Is Meghan Markle Allowed to Vote in the Midterm Elections Now That She's a Royal?

Is Meghan Markle Allowed to Vote in the Midterm Elections Now That She's a Royal? As she powered towards the finishing line of her 16-da...

Is Meghan Markle Allowed to Vote in the Midterm Elections Now That She's a Royal?

As she powered towards the finishing line of her 16-day tour Down Under last week, Meghan Markle made a passionate speech about women’s right to vote.

Now, as America goes to the polls in Tuesday’s crucial midterm elections, has the Duchess of Sussex carried out her right to vote back in the U.S.?

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Meghan, 37, who is currently going through the years-long process of applying for British citizenship, can still vote in her home country. And her speech last week echoed what she had written on her former lifestyle blog, The Tig, back in November 2016, when the former Suits star spoke out about the importance of voting in a post titled, “Because You Must.”

“The right to vote is something for which blood, sweat, and tears have been shed; the struggle was endless for us to have this liberty,” wrote Meghan, who was filming her legal drama in Toronto at the time.

“I ticked the boxes on my absentee ballot last week, closing my eyes and thinking of my great grandparents who didn’t have this right (and thinking of how it would have changed the lives of my grandparents if they had),” she continued. “So on this day we urge you to exercise said right. Please vote. The fact that we can makes us the lucky ones.”

Meghan called Donald Trump “misogynistic” and “divisive” during an appearance on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. She also posted to Instagram in support of Hillary Clinton.

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But she is in a tricky position this time around. Her grandmother-in-law Queen Elizabeth doesn’t vote in elections as she has to be seen to be impartial as head of state â€" and thus to stay “strictly neutral with respect to political matters,” she is “unable to vote or stand for election,” the royal family’s website states.

Senior members of the royal family under convention usually don’t take up their right to vote. But the duchess’s office at Kensington Palace won’t elaborate on whether she has voted in the U.S.’s midterm elections. “No comment,” is all they would say.

However, Meghan’s views on the importance of voting were clear during her speech last week to celebrate New Zealand’s 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage.

“The achievements of the women of New Zealand who campaigned for their right to vote, and were the first in the world to achieve it, are universally admired,” she said. “In looking forward to this very special occasion, I reflected on the importance of this achievement, but also the larger impact of what this symbolizes.”

“Because yes, women’s suffrage is about feminism, but feminism is about fairness,” Meghan continued. “Suffrage is not simply about the right to vote but also about what that represents: the basic and fundamental human right of being able to participate in the choices for your future and that of your community, the involvement and voice that allows you to be a part of the very world that you are a part of.”

Meghan, who is expecting her first child in the spring, will next appear alongside Harry and Prince William and Kate Middleton this weekend during events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

Source: Google News US Entertainment | Netizen 24 United States