Tell your Senators: Prevent Election Subversion

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.

As my Senator, please press Leader Schumer to introduce  the Preventing Election Subversion Act immediately. If it isn’t incorporated into the smaller Voting Rights Bill being discussed with Senator Warnock, it should be introduced separately and debated on the Senate floor.  It addresses urgent dangers like the intimidation of election officials, as well as the most extreme subset of 2021 election laws being rushed out in Republican-controlled legislatures, which give partisan bodies the ability to determine election results.


Background

The For the People Act includes valuable protections for our election infrastructure. Title I, Subtitle D includes establishing federal criminal penalties for deceiving or intimidating voters. Title I, Subtitle M addresses conflicts of interest in state election officials (*1). However, this doesn’t fully address the most extreme laws introduced by Republican-controlled legislatures.

Given the lack of 50 Senate Democrats determined to prioritize protecting our democracy by passing the For the People Act, the House and Senate have introduced a separate bill,  the Preventing Election Subversion Act, which would make it a crime to harass or intimidate election workers, set mandatory distance minimums for poll watchers and ban the removal of local election supervisors by partisan bodies, such as state legislatures or election boards, without cause (*2, *3). 

Nonpartisan election officials nationwide in 2020 made voting safer and easier for all voters in the face of the COVID pandemic. After the election, nonpartisan election officials counted and recounted votes, often on video, with Republican and Democratic observers as specified, and affirmed that Donald Trump had lost. By December 8, 2020, long before the January 6, 2021 attack on our Capitol, advocates for Trump had initiated over 50 challenges to the results of the 2020 election in several swing states – and lost them all (*7). 

Nevertheless, the Big Liars persisted. Republican-controlled state legislatures in 2021 have proposed hundreds of bills to make voting even more difficult, such as limiting registration drives, imposing discriminatory ID requirements, restricting voting by mail, cutting back voting hours, and reducing the number of ballot drop boxes.  We believe the For The People Act would provide a much-needed national reset to prioritize our voting rights and campaign finance reform.

Unfortunately, some leading Democrats believe we can “out-organize” the latest round of 400+ bills restricting our voting rights. They don’t seem to recognize that Republican-controlled state legislatures have proposed more extreme election laws than ever before (*6),including 145 bills that would take election administration away from governors, secretaries of state, and nonpartisan local election officials and give it to themselves, including the right to overturn the will of the electorate.

Therefore, while Senate Democrats are discussing a more limited Voting Rights Bill to appease Senator Manchin and others, we need to be sure it includes the provisions of the Prevent Election Subversion Act. If that is not done, the Act should be introduced on its own in the Senate, so we can hear Senators tell us why they would oppose:

  • Making it a crime to harass or intimidate election workers, 

  • Setting mandatory distance minimums for poll watchers, and 

  • Banning the removal of local election supervisors by partisan bodies, such as state legislatures or election boards, without cause.

References

  1. Annotated Guide to the For the People Act of 2021 

  2. Congressional Democrats Introduce Bill to Prevent Election Subversion  

  3. Preventing Election Subversion Act of 2021 Since January, state legislators have introduced over 210 bills in 41 states that gra Senator Warnock’s statement 

  4. Manchin, Schumer, Warnock and others craft revised voting rights bill

  5. Manchin 3-Page Voting Rights framework Manchin memo on voting legislation 

  6. The Future of Highly Partisan Election Administration, Democracy Docket, July 8, 2021 

  7. Trump And The GOP Have Now Lost More Than 50 Post-Election Lawsuits 

  8. DOJ launches task force to address violent threats against election workers

  9. Local Election Officials Survey  

  10. PDF: A BILL Prevention of Election Subversion Act, introduced in the Senate


 

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