Chelsea Manning pens get-out-the-vote op-ed

Imprisoned government leaker Chelsea Manning has written an opinion piece urging people to get out and vote on Election Day, pointing to her own experience of not being afforded the right to cast a ballot as evidence of how precious the liberty is.

{mosads}In the op-ed published Wednesday in The Guardian, Manning said it’s more important than ever that people head to the polls.

“Suffrage is not a right afforded to everyone. Rather, voting is a privilege in the United States — and a hard-earned privilege at that,” the former Army private wrote in the piece, titled “I can’t vote. If you can, you must.”

Voting rights were previously only given to white men with land, Manning pointed out. They have slowly been afforded to more and more people in the country, but there is still more progress that needs to be made, she said.

“Progress on suffrage has always tended to be incremental,” Manning wrote. “And, far from being a closed chapter in our history, the fight to keep things moving forward continues to this day.”

There are seven people incarcerated for every thousand living in the U.S., she wrote. That number is “disproportionately of black and brown people, whether accused and convicted of crimes or held by immigration authorities.”

“Even when the incarcerated leave prison, they often return to our communities without the ability to vote,” Manning wrote.

“That means the people most affected by our political institutions and processes today often have absolutely no say in how they are run. This group includes me.”

Manning is serving a 35-year prison sentence for violating the Espionage Act by sharing classified documents with WikiLeaks. She will not be able to cast a vote in Maryland, her state of residence, until 2045, she wrote.

“While universal suffrage remains an ideal yet to be attained,” Manning wrote, “if you’re lucky enough to be able to vote, don’t let that privilege go to waste.”