meghan voting© Photo: Getty Images

Meghan Markle to mark important anniversary with next public appearance

The Duchess of Sussex has previously spoken about the importance of voting

Online Royal CorrespondentLondon
August 19, 2020

The Duchess of Sussex will join a virtual couch party to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote in the United States in 1920.

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WATCH: Meghan Markle turns interviewer in last public appearance

Meghan will join The United State of Women and When We All Vote event on Thursday 20 August alongside Board Chair Valerie Jarrett, Glamour's editor-in-chief Samantha Barry, actor and activist Yvette Nicole Brown and DJ Diamond Kuts.

The event programme says: "We will honour the 19th Amendment, celebrate the women of colour who have fought to make the promise of the 19th Amendment a reality for ALL women, and highlight the need to expand voting rights for marginalized communities."

Meghan was also among 100 influential women picked by Marie Claire US last week to share their personal reason to cast a ballot ahead of the US election in November. She said: "I know what it's like to have a voice, and also what it's like to feel voiceless. I also know that so many men and women have put their lives on the line for us to be heard. And that opportunity, that fundamental right, is in our ability to exercise our right to vote and to make all of our voices heard.

"One of my favourite quotes, and one that my husband and I have referred to often, is from Kate Sheppard, a leader in the suffragist movement in New Zealand, who said, 'Do not think your single vote does not matter much. The rain that refreshes that parched ground is made up of single drops.' That is why I vote."

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meghan markle chat 4© The 19th*

Meghan during her interview with Emily Ramshaw

The Duchess also shared her thoughts on the importance of voting as she turned interviewer in her last public appearance at The 19th* Represents virtual summit on Friday. She told the website's co-founder and CEO Emily Ramshaw: "When I have these conversations about encouraging people to go out and vote, I think it’s often challenging for men and women alike certainly for people to remember just how hard it was for people to get the right to vote. And to be really aware of not taking that for granted.

"I look at that, my husband [Prince Harry] for example, he’s never been able to vote. And I think it’s such an interesting thing to say the right to vote is not a privilege, it is a right in and of itself."

Members of the royal family traditionally do not vote, and the Queen is politically neutral. Although UK law does not ban royalty from voting, it is considered unconstitutional for them to do so.

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