AZ Republicans have introduced 40 bills to undermine democracy & 22 to make it harder to vote
Voting rights activists have message for Sinema: abolish filibuster to pass HR1 & John Lewis Voting Rights Act or watch GOP eviscerate fair elections
AZ Republicans moving bills to purge 200,000 voters from vote by mail list, throw out ballots if not postmarked by Thursday before election even if arrive by Election Day & require access to copier or printer to vote by mail. “It’s legislating by conspiracy theory”
56 years ago today LBJ introduced Voting Rights Act before joint session of Congress & said, "It is wrong — deadly wrong — to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote." It was known as "We Shall Overcome" speech, one of greatest ever by US president
After gutting Voting Rights Act to unleash wave of new voter suppression in states like GA & TX, GOP now trying to kill what's left of law & pass 253 new voting restrictions
John Lewis & MLK watched LBJ's speech introducing VRA in Selma, where Lewis brutally beaten 8 days earlier on Bloody Sunday. First time he'd ever seen MLK cry
"To hear Lyndon Johnson say, ‘And we shall overcome,’ it was beautiful" Lewis told me when I wrote Give Us the Ballot
New: @staceyabrams tells me Senate Dems should exempt bills protecting voting rights from filibuster in order to pass HR1 & John Lewis Voting Rights Act
“the right to protect democracy should not be thwarted by minority imposition" she says
Wave of GOP voter suppression bills in states like Georgia makes it all the more urgent for Dems to pass HR1 & John Lewis Voting Rights Act
“if we do not protect the participation of voters in our election system, we will find ourselves losing our democracy” says @staceyabrams
Here’s what @staceyabrams had to say to Dems like Joe Manchin & Kyrsten Sinema who want to keep filibuster
"we have to make certain that a minority of people cannot be in power in the Senate, and therefore deny the basic principles of citizenship to millions of Americans"
Breaking: Republicans in Georgia Senate just voted to repeal no-excuse absentee voting, which 1.3 million voters used in November, including 450,000 Republicans
Georgia Republicans wrote mail voting law & defended until Dems & Black voters started using in large numbers
Georgia Republicans passing largest rollback of voting rights since Jim Crow, targeting mail voting, early voting & automatic voter registration
On March 7 1965 John Lewis brutally beaten marching for voting rights on Bloody Sunday in Selma
56 years later Republicans have introduced 253 new voter suppression laws in 43 states
This is why we need to pass John Lewis Voting Rights Act & For the People Act
At time of Bloody Sunday in March 1965 only 2% of Blacks registered to vote in Selma. You had to name all 67 county judges to get on voting rolls
Because of incredible courage of John Lewis & civil rights activists, LBJ introduced Voting Rights Act 8 days later
On anniversary of Bloody Sunday Biden issues executive order making it easier to vote
“elected officials in 43 states have already introduced more than 250 bills to make it harder for Americans to vote. We cannot let them succeed” whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
New: @amyklobuchar tells me she supports ending filibuster to pass For the People Act
"we have raw exercise of political power going on where people are making it harder to vote & you can’t let that happen in a democracy because of old rules in Senate” motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
HR1 would be largest expansion of voting rights since passage of Voting Rights Act in 1965:
-Automatic & Election Day registration
-2 weeks early voting
-Expand vote by mail
-Stop voter purging
-Independent redistricting
-Public financing elections
Dems can eliminate filibuster to pass HR1 & John Lewis Voting Rights Act to stop GOP voter suppression
Or they can allow GOP to undermine democracy for next decade