On Christmas Eve, 1943, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had only been back in Washington for a week after a grueling transatlantic voyage to conferences with Allies in Cairo and Teheran. That evening, he gave one of his famous "fireside chats" with the American people, reporting on the conferences, the prospects for victory and our vision for the future.
"We here in the United States had better be sure," he emphasized, "that when our soldiers
and sailors do come home they will find an America in which they are
given full opportunities for education, and rehabilitation, social
security, and employment and business enterprise under the free American
system -- and that they will find a Government which, by their votes as
American citizens, they have had a full share in electing." Fireside Chat 27, December 24, 1943.
That was a vision that would take decades to perfect. It took the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It took the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. It took the Help America Vote Act.
It continues to take the efforts of countless election officials and volunteers to protect and defend the idea of a Government in which every citizen has a full share in electing.
It takes continued dedication and vigilance.
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