Tell your senators: End the Voting Rights Crisis! Eliminate the Filibuster!
Call BOTH of your Senators.
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Call Script
My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.
The For the People Act and John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act are crucial because of a particularly alarming wave of 145 bills in Republican-controlled state legislatures that would enable them to take election administration away from nonpartisan officials and even overturn the will of the electorate. Eliminate the filibuster now to protect our voting rights before it’s too late.
Background
Most state and local election officials strive to administer elections in a professional, nonpartisan manner and take oaths of office requiring them to uphold the federal and state constitutions. Many states incorporate bipartisan representation into the election process, such as having Democratic and Republican observers watching the voting process. However, those nonpartisan election officials don’t have control over their budgets or the rules that govern their operations. Republican legislatures have proposed 145 bills in 2021 that would reassign key powers of election officials and the executive branch to themselves, up to and including overturning the will of voters. (*2)
The balance of powers is key to ensuring protection from partisan election interference. In 2020, governors and independent election officials were essential to blocking legislative efforts to overturn the election results. Ever since Democrats won the governorships in Wisconsin and North Carolina, the Republican-dominated legislatures in those states have been working on removing their power over elections. (*3) South Carolina has introduced a bill that would require the governor’s appointments to be approved by the legislature. Tennessee has introduced a bill to allow its state legislature to take over the election powers of their Secretary of State. (*2)
Nonpartisan, local election authorities are crucial to the voting process: they have expert, detailed knowledge of their jurisdictions and ensure that the thousands of elections held each year in our large country run smoothly. Republican state legislatures now want to micromanage these local administrative processes for partisan purposes.
Republican legislatures have proposed a host of vague bills that establish criminal and civil penalties for election administration methods they disagree with. Even though cases of voter or administrative election fraud are almost non-existent, those bills could be used to file lengthy lawsuits to clog up the election process and establish a climate of fear among election officials.
The most alarming among Republican legislatures’ anti-democracy bills are those that aim to grant legislatures control over election results. Driven by failed attempts in Georgia and Arizona to force governors to re-certify the election results to their liking, elected officials in Arizona, Missouri, and Nevada are all currently considering such laws.
Republican policies are unpopular with the majority of voters, so Republican-controlled states have tried various methods to depress Democratic turnout, from voter roll purging to allocating far fewer polling places in Democratic precincts. Now, using the Big Lie as an excuse, they want to extend that to taking control of every part of the election process for their own partisan ends – something Marc Elias of Democracy Docket calls “a democratic crisis in the making and one that Republicans are eager to hurry along.”
References
5 Things You May Not Know About Local Election Officials Brennan Center
The Future of Highly Partisan Election Administration, Democracy Docket, July 8, 2021
Wisconsin's lame-duck power grab, stripping Democrats of power, explained
US has long 2020 election lines. Canada, Australia have better voting systems.