Sulaiman Ahmad, a second-year law student at South Carolina Law (second from left), stands next to Vice President Kamala Harris during a June meeting in Greenville to discuss voting rights issues. | Photo courtesy of the Office of the U.S. Vice President.
Sulaiman Ahmad, a second-year law student at South Carolina Law (second from left), stands next to Vice President Kamala Harris during a June meeting in Greenville to discuss voting rights issues. | Photo courtesy of the Office of the U.S. Vice President.
Sulaiman Ahmad is a second-year law student at the University of South Carolina, but recently he experienced something seasoned attorneys never get the privilege of doing - discussing important issues with the vice president of the United States.
Ahmad was invited to be part of a face-to-face meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris last June, when she was in Greenville, South Carolina, to discuss voter registration and strengthening the nation’s election infrastructure.
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Ahmad told the SC School of Law website. “I couldn’t believe that I would have a chance to meet her at all, much less to talk about something I’m so passionate about.”
Ahmad said he believes he was among three people from the state to meet with Harris, because of his personal endeavors as an undergraduate to help secure voting rights for all citizens.
Ahmad's advocacy began in 2016 as a junior at Furman University, when he sued his hometown of Greenville over unfair voter registration practices that restricted students from voting. He and two friends from out-of-state were denied the right to vote in South Carolina after filling out a questionnaire that included questions such as where they went to church and the address listed on their fishing license.
“I spoke with a professor who told me about previous Furman students who had tried and failed to remove the restriction, but I was determined and decided to take action,” Ahmad recalled in the SC School of Law release.
With help from the South Carolina chapter of the ACLU, Ahmad filed a lawsuit in September 2016. Weeks later, a judge stopped the use of the questionnaire by Greenville County and granted the students the right to vote.
It was a meaningful experience not just for the people of Greenville, but Ahmad, who in 2018 worked in Virginia for Let America Vote, an organization devoted to ending voter suppression. He also worked for the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign where he saw issues with voter registration and turnout in the Palmetto State.
Ahmad shared his experiences and ideas with Harris, whom he said seemed receptive to his passion for voter registration.
“We cannot and must not let voting become partisan because voting rights are not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue,” Ahmad said. “They are an American issue.”
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