NEO Philanthropy’s Post

📢 Voting is one of the most powerful tools we have to protect our civil and human rights. Your vote is precious, almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect union. - John Lewis People Power United and Laurie Woodward Garcia Sep 16 - People Power United champions progressive values and power to the people. The 2024 election depends on us, and we are attempting to persuade people to vote for Freedom over Fascism. If you wish to support our efforts, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Happy National Voter Registration Day Eve! Voting lies at the heart of democracy, giving people the power to shape their governance. Through voting, citizens ensure that laws and policies are created with the public's interests in mind, reflecting the people's collective will. When we vote, we choose leaders and representatives who make healthcare, education, economic policy, and justice decisions. These decisions impact our daily lives and can safeguard or threaten our fundamental rights and freedoms. By participating in elections, we affirm our right to be heard and influence our society's direction. The current erosion of our rights, freedoms, democracy, and the rule of law directly results from the apathy of voters who don't care to vote and those who do vote but fail to follow up and hold our leaders accountable. History shows us that when voting rights are restricted or suppressed, it often erodes civil and human rights. Discriminatory practices, whether they are gerrymandering or other forms of voter suppression, can disproportionately affect marginalized communities, denying them fair representation. Safeguarding voting rights is essential to ensure that every person, regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic status, has an equal voice in shaping the policies that affect their lives. In the face of challenges such as inequality, discrimination, and injustice, voting is a form of empowerment. It allows us to push for change, advocate for laws protecting human rights, and support leaders prioritizing the common good. Every election is an opportunity to build a society that upholds dignity, equality, and justice for all. By voting, we defend our rights and contribute to a system where everyone's rights are recognized and respected. Let us honor all who came before us to champion our rights, freedoms, democracy, and the rule of law with action!

Early voting is now under way in Texas. Here’s a guide to your voting rights, where to vote, and the necessary steps for early voting.

The SAVE Act is the MAGA Plan to Revive Jim Crow 5 examples of how Republicans are forcing a choice between shutting down the government or shutting down voting rights for millions of people Qasim Rashid Sep 19 - The US Government is scheduled to shut down on October 1, unless a new funding bill is passed. And already the GOP led house has voted against its own funding bill. But the funding bill failed not because of a funding dispute, but because what should be a simple continuing resolution (CR) is instead a trojan horse to shut down American democracy. Republicans want to pass something called the “SAVE Act,” which they needlessly attached to the CR. While they claim this is a bill to “protect election integrity,” in truth, this is a Donald Trump crafted fascist piece of legislation that will decimate voting rights in America. Rep Landsmen wrote an excellent short thread on this bill. I provide here a detailed overview because without voting rights, we do not have a functioning republic. Here are five of the most 

