By Heidi Przybyla
WASHINGTON — In the closing weeks of a general election, the vanguard of Democratic advocacy groups would typically be focused on electing candidates championing their various issue agendas — from gun safety to veterans and women’s issues. But this year, a number of such groups are banding together for what they say is an unprecedented and necessary cause: preserving the integrity of the 2020 vote.
The campaign, which includes gun safety, women’s reproductive rights, LGBTQ, Latino and veterans groups, launches Wednesday to “serve as a powerful counterweight to President Trump’s and the Republican Party’s relentless and unprecedented voter suppression efforts and attacks on the right to vote, especially in the middle of a pandemic,” according to a statement given to NBC by organizers of the effort.
In late August, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., joined a video call to encourage representatives of the new campaign to work together to fight voting misinformation, recruit poll workers, register voters and protect voting rights.
Kris Brown, president of Brady, the anti-gun violence organization, said her group began working on the issue and joined the coalition because its activists and supporters have voiced concern about whether the election can be conducted fairly during the pandemic and because of the expected huge spike in ballots cast by mail. Trump has repeatedly attacked mail-in voting, saying without evidence that it is rife with fraud.
“We are not a voting rights organization, and we don’t pretend to be,” Brown said. “I hope, quite frankly, it’s never required this way again.”
Brady is dedicating resources, including full-time personnel and its legal team, which is filing amicus briefs in lawsuits filed by state attorneys general over U.S. Postal Service disruptions.
Other participants in the coalition include: NARAL Pro Choice America, J Street, Democracy Docket, the Communications Workers of America, Vote Vets, the Latino Victory Fund, the Human Rights Campaign and the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.
Democrats argue that Republican-controlled states have tried to curb voting access for years, citing the closing of polling locations in minority districts in battlegrounds like Ohio and, more recently, Georgia.
“Republicans are fighting for a free, fair, and transparent election,” Steve Guest, rapid response director for the Republican National Committee, told NBC News in response to the effort. “Meanwhile, it’s Democrats who are the ones limiting voting options which disenfranchises voters. We want to ensure that all votes are counted properly. This is about getting more people to vote, certainly not less.”
Tiffany Muller, president of Let America Vote which is organizing the coalition, said the Trump administration’s efforts to challenge the work of the Postal Service persuaded her group to mobilize the effort.
“It’s not enough to just activate our members or do the typical organizing we would have done during campaign times,” Mueller said. “There’s an entire infrastructure on the other side fighting people being able to vote. It’s needed in this moment of crisis that we’re in.”
The campaign aims to serve as a clearinghouse for safe voting information; coordinate rapid response to Trump’s “efforts at voter suppression, including his attempts to undermine the Post Office”; and combat misinformation related to voting and the election.
Members will also help coordinate the return of absentee ballots and will recruit poll workers, voter registration volunteers and voter protection monitors, as well as conduct a public awareness campaign to remind voters to return their absentee ballots.
Separately, paid digital and mail advertising campaigns will remind voters how to cast ballots, especially during a pandemic.
The coalition adds to a far broader and “unprecedented” infrastructure that has been built over the past several years, beginning with civil rights groups that have been sounding the alarm about voting rights for years, said Guy Cecil, chair of Priorities USA, which says it plans to spend $34 million on voting rights this cycle.
“The investment is unlike anything I’ve seen,” he said, because “it’s not just established voting rights groups” heading to the front lines of the battle.