New Yorkers rally across the city in solidarity
with the Women’s March in Washington D.C.
BY TEQUILA
MINSKY
Four local rallies on
Saturday—Long
Island City, Snug
Harbor, Grand Army
Plaza and Washington
Square Park drew hundreds
in solidarity with
the Women’s March in
Washington DC.
The messages sent
were in opposition
to President Trump’s
agenda particularly the
rush to replace the late
Supreme Court Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Dedicated to Ginsburg’s
legacy and along with
fi ghting Amy Coney Barrett’s
nomination were
demands of justice for
Breonna Taylor.
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Families marching
together. Dissent is patriotic
reads one sign.
Cooper Union window display features
70 years worth of ballots
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
As early voting nears, a new exhibition,
“This is What Democracy
Looked Like: A Visual History
of the Printed Ballot,” in the colonnade
windows of The Cooper Union showcases
election ballots from the last 70 years of the
United State’s history.
The rare ballots, or what some call “fugitive
ephemera,” being that printed ballots
are legally required to be destroyed, highlights
the visual history of the country’s
election process.
The free exhibition at The Cooper Union
for the Advancement of Science and Art’s
historic Foundation Building, located at 7
E. 7th Street, will be on display through
Nov. 7.
The outdoor exhibit features print reproductions
of 26 individual ballots from the
nineteenth century.
The display was curated by Alicia Cheng,
a founding partner of MGMT. design and
The Cooper Union’s Fall 2019 Frank
COURTESY OF THE COOPER UNION/PHOTO BY MARGET LONG
Stanton Chair in Graphic Design.
“Ballots today may look boring and bureaucratic,
but they are the most direct tool
of participatory democracy,” said Cheng.
“The act of voting is a critical part of our
civic discourse. From absentee votes to
protest write-ins, ballots are a direct way
for us to express ourselves as citizens. But
historically there wasn’t any regulations
for how a ballot looked or how it was produced.
These visual artifacts demonstrate
how voting has changed, helping us better
understand how our struggle in making
an imperfect system that is honest and fair
might have evolved.”
Before the 20th century there was no
federal oversight for the election ballot. The
parties paid to produce, print, and distribute
their own ballots. Parties used colored
inks, paper stock or illustrations explicitly
so party members could easily track which
votes were cast, evidence of early methods
of voter suppression and intimidation.
By the early 20th century, a federally
regulated ballot was introduced, leading
to a design more familiar to us today.
“This is What Democracy Looked Like”
reps argue the new format is “obviously
fraught with problems that continue now,
such confusion of what to mark or where
to mark (think of this century’s infamous
“hanging chad”).”
In conjunction with the exhibition,
The Cooper Union is also hosting a virtual
panel on Oct. 26, featuring Cheng in
conversation with Samantha Bee, Zephyr
Teachout, and Victoria Bassetti about why
the 2020 election might pave the way to a
new era of electoral integrity.
Schneps Media October 22, 2020 3