Today in American History: On June 25, 2013, in a 5-4 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and effectively gutted one of the nation’s most important and successful civil rights laws. The decision unleashed a surge in voter suppression measures—including strict voter ID laws, cutting voting times, and purging voter rolls. Despite adoption in 1870 of the Fifteenth Amendment barring racial discrimination in voting, Southern states used poll taxes, literacy tests, and violence to deny African-Americans the right to vote for another century. In the dissent of the 2013 decision, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote, "the (Supreme) Court appears to believe that the Voting Rights Act's success in 1965 means that preclearance is no longer needed. With that belief, and the argument derived from it, history repeats itself.” I will try to share these historical nuggets of wisdom weekly, but you can sign up to receive a daily, historical calendar entry from the wonderful team at the Equal Justice Initiative.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court made the prospect of a second Trump presidency far more frightening. By granting presidents broad immunity for the acts they take in office, the MAGA majority on the Court isn't just helping Trump escape accountability for the crimes he's already committed. They're giving him free rein to rule as a dictator if he ever makes it back to the Oval Office. We all saw Trump unleash a mob on the Capitol on January 6th and call for the Constitution to be suspended. He failed. But now he's pledging to take vengeance on his political rivals, weaponize the DOJ, and even use the military to quell peaceful dissent. According to the Supreme Court, the laws that apply to the rest of us likely wouldn't constrain him from doing so. The stakes of this election were already massive. We all knew that. But we also know that a lot of people are having a hard time getting energized by the rematch at the top of the ticket. Well, this election is much bigger than Trump vs. Biden. This election is about whether future generations will have their most fundamental rights protected or stripped away by MAGA activists in robes. It’s about the principle that no one is above the law. With yesterday’s decision, it’s clearer than ever this election is a choice between democracy and dictatorship. These are stakes we can -- and must -- energize voters around. If we can do that, we will win. We will have a chance to reform the filibuster. We will have a chance to pass voting rights and democracy reform, codify reproductive freedom, and unrig the Court. As you're reading this, Indivisibles are already knocking on doors in every battleground state and district in the country using our groundbreaking Neighbor2Neighbor canvassing tool. We know ads and speeches aren't enough to energize voters around this fight. It'll take millions of one-on-one conversations, and there's no tool more effective for voter contact than Neighbor2Neighbor. And Indivisibles who live outside of our target districts are also mobilizing voters through phonebanks, textbanks, postcards, and volunteer recruitment. They’re ready to do what it takes to defend our democracy, but they cannot do this work without your help. The number of voters we can reach between now and Election Day will depend on the support we receive from grassroots donors, so if you're able to donate and want to support the fight for our democracy, click here to pitch in. There are no easy fixes here. There are no petitions that will undo what the Supreme Court's just done. The only way we can safeguard our democracy is to wake up the electorate, make the stakes clear to voters, and mobilize our neighbors. And with your help, that's exactly what we're going to do. In solidarity, Leah Indivisble Leah Greenberg Co-Executive Director Pronouns: She/her

Alabama's Secretary of State has been accused of violating federal law by removing the names of people identified as noncitizens from the official lists of eligible voters. This move, which is part of a larger scheme of voter intimidation, has been met with legal action by the U.S. Department of Justice and several civil rights organizations. The National Voter Registration Act of 1992 prohibits such actions, requiring states to complete a program to remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters no later than 90 days prior to an election. Alabama's actions are a clear violation of this law. This is not the first time Alabama has attempted to disenfranchise non-white citizens. The state's history of voting rights violations dates back nearly a century and a half, including the infamous 1965 Voting Rights Act. The recent lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Campaign Legal Center, and Fair Elections Center highlights the need for the restoration of voting rights for those affected by this move. The lawsuit also seeks to prevent future violations and educate eligible voters about their rights. This incident raises questions about the state's commitment to democracy and the protection of the voting rights of all citizens. It also highlights the need for the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. What are your thoughts on this situation? Do you believe that Alabama's actions are a step back for democracy?

By far my most in-demand service at Tyler Hagenbuch Strategies is helping clients understand voting rights and democracy news in clear, tangible terms that make sense in the context of their own business or organization. Today’s news of the 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court vote to uphold a South Carolina Congressional map that a lower court called an extreme racial gerrymander is a great example. Gerrymandering can be so complex it's tempting even for me to tune it out, but it has real tangible harms to voters and democracies—and therefore to businesses. When states sort voters based on race during the redistricting process, it undermines both voting rights and democracy. Packing most of a state’s Black voters into one or two districts, for example, undermines their voting power elsewhere in the state. If Black voters are 30% of a state’s population but get sorted so their votes only make a difference in 10% of the state’s districts, that’s anti-democratic and unconstitutional. A second tangible harm of gerrymandering is that it creates “safe seats.” If a political party knows a gerrymandered district is packed full of partisan voters, then the party can run the most extreme candidate possible in that district and still be guaranteed to win. Fair districts, on the other hand, that are drawn without race or partisanship in mind, provide the opposite incentive. If candidates have to appeal to a broad coalition of different types of voters in their district, they’re more likely to adopt moderate positions and less likely to engage in polarizing behavior. In other words, there’s a direct connection between fair maps, less extremism in our political system, and reduced political polarization in our society. Today’s Supreme Court ruling increases the chances we’ll see future movement toward more extremism and polarization. We don’t have to look further than the South Carolina district at issue in the Supreme Court case for proof of how gerrymandering enables—and, in fact, encourages—extremism.

