Call to Action
Call your Senators BEFORE MLK Jr. Day and tell them:
To pass both the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act now!
Press Senators Manchin and Sinema to carve out a voting rights exception to the current filibuster rules.
On the anniversary of the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th, President Biden asked simply, “Are we going to be a nation where we allow partisan election officials to overturn the legally expressed will of the people?" We must answer, NO! Absolutely, NOT!
Republicans, led by Donald Trump, are waging a national campaign of election sabotage. At the moment that campaign is focused at the state level in Republican controlled states. The key battles include laws designed to make voting much more difficult, to gerrymander state and congressional district boundaries, to politicize the procedures for counting and certifying votes and to install Republican judges who will countenance all of these actions.
Next week the Senate will vote on two bills already passed by the House of Representatives - the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act - which will address some of these partisan attempts to rig our elections. These laws are vital to ensuring a fair election in 2022 and beyond.
Democrats have all but two votes needed to turn these bills into law. Two Democratic Senators - Joe Manchin and Kirstin Sinema - both of whom claim to support the passage of these two laws, have refused to join their colleagues in passing the necessary procedural change to the Senate rules. (The rule in question determines when debate on the bill ends and voting can begin. Refusing to allow a vote is usually called a filibuster. This rule is not in the constitution, was rarely used before the 1950s and has been used almost exclusively to deny people their civil rights.)
Finally, it is worth noting that all of the voter suppression laws were passed in states with simple majorities. It is essential that we have the” simple majority” rule in the Senate to protect the vote.
Call your Senators NOW! Demand that they pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act!