Voting Rights, Vote-by-Mail and Election Security

Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons, a longtime community organizer, former SEIU president, former Urbana alderman and, in 2018, the first African American elected Champaign County Clerk, opened the fall 2020 series "The State of Our Democracy" at the Y's first virtual Friday Forum. He gave a slide presentation on the racial history of voting rights, felony disenfranchisement in Illinois, the Safe Vote Coalition, the outdated county election equipment he inherited, paper ballots, seven new ballot drop boxes, and early-voting sites including the YMCA. An audience Q&A followed.