Growing Racial Disparities in Voter Turnout, 2008–2022 - PDF: https://lnkd.in/g_BT_syD f the United States wants to make good on its foundational claims of a democratic system of governance open to all citizens, it must find ways to close the racial turnout gap. Wider now than at any point in at least the past 16 years, the gap costs millions of votes from Americans of color all around the country. Perhaps most worrisome of all, the gap is growing most quickly in parts of the country that were previously covered under the preclearance regime of the 1965 Voting Rights Act until the disastrous Shelby County ruling. This report gives us a better look at the contours of the racial turnout gap than ever before and throws the severity of the problem into stark relief. We urge scholars to continue to study the myriad drivers of the turnout gap, from statewide policies to local election practices, from language barriers to disaffection from the criminal justice system; without a full understanding of the causes, we cannot develop solutions that will permanently ensure political representation for Americans of all races. Importantly, as we’ve shown, socioeconomics can’t fully explain the gap; the gap remains in high- and low-income neighborhoods alike. We do, however, prove one of the causes of the increasing racial turnout gap: the Supreme Court’s ruling in Shelby County. There is no doubt that the end of federal preclearance in regions with histories of racial discrimination increased the racial turnout gap. We argue that this is due to changes both in state policy and in local election practices. A fully functional Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act would improve conditions in areas where racial discrimination remains in voting policy. We urge Congress to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to update and restore the preclearance regime for the 21st century

#FoodForThought: #CadaVotoCuenta! This is to say nothing of the fact that last year 14 states passed laws that have the effect of restricting or limiting voting access,[2] including North Carolina, which eliminated mail drop boxes, shortened the period to return mail-in ballots and restricted same-day voter registration.[3] We can't turn our heads away from the steady erosion of voting rights over the last several years, which shows just how fragile our democracy is and reveals the dire situation our country is in. Every eligible voter deserves the right to cast their ballot without impediment. These voter suppression tactics are a threat to our democracy. Public interest lawyers serve as bulwarks against such antidemocratic actions. These attorneys work in nonprofit organizations, public interest law firms or the government to help safeguard our democratic institutions through voter education, legislative advocacy and litigation. It's critical work, but there are just not enough of them. Read more at: https://lnkd.in/etJUghVN

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a 501(c)6 organization, which means that political endorsements are discouraged. As such, you will not see me endorse any political candidates in my official capacity as AIA President. You will however see me advocate for everyone to vote. As an American citizen, I take my duty to vote very seriously and have always advocated for everyone to exercise their right to cast a ballot in each and every election. Not until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 did everyone over 21 (note: the voting age was lowered to 18 in 1971) actually have the opportunity to vote. For example, my father could not vote when he first turned 21 because of the color of his skin. He gained the right to vote just a few years later because of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This is one of the reasons why I take voting very seriously. The day before yesterday, Michigan commenced early voting for our State Primary Election, which is on August 6th. Because I will be out of town on that particular date, my very first activity of the day was voting at my local polling place. This is a photo of me with my “I Voted” sticker from Saturday. My challenge to you is to post about your participation in this year’s election and support others in their efforts to vote. From aiding mobility challenged neighbors with getting to the polls, to offering guidance on the absentee voting process, you can play a larger role in facilitating greater turnout. I remember voting in my very first election in 2004, and having some questions about how absentee voting worked since I was in college away from my home state. To help this new generation of voters (and perhaps more seasoned voters too), I’d like to share the following resource for reference: Vote.org is a nonpartisan nonprofit that is committed to advocating for voters in every state, creatively building tech and partnerships, reaching voters where they are and fighting against harmful voter suppression laws in court. Explore their website to learn more about what you need to do in order to cast your vote. Your voice matters! Get out and vote. It’s a serious matter. #MoreIn24Monday #KND4AIA #100Week33