There are two crucially important bills awaiting passage in the Senate, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. These bills will protect our democracy by protecting the right to vote, making voting more accessible, ending partisan gerrymandering, and protecting election officials from partisan influence. Fill out the form below to send emails to your senators urging them to vote yes on these important bills.
About the Bills
The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act
In the wake of huge voter turnout in the 2020 election, the big lie that the election was stolen, and the attempt to overturn the election, over 400 bills have been introduced at the state level that would restrict the right to vote.
The 1965 Voting Rights Act was a landmark bill that ensured the right to vote would finally be realized by all Americans. For decades, the Voting Rights Act helped protect against voter suppression laws through a process known as preclearance. This process required that states with a history of racial discrimination and voter suppression get preclearance from the Department of Justice, or the courts, before any newly restrictive voting laws could be passed. Unfortunately, a 2013 Supreme Court decision dismantled this critical requirement and immediately voter suppression laws began to be passed.
The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021 would update and restore the preclearance requirement that worked for decades to prevent voter suppression. Take action to help pass this critically important bill.
The Freedom to Vote Act
The Freedom to Vote Act is a compromise bill aimed at garnering bipartisan support. Most of the bill’s provisions have strong bipartisan support among voters. Now we need to gain bipartisan support in the Senate to pass the bill.
Many elected leaders and others are doing everything they can to sow distrust in our electoral process and to make it harder for everyday Americans to vote. The Freedom to Vote Act would not only make voting easier and more accessible by expanding early voting and vote-by-mail, but it would also protect our elections and increase voter confidence in the electoral process. The bill will also ban partisan gerrymandering and protect election officials from being removed for political reasons.
There is no time to waste. If we want to protect the right to vote and our elections, the Freedom to Vote Act must pass.
