+
Democracy

Activist vows to continue after being criminally charged twice for helping voters who can't read

Everyone deserves to cast a ballot.

voting booth, voter supression, olivia coley-pearson

A voting booth in Ohio.

Historically, people who cannot read and write have faced discrimination in the voting booths of America. Before the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, literacy tests were enacted as a way of disqualifying immigrants and the poor, who had less education, from casting a ballot. In the south, they were used to prevent Black people from registering to vote.

According to ProPublica, in 2022, around 48 million people in the United States struggle to read, about a fifth of the adult population. An analysis of voter turnout has found that in countries with lower literacy rates, voter turnout was lower as well.

“How the system is set up, it disenfranchises people,” voting rights advocate Olivia Coley-Pearson told ProPublica. Coley-Pearson is a city commissioner in Douglas, the county seat of Coffee County, Georgia. “It’s by design, I believe, because they want to maintain that power and that control.”


Recent laws passed in the south have made it more difficult for people to assist those who have difficulty reading at the voting booth. In 2021, Georgia passed a law that limits who can return or touch a completed ballot. Florida has made it more difficult for volunteers to ask voters if they need assistance and Texas passed a law prohibiting voters’ assistants from answering questions or paraphrasing complicated language on the ballot.

Fortunately, portions of the Texas law have been struck down.

No one knows firsthand how hard it is for people with difficulty reading to vote in the south more than Coley-Pearson. She’s been charged twice in Coffee County for trying to help people vote. "We're a rural community, there are racial issues, educational issues, employment issues,” she told ProPublica.

"Most of the people who have trouble reading, writing and understanding, they're not going to go vote. If you have a low voter turnout, that's some of the reason why," she told ProPublica.

In 2012, the chairman of Coffee County’s board of elections filed a complaint against Coley-Pearson and three other residents, alleging that they’d assisted voters who didn’t legally qualify for help.

“If someone asks me for help, I feel an obligation to try to assist if I could,” she testified at a 2016 hearing. “Sometimes things are done to try to maybe dis-encourage, or whatever, other people from voting, and I don’t feel like that is fair.”

A local district attorney's office charged her with two felonies for signing a form that gave a false reason for why a voter needed assistance and for improperly assisting a voter. According to BuzzFeed News, there were no allegations that Coley-Pearson had told anyone who to vote for or pressed any buttons on the voting machine for those she assisted.

“This is supposed to cause fear in those who would dare stand up for themselves,” Nefertara Clark, Coley-Pearson’s attorney, said, according to BuzzFeed News.

After six years of having the felony charges hanging over her, in 2018, the trial ended in a hung jury. She was tried again and the new jury acquitted her of all charges. “Next to losing my son, the most horrible thing I’ve experienced in my life,” Coley-Pearson told 11 Alive News.

In October 2020, while assisting someone with low literacy skills vote in the presidential election, she was barred from returning to the polls for allegedly touching a voting machine. Coley-Pearson said she never touched the machine.

The county’s election supervisor, Misty Martin, called the police on Coley-Pearson and they issued a trespass warning barring her from the polls indefinitely. Later that morning, when she returned with another voter, she was arrested and charged with trespassing.

A state judge dropped the charge earlier this year if Coley-Pearson agreed to follow election law. “There was no evidence of any crime here,” Coley-Pearson told ProPublica. “It feels like you’re fighting a losing battle.”

Even though Coley-Pearson has been victorious in court, her supporters tell her they're now afraid to vote because of her struggles. Unfortunately, these are the people who need their voices heard the most. "I say, 'That's exactly why you need to vote so we can stop stuff like that,'" she told ProPublica.

via @5kids5catssomedogstoo/TikTok

Lynalice Bandy shares what her home looks like after working six 10-hour days and getting no help from her husband.

A viral TikTok video highlights an extreme version of inequality that many wives and mothers in heterosexual relationships face. However, the mom in this story hit her limit and won’t deal with it anymore.

Lynalice Bandy, who goes by @5kids5catssomedogstoo on TikTok, posted a video that showed her home looking like a disaster after she worked six 10-hour days straight while her husband did nothing to help.

Her time-lapse video shows every room in the house completely trashed, with toys, food and laundry scattered everywhere. "Shampoo on the carpets in the girls' room, nail polish all over Nugget covers, hair, and carpet. Scissors were used to cut hair, the down comforter, the mattress cover, and two Nugget covers," wrote the mom.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pop Culture

From bottles to blankets: Cuddler transforms plastic waste into coziness

The Cuddler is a weighted blanket that combines luxury, sustainability, and stress relief.

