Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #FreedomToVoteAct

Most recents (24)

The U.S. Senate has finally begun debate on the #JohnLewisVotingRightsAct and #FreedomtoVoteAct.

I choose an American democracy that stands up to Trump’s Big Lie.

I choose elections free of voter suppression.

I choose protecting everyone's right to vote.
For months, Senate Democrats have been working to bring voting rights legislation like the #JohnLewisVotingRightsAct and #FreedomToVoteAct to the floor of the Senate for consideration. Each time, Republicans blocked us — they wouldn’t even let us debate the bills.
Today, we are taking action to move past Republican obstruction. The debate has begun on passing legislation to strengthen our Democracy and protect voting rights.
Read 9 tweets
We all need to be clear: the Electoral Count Act is NOT a substitute for #VotingRights!! Any discussion of this as a replacement for #FreedomToVoteAct is unacceptable! If @SenateDems go along with this, you can say goodbye to ‘22 AND ‘24 (and much more). @SenSchumer.
And @POTUS needs to send a clear message to @SenateDems that if they send this Trojan Horse legislation to him without #FreedomToVoteAct, he will veto it. It’s insulting that this is even being floated by GOP or *anyone else* on #MLKDay.
Some pundits, like @chucktodd will talk of need for bipartisan. As Senator Warnock reminded us a few weeks ago: slavery was bipartisan. We will not sacrifice our #VotingRights to the golden calf of bipartisanship.

But, w/ that said, #FreedomToVoteAct is *already* bipartisan…
Read 7 tweets
Since January 6th, Republican-led state legislatures have introduced over 262 election subversion bills in 41 states with 32 becoming law across 17 states. (1/4) protectdemocracy.org/project/democr…
The #FreedomToVoteAct would create a statutory right to vote and includes critical provisions against interference with election administration to help prevent election results from being manipulated or overturned by partisan state actors. (2/4)
While bipartisanship is an endangered species these days, we polled on this issue and found widespread bipartisan support for measures to prevent subversion of future elections. (3/4) protectdemocracy.org/update/polling…
Read 4 tweets
Some worry that making changes to the filibuster (there are more than 160 already) will make the Senate more polarized—more like the House—undermining the stability of federal policy. /1
This concern is driven by how polarized our politics has grown. To prove the point, Mitch McConnell (using comic-villain language) threatened to burn down the Senate if Democrats alter the filibuster to pass critical voting & democracy reforms. /2
Of course, this concern is overblown: the filibuster has not saved the Senate from becoming dysfunctional & polarized or ensured stable federal laws and policies. /3
Read 27 tweets
The #FreedomToVoteAct & #JohnLewisVotingRightsAct are bills to protect our elections.

Know what’s in the bill! 📜🗳

🤯 You will be SHOCKED if your Senators won’t support this common sense.

Here’s quick break down:
#FreedomToVoteAct includes

🐣2 weeks of early voting, including nights and weekends, for towns over 3000 people

📬 Vote by mail

🗳 dropping ballots at polling places or dropboxes

🎊making Election Day a holiday

💳 uniform Voter ID laws for all states that require it
#FreedomToVoteAct

🗣 makes it a crime to lie to voters to deter them from voting

💰increases penalties for voter intimidation

⚖️ restores voting rights to people who have served time

⏳ requires no one has to wait more than 30 minutes to vote
Read 10 tweets
I was in the room where it happened when Susan Collins threw her support by Kavanaugh. Just before she spoke, in come a cluster of GOP congressmen - ones that all look like they’re over 100 - & sit behind her like vultures. My first thought was, ‘peer pressure from Cryptkeepers’
But, they know where the cameras are in the Senate Chamber and clearly carefully positioned the visual for a speech about accepting a Supreme Court Judge who had been accused of sexual assault - not investigated- drawing thousands of protesters from across the country. #MeToo
About 2 minutes into her speech, we saw where it was going and got up and stomped out as loudly as we could without getting arrested - they had already arrested some of her Maine constituents. Senator Collins glanced up as we exited.
(Hear at about 1.50 )
Read 4 tweets
As the #FreedomToVote #JohnLewisVotingRightsAct makes it way to the floor today, expect a lot of disinformation and misunderstandings about what this critical democracy-saving legislation does. This thread will set the record straight. /1
2/ (1) Despite the record number of new laws this year making it harder to vote, and the persistent racial turnout gap, some claim that new voting restrictions don’t matter. @smoralesdoyle of @brennancenter buries that argument here:
3/ Here is more evidence of how much new voting restrictions can impact voters and elections: brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…
Read 16 tweets
Despite what some continue to argue on this website and elsewhere, the #FreedomToVoteAct (which the Senate is poised to start debating) offers an extremely robust response to the growing threat of election subversion.
The concerns being expressed focus on the risk of manipulating the electoral college count. That's important to address, but as many others have said, its just one facet of a much bigger problem, which the #FreedomToVoteAct confronts head on.
One of the biggest threats is that partisans will directly take control of the machinery of election administration and then use their power to manipulate vote counting--for example by trying to throw out some or all mail ballots.
Read 13 tweets
🚨BREAKING: Senator Schumer announces plan to push through filibuster and proceed with voting rights legislation using a procedure known as "messages between the Houses" in a caucus memo.

