| Dear Katy, Voter roll purges. Racist polling place closures in communities of color. Secret corporate money flooding the airwaves. Insecure voting machines. Partisan gerrymandering protecting Republican legislators. A revolving door between Wall Street and government. Our democracy is broken and House Democrats just passed a bold proposal to fix it. H.R. 1, the For the People Act, is a sweeping bill to protect and fix our democracy, so it's no surprise Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has denounced it.1 But democracy reform is immensely popular, so we need to turn up the pressure on vulnerable Republican senators to choose our democracy over partisan gain. Tell the Senate: Pass the For the People Act – a bold package to fix our broken democracy. Click here to sign the petition. From massive voter suppression to the corruptive influence of money in politics, the last couple of elections have proven that our democracy must be fixed. H.R. 1 would make sweeping changes in three vital areas:2 - Secure elections and expanded voting rights. H.R. 1 would outlaw voter purges, promote automatic, same-day, and online voter registration, restore voting rights, end partisan gerrymandering, move to secure paper-based voting systems, expand and improve early and absentee voting, and restore voting rights to people with felony convictions.
- Kicking big money out of politics. H.R. 1 would create a small-dollar matching system to end reliance on big money, ban shell companies that funnel foreign money into our elections, strengthen oversight and spending disclosure rules, reform the Federal Election Commission, and force secret money organizations to reveal their donors.
- Government for the people. H.R. 1 would require presidents to disclose their tax returns, supercharge the Office of Government Ethics, demand a judicial code of ethics for Supreme Court justices, crack down on conflicts of interest and limit the corrupt revolving door between government and Wall Street.
All of these proposals are intensely popular.3 We must turn up the heat on vulnerable Republican senators and corporate Democrats to get them passed. Tell senators: Pass the For the People Act – a bold package to fix our broken democracy. Click here to sign the petition. With massive numbers of voters reportedly purged from the rolls in key states like Georgia, numerous problems with voter registration even before Election Day and state policies that limit early or absentee voting, it is likely that hundreds of thousands of voters were prevented from casting their ballots in November. Additional hurdles like voter ID requirements kept many from even trying to vote. Confusion about voter status and provisional ballots contributed to already long lines – in some places the result of polling place closures in predominantly non-white communities.4 Meanwhile, big money and the revolving door let Wall Street hijack our democracy to serve corporate interests. It has to change – and for the first time in decades, this new House of Representatives made protecting and restoring our democracy a top priority. Now we need to turn the spotlight on vulnerable Republican senators and force them to explain to voters why they are defending racist vote-rigging and Wall Street big money. Tell senators: Pass the For the People Act – a bold package to fix our broken democracy. Click below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/support-hr1?t=10&akid=31863%2E12967895%2EgjAzw3 Thank you for speaking out, Heidi Hess, Co-Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: - Ella Nilsen, "Mitch McConnell calls House Democrats' anti-corruption bill a 'power grab,'" Vox, Jan. 18, 2019.
- Common Cause, "What is the For the People Act – also known as H.R. 1?" Jan. 4, 2019.
- Nilsen, "Mitch McConnell calls House Democrats' anti-corruption bill a 'power grab.'"
- Danielle Root and Aadam Barclay, "Voter Suppression During the 2018 Midterm Elections," Center For American Progress, Nov. 20, 2018.
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