With the demands of work, family, and social life, it's easy to overlook the importance of taking time for ourselves to recharge and rejuvenate. But a good night's sleep is key to maintaining our overall well-being, mental health, and productivity. Enter Let's Cuddle, a company dedicated to sustainably revolutionizing the way we rest with its flagship product, The Cuddler Weighted Blanket.

Get 10% off:
LETSCUDDLE10
cuddler weighted blanket
The Cuddler
From $264 NOW AT LET'S CUDDLE

Let's Cuddle is on a mission to help you unlock the best version of yourself, starting with your sleep routine. They've designed The Cuddler, a premium weighted blanket, with your ultimate comfort in mind. It's not just about providing a cozy and luxurious sleep experience; Let's Cuddle is committed to creating products that positively impact your life and the environment. The Cuddler offers the perfect blend of luxury, sustainability, and stress relief to help you rest with intention.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pop Culture

Tense video shows a woman filming herself after sensing a man following her. She was right.

“See this gentleman behind me? Yeah, this is what this video’s about.”

@lacie_kraatz/TikTok

Lacie films as the mysterious man visibly gets closer.

It’s no secret that even the most seemingly safe of public places can instantly turn dangerous for a woman. Is it fair? No. But is it common? Absolutely, to the point where more and more women are documenting moments of being stalked or harassed as a grim reminder to be aware of one’s surroundings.

Lacie (@lacie_kraatz) is one of those women. On April 11th, she was out on a run when she noticed a man in front of her displaying suspicious behavior. Things got especially dicey when the man somehow got behind her. That’s when she pulled out her phone and started filming—partially to prove that it wasn’t just her imagination, and also out of fear for her safety.

“Hello. I’m just making this video so that women are a little more aware of them,” she begins in the video. “See this gentleman behind me? Yeah, this is what this video’s about.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Family

Mom shares hacks for making sure her children with ADHD have a smooth morning

She pulls from her own experience with ADHD to help her kids.

Mom shares helpful morning routine for ADHD kids.

Getting kids up and out the door in the mornings can be a struggle whether your children have ADHD or not. A lot of mornings, it feels like anything goes, from your kid waking up looking like they just fought a flock of wild geese in their sleep to them forgetting their left shoe in the refrigerator.

Why was their shoe in there to begin with? No one knows.

Having kids is committing to organized chaos at any given moment, while also accepting that sometimes the chaos isn't organized at all. It's just a free-for-all, and all the tiny humans look like different versions of you. But Tarah Carr, who created the TikTok page @thatadhdlife, has come up with a solution to morning chaos that helps get her kids out of the house on time and ready for the day.

Carr is neurodivergent and so are her three children. All four of them have ADHD, but it was Carr's personal experience with ADHD as a child that helped inform the routine she created for her children.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pop Culture

'Princess Bride' star Mandy Patinkin shared a moving detail about the film with a grieving woman

Two souls connecting over the loss of their fathers. (Phew, grab a tissue for this one, folks.)

via Mandy Patinkin / TikTok

There was an emotional exchange on TikTok between two people who lost their fathers to cancer. One was actor Mandy Patinkin, the other was TikTok user Amanda Webb.

Patinkin currently stars on "The Good Fight" but one of his most famous roles is Inigo Montoya in the 1987 classic "The Princess Bride." In the film, Montoya is a swordsman who is obsessed with confronting a six-fingered man who killed his father.

Webb recently lost her father Dan to mantle cell lymphoma. She had heard a rumor that Patinkin used his father's death from cancer as motivation in a pivotal scene where he confronts the six-fingered Count Rugen (Christopher Guest) in a duel.

Keep ReadingShow less
Family

Boy can't contain his tears as he sings emotional solo at his parents' vow renewal

He poured his entire heart into his song and everyone felt it.

@chasingabundance/TikTok

12-year-old Aiden getting emotional while singing at his parents' vow renewal

It might have been his parents’ vow renewal ceremony, but 12-year-old Aiden completely stole the show—along with a few million hearts—the instant he began singing.

In a clip shared by videographer Danielle Tufano, the young boy only got out a few notes of Calum Scott's "You Are The Reason” (a song he chose specifically to express his love to Mom and Dad on their big day) before he was moved to tears. His intense emotion paired with a truly lovely singing voice made the ballad all that more powerful as he gained composure and finished his solo.
Keep ReadingShow less