up your eyes upon the day breaking for you,” she said. “Give birth again to the dream.”
The dream of democracy. The dream of a more perfect union. The American dream of government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
We can all celebrate together this week that everyone’s vote counts – and let’s respect everyone’s right to make sure they’re all counted.
Regards,
