OPINION: Representation matters

By Lajuanda W. Griffin

JA Guest Writer

Toni Johnson, Executive Director of We Must Vote, is right that a case before the U.S. Supreme Court could upend mail-in voting deadlines and put ballot access at serious risk; not just here, but across the country.

But inside the federal courthouse, a Mississippian pushed back.

Judge James E. Graves Jr., born and raised, one of Mississippi’s own, sits on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and refused to let the majority’s ruling go unchallenged. He wrote a powerful dissent, joined by four other judges, that laid out exactly why that ruling was wrong.

He didn’t just disagree. In his 18-page dissent, he traced the history of absentee voting all the way back to Civil War soldiers casting ballots on battlefields. He walked through decades of federal legislation. He showed, clearly and methodically, that 28 states and D.C. have long operated under exactly the kind of ballot receipt laws this panel just declared invalid.

His words are now on the record. And when this case reached the Supreme Court, that record went with it.

We need advocacy organizations like We Must Vote doing what they do. AND we need to recognize that representation matters in every room, including the ones with robes. Judge Graves is in that room, showing up.