President Biden, Support Voting Rights and Defend our Democracy, not the Filibuster!
Use the White House web form to make your public comment to President Biden.
Call Script
My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.
President Biden,
We put you in the White House, gave Democrats the Senate, and protected the House in November 2020. It is now your turn to go all out for voting rights reform and protect our democracy. As House Majority Whip Clyburn said, “nobody ought to have the right to filibuster our constitutional rights.” We urge you to endorse and support a “carveout” from (if not complete elimination of) the legislative filibuster in the Senate for legislation that impacts fundamental democratic rights such as the right to vote.
When you were elected, in addressing black voters, you said “You’ve always had my back, and I’ll have yours.” Voter suppression legislation passed in 2021 in Republican-controlled state legislatures specifically targets voters of color and poor Americans. The only way to show that you have their back is to throw the entire bully pulpit of the presidency behind passing legislation to protect the sacred right to vote.
Background
We cannot out-organize or out-litigate our way around Republican efforts to impede access to the ballot box and undermine election integrity. Reforming or abolishing the filibuster is the only way for Democrats to pass S1 (the For the People Act) and S4 (the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act), reauthorizing key sections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act with just Democratic support.
The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is proactive and would subject future legislation to pre-clearance. It would restore key sections of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act, which mandated that jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination get pre-approval for election law changes from the federal government.
The For the People Act is more comprehensive in scope and would provide more immediate protection from many of the most egregious voting restrictions Republican-controlled legislatures have passed in 2021 by expanding early voting, voting by mail, and automatic voter registration, as well as by banning partisan gerrymandering, among other changes that touch nearly every aspect of the election system.