The GOP is trying to make it even harder to vote. Here’s how we fight back:
We are standing on the precipice of the largest expansion of voting rights in a generation. And it couldn’t have come at a better time. While voting in our country has long been designed to keep people out, the For the People Act confronts this history head on by removing roadblocks to the ballot box that should never have been there in the first place.
The story of our democracy is still being written, and this is our moment to learn from our past and protect our future. By expanding access to voting, we can achieve a truly representative, multiracial democracy that finally reflects all of us.
We’ve explored how the For the People Act would get big money out of our politics, shut down corruption, and close ethics loopholes for government officials. The last tenet of the bill is about expanding voting rights, dismantling racist barriers to voting, and making it easier for all Americans to cast a ballot.
ACCESS TO THE BALLOT BOX
Almost every election highlights the many flaws, inconsistencies, and barriers that Americans continuously face around the country when trying to vote, and our most recent one was no exception. From Maine to Alaska, each state has its own laws on how to run an election — and after the Voting Rights Act was gutted in 2013, they have unique ways of suppressing the votes of tens of thousands of Black and Brown voters in every state.
Some states gerrymander districts, drawing lines that unfairly portion out the population so that Black and Brown voters remain underrepresented. Other states go the more bureaucratic route, implementing confusing voter ID and registration laws, enacting unnecessary voter purges, and refusing to re-enfranchise the currently and formerly incarcerated.
Take Wisconsin. Due to a lawsuit backed by conservative special interests ahead of the 2020 election, 234,000 voters who did not respond to a mailer were at risk of being purged. Most of these mailers were sent to Milwaukee county, where a majority of Wisconsin’s Black voters live.
The names and methods may have changed, but the spirit behind voter suppression is the same as it was in the Jim Crow era.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The For the People Act is the legislation we need to dismantle these racist barriers to voting.
The bill would enact sweeping nationwide reforms like automatic voter registration and same day registration. It would also work to restore voting rights to the formerly incarcerated, reduce unnecessary voter purges, and expand early voting. It would put an end to partisan and racial gerrymandering — no more politicians cherry-picking voters to push forward their right-wing, self-serving agendas!
Enacting these reforms would place political power back in the hands of regular voters, especially those in Black and Brown communities who have suffered the most at the hands of these policies.
Red, blue or purple, each state can do better to help people vote. It’s up to us to create a truly representative democracy and that starts with the Senate passing the For the People Act.
Until next time, thanks for standing with us!