Elizabeth,

A year from today will be Election Day. All of the ballots will be counted, and the future of Ohio's democracy will be determined. But we also know from last year what will also be happening on Election Day: lines a quarter-mile long in front of polling locations and Ohioans in rural communities driving an hour or more to drop off a ballot.

That's why today, I'm thinking about someone I met on Election Day last year, Miss Pearl.

While I was working at a local polling location in Hamilton County, I started a conversation with a woman named Miss Pearl. She told me about how over fifty years ago, she was an activist, fighting for the rights that would become the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

So I asked her, how do you think access to the ballot box now is compared to then? She told me, "It makes me sick. I am so frustrated." Because nothing has changed.

We look at the activists whose shoulders we stand on and the work that they put in, the sacrifices they've made, and the lives lost in a fight for something that is fundamentally our right. It is unconscionable to have the lack of easy access to voting in our state. It's a system that has been intentionally broken and miscommunicated to sow chaos and reduce people's faith in our government.

I'm running for Secretary of State for people like Miss Pearl and for all Ohioans because you shouldn't have to be an activist your whole life to have your constitutionally given right to vote. That's why today I'm asking for your help to make a long-standing change in the Secretary of State's office by making every day between now and Election Day count. Help us start the next 365 days strong by chipping in $15 or more today so we can end the fight for voting rights in Ohio.

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Thanks for being a part of this fight with me,

Chelsea