December, 08 2021, 12:57pm EDT
75+ Indivisible Groups from Red States with Extreme Voter Suppression to Senate Democrats: "S.O.S.! Pass the Freedom to Vote Act!"
As the Senate prepares to take up Sen. Joe Manchin's Freedom to Vote Act, 75+ Indivisible groups from 23 states like Texas, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, and more sent a letter to Senate Democrats urging them to pass the Freedom to Vote Act before the end of the year.
WASHINGTON
As the Senate prepares to take up Sen. Joe Manchin's Freedom to Vote Act, 75+ Indivisible groups from 23 states like Texas, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, and more sent a letter to Senate Democrats urging them to pass the Freedom to Vote Act before the end of the year. (Full text of letter here):
"In many of our states, our ability to participate in our democracy is under attack by Republican-led legislatures and Republican governors... The only solution now is to pass federal democracy reform legislation to override the harm that has already been done and that will prevent future attacks on our constitutional right to vote.
Despite our best attempts, Republicans have already blocked votes on democracy bills four different times this year. We do not see a future where any Republican (let alone ten) joins with you to vote in favor of structural democracy reforms. Trust us, we've tried."
Indivisible leaders and partners who have been taking action on the front lines of these Republican-governed states with Republican senators are calling on Senate Democrats to address the dim state of voter protections in their states by passing federal legislation:
"Florida is one of the states where voter suppression is in high gear, and getting worse. Without a set of minimum standards set at the national level, the advocates of anti-democratic authoritarianism will continue to control this state, and may well take national control," said Bob Scanlon with IndivisibleRISE in Tallahassee, Florida. "It's hard to win when one side makes an art form of cheating, and the other side abides by the rules. The U.S. Senate needs to act, and the filibuster cannot begin to compare in importance with voting rights and safe, honestly counted votes, which are the bedrock of representative democracy."
"Growing up in the segregated south during the Jim Crow era, I witnessed the atrocities heaped upon Blacks in their efforts to secure the right to vote firsthand. My mother was 40 years old and my grandmother was 62 before they were even allowed to vote," said Virginia Toliver of Indivisible Northeast Mississippi. "The stringent voter restrictions now in place are tantamount to those early experiences, and the historical absence of appropriate voting accommodation measures ensures that this will remain or even worsen. Senate Democrats and President Biden must follow through on their oaths to protect our democracy, and diligently pursue passage of the Freedom to Vote Act immediately!"
"The people of North Carolina have felt the growing impact of voter suppression. In recent redistricting, our county was split into three nonsensical districts to make it so that Democratic voters have no fair chance of electing Democratic representatives," said Joel Gallagher of Indivisible Guilford County. "Despite attempts to work with Republican lawmakers, they continue to refuse to work with Democratic colleagues, local constituents, and voter-focused organizations. Given this dynamic, the only way to ensure that every voter has a voice is for the Senate to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act -- any way they can. There is no other option."
Federal voting rights legislation is absolutely critical to preserving basic democratic rights in republican-led states that are passing voter suppression through state legislatures.
Indivisible Project (501c4) drives coordinated campaigns, powering the grassroots Indivisible movement to defeat the rightwing takeover of American government and win an inclusive democracy and bold progressive policies.
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