Here's what you need to know🧵👇
When the House and Senate pass different versions of the same bill, the bill must go through reconciliation in order for the chambers to approve the same bill text. Messages between the Houses is a form of reconciliation.
Here's what happens: when chambers disagree on bill text, they can send the bill back and forth to each other with revisions until a final text is agreed upon. Once the bill has been sent between chambers 3 times, the motion to proceed CANNOT be filibustered in the Senate.
Read 10 tweets
Breaking news! Ohio Supreme Court invalidated the state's gerrymandered legislative maps under a new state constitutional provision banning partisan gerrymandering. supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0…
Ohio is one of a handful of states that passed reforms last decade minimizing the risk of redistricting abuse. For a full rundown, see brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…
But there are no similar safeguards in most states. The only way to put an end to gerrymandering and other redistricting abuses across the country is to pass the #FreedomToVoteAct and the #JohnLewisVRAA, and to do so quickly. brennancenter.org/democracy-cant…
Read 5 tweets
My statement: I thank @POTUS and @VP for returning to Georgia to continue their steadfast advocacy for passage of federal legislation to protect the freedom to vote. They made clear again today that they are committed to restoring the Senate to safeguard our democracy. #gapol🧵
Anyone working to invest in Georgia - our jobs, health, infrastructure, technology and votes - should come speak about the good work they are doing. That is what the President and VP did today, and I look forward to continuing to work with them to make progress for Georgians.
While I was not able to attend today’s event, the President and I connected by phone this morning. We reaffirmed our shared commitment to the American project of freedom and democracy, as he did in his remarks today here in Georgia.
Read 11 tweets
19 states have enacted 34 laws making it harder for Americans to vote.
AL AR AZ FL GA IA ID IN KS KY LA MT NH NV NY OK TX UT WY
We NEED the #FreedomToVoteAct to #SaveDemocracy
Here's a THREAD of those laws, State-by-State, with Postcards.
RETWEET YOUR STATE!
#PostcardsforAmerica Image
More than 425 bills restricting voting access were introduced in 49 STATES in the 2021 legislative sessions.
At least 88 additional restrictive bills in 9 states will carry over to the 2022 legislative sessions.
We need the #FreedomToVoteAct and the #JohnLewisVotingRightsAct now! Image
America wants fair voting laws in their State. The #FreedomToVoteAct and #JohnLewisVotingRightsAct will make that possible.
83% of voters believe that federal government should pass laws to ensure that partisan officials cannot influence election outcomes.
#FightForOurVote Image
Read 22 tweets
Poignant note from @POTUS about past bipartisan support for #VotingRights. And guess what? It’s not just the #VotingRightsAct. Almost all the key provisions in the #FreedomToVoteAct have also enjoyed robust Republican support in the past:
👉Automatic voter registration —enacted by Republicans in many states, including GA
👉Early and mail voting—used for years by tens of millions of Republican voters
👉Ending gerrymandering—championed by prominent Republicans across the country, incl. former governors of CA and OH
The list goes on. And let’s not forget the courageous Republican election officials who have resisted election sabotage efforts and who this bill would protect.
Read 4 tweets
Biden reminds us that in 2006 the Senate vote 98-0 to reauthorize the #VotingRightsAct, incl 16 senators who still serve. We used to have bipartisan consensus in favor of voting rights. Just because congressional Rs don't support it now doesn't mean voting rights are partisan.
On this point, the provisions in the #FreedomToVoteAct are built off of reforms that were put in place by or with the support of Republicans in states across the country.
And those reforms (as well as the #JohnLewisVRAA) enjoy broad bipartisan (and Independent) support among members of the general public.
Read 4 tweets
I told @SpenserMestel (who wrote this misguided piece) that non-expert David Becker—who spread the myth that vote tallies can’t be hacked bc voting machines supposedly never connect 2 the internet—has prevented election security reform. He left it out. 1/ vice.com/en/article/m7v…
Instead, he cited Becker in support of the anti-transparency agenda of his hit piece. Which is odd because he said he had heard this about Becker already from at least one other person & that he would ask Becker how he got it so wrong. Did he ask him? Who knows? 2/
In my opinion, lack of transparency—including failure to message that REPUBLICANS had killed election security legislation b4 the election & the failure to declassify info re: the attack on the 29-6 election—are what enabled Trump to play victim. 3/
Read 33 tweets
Throughout my time in money-in-politics & democracy advocacy (from @FEC to Colbert to @CampaignLegal), it's become clear to me that too many Americans see our political system as rigged, corrupt, secretive & unaccountable.

