US election 2020: Meghan tells women they are 'complicit' if they don't vote
Ahead of the presidential election, the Duchess of Sussex makes a plea to female voters to make a "change" by going to the polls.
Friday 21 August 2020 07:14, UK
The Duchess of Sussex has urged women to vote in the upcoming US presidential election, saying: "If you aren't going out there and voting, then you're complicit."
Meghan appeared via videolink at a virtual event held by When All Women Vote, which aims to increase participation in US elections.
She thanked Michelle Obama, one of the co-chairwomen of the initiative, before making a plea to female voters to make a "change" by going to the polls.
The duchess said: "When I think about voting and why this is so exceptionally important for all of us, I would frame it as, we vote to honour those who came before us and to protect those who will come after us.
"Because that's what community is all about and that's specifically what this election is all about.
"We're only 75 days away from election day and that is so very close, and yet there's so much work to be done in that amount of time, because we all know what's at stake this year.
"I know it, I think all of you certainly know if you're here on this fun event with us, then you're just as mobilised and energised to see the change that we all need and deserve."
As well as encouraging voter participation, the event commemorated the centennial of America's 19th Amendment, which granted some women the right to vote.
Meghan said it was "simply not OK" that women in some communities are "still struggling to see that right come to fruition".
"And we look at the attempts of voter suppression and what that's doing, all the more reason we need each of you to be out there supporting each other to understand that this fight is worth fighting and we all have to be out there mobilising to have our voices heard," she told the event.
"I think we are obviously faced with a lot of problems in our world right now, both in the physical world and in the digital world, but we can and must do everything we can to ensure all women have their voices heard.
"Because at this juncture, if we aren't part of the solution, we are part of the problem.
"If you aren't going out there and voting, then you're complicit.
"If you are complacent, you're complicit."
The duchess - who did not refer to any specific candidate or political party during the virtual event - has previously suggested she will use her vote in the US election.
Members of the Royal Family traditionally do not vote, and the Queen is politically neutral.
"I know what it's like to have a voice, and also what it's like to feel voiceless," Meghan told Marie Claire.
Although UK law does not ban royalty from voting, it is considered unconstitutional for them to do so.
American-born Meghan quit as a senior working royal in March and now lives in the US, although she still remains a member of the Royal Family.
She and Harry have reportedly bought an £11m home in the celebrity hotspot of Santa Barbara.
Speaking to The 19th online news site last week, Meghan encouraged Americans to register to vote and remarked about the Duke of Sussex: "My husband, for example.
"He's never been able to vote, and I think it's such an interesting thing to say that the right to vote is not a privilege, it's a right in and of itself."