Voter Action Project

"Scholarship has shown that voters of color are more likely to turn out when they live in jurisdictions where their ethnic group is the majority. Our analysis suggests a different story for Native voters on tribal lands, however." Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dfmvZQnc

More than two dozen Alabama House Democrats have signed onto House Bill 60, dubbed the Alabama Voting Rights Act, designed to expand voter accessibility in the state. Among the bill’s provisions include automatic voting rights restoration and expanded access to absentee voting, with the bill being filed amid Alabama Democrats’ continued opposition to Republican-led efforts to strengthen election integrity, such as with this year’s Senate Bill 1, efforts many Democrats have argued to be a form of voter suppression. “Living in a state where we often verbally pay homage to voting rights heroes and their sacrifice – John Lewis, Dr. King and so many others – it’s not enough just to pay lip service to them,”said Rep. Phillip Ensler, D-Montgomery, one of the many co-sponsors of the bill.

A Missouri judge permanently struck down four provisions of the state’s sweeping voter suppression law, House Bill 1878, that criminalized civic engagement activities like voter registration and the distribution of absentee ballot applications. 

"Trump supporters’ calling for an end to women’s suffrage may be the canary in the coal mine for further drastic changes to the electoral system."

Attorneys from the ACLU of Missouri and the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, who represent the plaintiffs, said they are “disappointed with the decision and will appeal to protect Missourians’ fundamental right to vote.” “The evidence at trial showed the significant burdens some voters face to obtain the limited form of ID this law requires to vote [and] further showed that the voter ID restrictions do not fix actual election problems or make our elections more secure. The Missouri Supreme Court will ultimately review this decision… and hopefully conclude, again, that these restrictions improperly limit valid Missouri voters from participating in the democratic process."

As the product of a family with strong Black matriarchs in rural Virginia, Imani Brooks is a world traveler, civil rights activist, and policy fellow at NAACP Legal Defense Fund 👇

"I strongly believe that federal intervention is the only way to mitigate these issues in Texas and beyond. The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2023 was proposed as legislation designed to restore and strengthen aspects of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, including in Texas, which has closed more than 400 polling sites since 2012. Until such legislation is passed, representative democracy will continue to be a great idea only in the abstract here in Texas, which is a grim and terrifying reality for women like me who grew up and aspire to build our lives and careers here."  - Isabella LoCicero is a Baylor University student and an Ignite the Vote Ambassador with IGNITE

The Voters Bill of Rights would make several changes to Ohio’s voting process, like creating a system to update a person’s voter registration automatically when visiting the BMV and overturning state law requiring a government-issued photo ID to vote in person. Attorney Jyoti Jasrasaria argued during the Monday meeting that the proposal should not be divided because each of these changes relates to voting. “Here, each and every provision of the amendment relates to voting and, in particular, facilitating and securing the right to vote,” Jasrasaria said before the board’s vote, representing the proponent group named “Ohio Organizing Collaborative.” “When a similar ballot measure was proposed in 2020, the Supreme Court ordered the ballot board to certify it as a single amendment.”

This election in particular, Daria Dawson of America Votes said, demonstrated why voting is so important, and it shined a light on why so many voters feel that if they’re not in a battleground state their vote doesn’t really count. “We have basically told this entire country that your vote doesn’t matter unless you live in these seven states,” Dawson said. “That’s a problem, and we’ve got to do something about that. That’s honestly what the next phase should be: letting everybody know that you have a voice, regardless of what part of this country you live in.” Dawson is also passionate about ending voter suppression around the nation, particularly in a time when political divisions are high. “When people don’t vote, the minority is able to stay in control,” Dawson said. “We are very much at the precipice in this country of becoming an apartheid nation because the minority is deciding what the majority of us do with our everyday lives, and that is by voter suppression.”

"When Trump launched his third presidential campaign in 2022, he promised to 'immediately demand voter ID, same day voting, and only paper ballots' if elected. He went on to run a campaign motivated by the fallout of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, with vows to wreak vengeance on political rivals and the very institution of voting. Now, with his return to the White House, these changes could become a reality."