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.
Republicans can and do win when voting rights are protected, as they just did in Virginia. This is about securing democracy for everyone.
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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.
No, #HR1 is not a “partisan power grab.” Key provisions like automatic voter registration, early voting and redistricting reform are based on policies Republicans overwhelmingly support at the state level, and under which they have done very well electorally.
It’s not a “federal takeover” of elections either. State and local officials will continue to run elections. #HR1 simply sets a federal floor for voting access, as Congress is explicitly permitted to do under the Constitution and has done many times before.
👉 First, they would guarantee the freedom to vote, and take a huge bite out of the wave of voter suppression laws sweeping the country, as explained here: brennancenter.org/sites/default/…
👉Modernize voter registration
👉Restore voting rights to the formerly incarcerated
👉Expand opportunities for early + mail voting
👉Require use of voter-verified paper ballots
👉Restore the full power of the landmark Voting Rights Act to combat discrimination.
Yesterday’s #Acquittal of Fmr. President Trump (by senators representing barely 1/3 of the country) underscores the urgent need to repair American democracy, beginning with swift passage of the landmark #ForThePeopleAct (a/k/a #HR1 and #S1) brennancenter.org/our-work/polic…
#HR1 includes the most ambitious expansion of voting access for eligible voters since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Automatic + same day voter registration. Restoration of voting rights to the formerly incarcerated. Expanded early + mail voting. A commitment to restore the #VRA
Never forget that the #CapitolInsurrection was spurred by lies about “voter fraud” that have driven increasingly brazen #VoterSuppression efforts, primarily targeting Black and brown Americans. Trump harnessed these lies to try an overturn the election, but he didn’t invent them.
The Supreme Court has dismissed the remaining lawsuits against Fmr. President Trump for violating the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments clauses, constitutional provisions barring POTUS from taking benefits from foreign govts and US states. The ball is now in Congress’s court.
The Emoluments Clauses are critical safeguards whose enforcement would have stopped some of the worst corruption of the Trump years. Huge credit to the many individuals + orgs that rescued them from relative obscurity and brought them into the public consciousness.
But one-off lawsuits were always going to be an uphill battle, requiring tremendous resources. To truly give full effect to these provisions, Congress needs to establish a clear statutory framework for applying them + robust enforcement mechanisms.
The @WSJ is out with an editorial today slamming the historic democracy reforms in #HR1 with the same tired arguments they and others have deployed many times before. Let’s take them one by one, shall we? 1/many
First, we have dog whistle arguments about “California-style election rules” —a/k/a rules that make it easier for all eligible voters to cast their ballots, even voters who — gasp — need food stamps.
Virtually all of these changes have already been adopted in many states of varying political hues. Automatic voter registration, one of the most significant, passed the Illinois House unanimously.