This is why we need #FreedomToVoteAct + #JohnLewisVRAA.
I noted in my July 4, 2016 speech to @chq ("A Republic—If You Can Keep It!") that, at the time, 79% of Americans thought gov't is “run by a few big interests looking out for themselves" & 75% believed “corruption is widespread throughout the government”.
campaignlegal.org/document/repub…
Both Trump & Sanders capitalized on this anger. Having supermajorities of dissatisfied Americans is a real problem for our democracy. But it does not have to be this way! The Senate can pass #FreedomToVoteAct & #JohnLewisVRAA to help make the promise of democracy real for us all.
Read 4 tweets
Operation Mocking Bird.
List of participating Organizations:
CNN
FOX
NBC
ABC
Twitter
Facebook
Gttr
Parlor
Reddit
Antifa
BLM
Proud Boys
Oath Keepers
5 eyes alliance
 Australia
 Canada
 New Zealand
 United Kingdom
 United States
1
What we are seeing now is a result of this operation continuing to control the opinion of the general population.
It is now bigger than ever and includes fake personas that have social media accounts and post opposition to each other. The list may surprise you.
2
Read 13 tweets
🧵: On Jan. 6, 2021, 147 Members of Congress attempted to overthrow the results of a free and fair election, in direct support of the deadly insurrection former President Trump incited at the United States Capitol. They didn’t do it alone — corporations were at their side. 1/14
Despite these Members failing to uphold their oaths to the Constitution and placing our democracy in jeopardy, corporations have given these insurrectionist Members $18,000,000 over the past year. 2/14
As the Republican Party continues to spread the Big Lie and introduce and pass restrictive voting laws in states across the country, corporations haven’t stopped funding their campaigns. 3/14
Read 14 tweets
I’m not rushing to Jan. 6th without first acknowledging the significance of Jan. 5th. The determination, organizing & resilience of Black voters in Georgia resulted in the election of the first Black Senator since Reconstruction & the first Jewish statewide elected official ever.
When we ignore the significance of Jan. 5th we diminish our own power. Orgs like @BlackVotersMtr & @fairfightaction, @NAACP_LDF , @morethanavote, @LawyersComm & so many others fought in 2020 to ensure that Black voters could overcome obstacles to voting.
And credit to millions of Black Georgia voters who responded to efforts to suppress their vote with even greater determination. Waiting in line up to 9 hours to vote in the primary in Fulton County & showing up in historic numbers for the general. politico.com/news/2020/10/2…
Read 6 tweets
Despite a problematic op-ed recently published in the NYT, election subversion and #JimCrow era voter suppression wielded today are inextricably and problematically linked. We need the #FreedomToVoteAct and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to mitigate this harm. 🧵
Election subversion and voter suppression were used together during the #JimCrow era of the 1870s-1950s to prevent Black voters from utilizing their full electoral power in the South: (2/9)
Georgia: 33 Black lawmakers who helped write a new state constitution guaranteeing voting rights for formerly enslaved Georgians were expelled from the state legislature after white legislators argued they had no right to hold office. (3/9)
motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
Read 9 tweets
Competitive and fair elections are the bedrock of our democracy—they help ensure our electoral system isn't too extreme and polarized.

But Republicans in TX, OH, NC, and GA are passing new maps that eliminate competitive districts. Why does this matter? A thread🧵👇
Eliminating competition by gerrymandering safe seats allows extremists to avoid appealing to a broader electorate. On the flip side, extremists have a hard time winning elections when maps are fair & districts are competitive b/c they have to appeal to a more diverse electorate.
Most Americans want to see progress on healthcare, climate change, and ending gun violence. But none of that is possible if conservatives continue to engineer electoral wins by drawing safe districts and manipulating the maps.
Read 4 tweets
The 14th Amendment, the 15th Amendment, the Enforcement Acts, the Klu Klux Klan Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1875 all passed without a single Democratic vote. Sometimes doing the right thing is more important than being bipartisan.
Does anyone really think we shouldn't have given former slaves full citizenship and the right to vote, and protected them from being terrorized in the south because it wasn't bipartisan?
Sometimes doing what's right is more important than being bipartisan. It takes casting a hard, and yes, sometimes partisan vote. Well this is one of those times. We can't allow those openly hostile to democracy dicate the terms of it's reform.
Read 5 tweets

Related hashtags

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!