Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Tell Congress: Pass same-day voter registration to secure our democracy


Petition to Congress:
"Pass the Same Day Registration Act and give all eligible voters the option to register and vote on the same day. Doing so will help safeguard our democracy against Republican voter purges and cyber-attacks on our election system."
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Democracy demands same-day registration
Leading up to the 2016 elections, there was a deliberate and blatantly racist campaign to intimidate, purge and suppress voters that likely tipped the balance in key states for Trump.1
In all the soul-searching about how Trump seized power, this fact too often gets missed. But Republicans know this is how they win. And they are already hard at work to do it again in this November's midterm elections.2 One simple way to fight both Republican voter suppression and potential foreign hacking is to allow voters to register and vote on Election Day, a practice known as same-day voter registration.3
Progressives in both houses of Congress have introduced bills to require same-day voter registration nationwide. We must demand that Congress put democracy first and make it easier to vote, not harder.
Republicans are relentless when it comes to suppressing the vote. Donald Trump and the extremist, right-wing Republican party perpetuate the myth of voter fraud to cast doubt on the electoral process and lay the groundwork for voter suppression. In states across the country, Republicans are doubling down on their efforts to steal elections by enacting discriminatory photo ID laws, cutting back early voting, eliminating polling locations and doing anything else they can think of to make it harder for people to vote.4
The right-wing Supreme Court continues to undermine voting rights rather than defend them. Its 2013, Shelby v. Holder decision gutted the Voting Rights Act and opened the door to ramped up state-based suppression. Recently, the Supreme Court upheld Ohio's racist voter purges, which removed people from voter rolls if they had not voted recently – with Black voters twice as likely to be purged.5 Same-day voter registration is a powerful protection against these kinds of purges, which will only increase now that the Supreme Court has sanctioned them.
Same-day voter registration could also save the day if hacking or cyber-attacks crash voter roll systems right before the election. Already, 15 states allow voters to register and vote on Election Day, and the practice has been successful in several states back to the 1970s.6
Every demand for true democracy puts Republicans on the defensive and exposes their racist campaign of voter suppression and election rigging. With national elections once again approaching, we urgently need an outpouring of support for same-day registration.
Tell Congress: Pass same-day voter registration now. Click below to sign the petition:
Heidi Hess, Co-Director
Add your name:
Sign the petition ►
References:
  1. Vann R. Newkirk, "Voter Suppression Is Warping Democracy," The Atlantic, July 17, 2018.
  2. Ibid.
  3. Barry Burden, "Same-day registration could save the day," Wisconsin State Journal, June 18, 2018.
  4. Newkirk, "Voter Suppression Is Warping Democracy."
  5. Michael Harriot, "Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Voter Suppression ... Again," The Root, June 11, 2018.
  6. Burden, "Same-day registration could save the day."

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