This week, End Citizens United // Let America Vote released a new ad directly calling on President Joe Biden to urge the Senate to reform the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation; twenty-one state Attorneys General wrote a letter to congressional leaders in both parties urging swift passage of voting rights legislation in the face of state-level voter suppression and election subversion efforts; state legislators from across the country hosted a rally calling for the passage of federal voting protections; and voting rights groups addressed a letter to President Biden demanding a more aggressive response to Republican-led voting rights restrictions, saying “we cannot out-organize voter suppression” and calling on President Biden to urge the Senate to reform the filibuster.
The urgency to pass federal voting rights legislation comes as the GOP continues its nationwide assault on the freedom to vote across the country.
In Georgia, amid the passage of SB202 and an ensuing legal challenge brought forth by the U.S. Department of Justice, 57 U.S. House Republicans have sided with the state’s restrictive voter law. The law’s restrictions for mail-in ballots could affect more than 270,000 Georgians and the provisions cutting the number of ballot drop boxes could affect hundreds of thousands of Georgia voters who cast absentee ballots that way in 2020.
At the same time, Georgia election officials are taking the first steps in the process that could lead to hundreds of thousands of voters being removed from the voter rolls.
In Texas, an evaluation of a proposed voting bill (HB3) showed that in rural areas the bill would actually pose further challenges to Texas voters, as they would have to travel to register in person to be able to vote by mail each year and ensure the ID number they use to register is the same one previously on file with the state. Governor Greg Abbott called another special session this week to pass this restrictive voting bill, after Democrats twice blocked passage by heroically walking out of the state special sessions and not allowing a quorum.
In Wisconsin, 205,000 voter registrations were cancelled by Wisconsin Election Commission officials, despite a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling earlier this year determining voters flagged for having potentially moved residences should not be removed. The initial challenge to these voter registrations came from right-leaning dark money special interest groups in the state.
In Kansas, after Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez announced that she would not charge cases involving newly passed restrictive state election laws (HB2183 and HB2332), Republican Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt stated he intends to prosecute cases related to the anti-voter laws and urged law enforcement to refer such cases to him.
With the GOP’s persistence in restricting the right to vote and their continuation of sham “audits” across the country rooted in the ‘Big Lie’, the Republican party and their dark money allies have made it clear that they are willing to do whatever it takes to restrict access to the ballot box, including disenfranchising eligible Americans from voting. Without Congress passing the For the People Act, these partisan attacks on the freedom to vote will continue nationwide, causing further harm to our democracy.
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