| Dear Katy, Donald Trump is attacking our voting rights again. And this time, his Republican lapdogs in the House are helping him do it. They have snuck a provision into legislation to reauthorize the Department of Homeland Security that would allow Trump to deploy armed secret service agents to monitor polling places and intimidate voters.1 It's an insidious voter suppression tactic that harkens back to the time of Jim Crow when law enforcement officers terrorized, assaulted and arrested Black voters. The House just passed a version of the bill that includes this dangerous provision. We must speak out now to demand that the Senate block it. Tell the Senate: Armed federal agents should not be allowed at polling places. Click the link to sign the petition. Trump's administration is doing everything it can to uphold white supremacy and the patriarchy. Its cruel attacks on women's health and rights, immigrant rights, civil rights and, voting rights are all attempts to disenfranchise people of color, maintain a white majority, and keep men in power. Voting is a tool that Americans have used to combat racism, misogyny, corruption and bigotry. That's why Trump and extremist Republicans are determined to suppress voter turnout, especially among women and people of color, in local, state and federal elections. During his campaign, Trump called on his racist base of supporters to monitor polling places and intimidate Black voters.2 When he took office, he brought together many of the country's worst voting rights offenders to form a voter suppression commission designed to legitimize the voter fraud myth, supercharge suppression efforts at the national level and undermine our democracy.3 After massive public opposition – including from hundreds of thousands of CREDO members who signed petitions and made calls condemning it – the commission disbanded. Cowardly Republicans' latest sneak attack would add the threat of state sanctioned violence to the long list of barriers – like voter I.D. laws, indiscriminate voting roll purges, restrictions to early voting and redistricting – that already prevent many people from voting. We cannot allow that to happen. Nineteen secretaries of state have written a letter to the Senate urging it to block this bill and keep armed secret service agents away from the voting booth.4 Add your name now to help ramp up the pressure. Tell the Senate: Armed federal agents should not be allowed at polling places. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/noarmedagents_voting?t=7&akid=27953%2E12967895%2EJjX-CJ Thanks for protecting our voting rights, Nicole Regalado, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: - Kristen Clarke, "'Unprecedented & Shocking': Armed Secret Service Agents Should Not Be Allowed at Polling Sites," Democracy Now, March 13, 2018.
- Tara Culp-Ressler, "Trump tells his supporters to watch polling places in urban areas," ThinkProgress, Oct. 1, 2016.
- Ari Berman, "The Trump Administration Is Planning an Unprecedented Attack on Voting Rights," The Nation, June 30, 2017.
- Clarke, "'Unprecedented & Shocking': Armed Secret Service Agents Should Not Be Allowed at Polling Sites."
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