Dear MoveOn member,
A shocking new report in The New York Times on Monday revealed that the
GOP plans to employ 50,000 people at the polls—some of whom will be
armed—to intimidate Democratic voters across critical swing states, and
that the GOP intends to spend at least $20 million on nefarious lawsuits
designed to suppress the vote this fall.^1
This is a stark and disturbing escalation in the GOP's voter suppression
tactics, resulting from a 2018 court ruling overturning decades of
precedent that stopped the GOP from blatant voter suppression and
intimidation efforts.^2 Since 1982, the GOP was barred from pursuing what
they called "ballot security" measures, after a lawsuit showed that the
GOP had engaged in a coordinated campaign to remove voters of color from
voter rolls through a deceptive mail campaign and even hired off-duty
police officers to patrol majority-minority polling locations to
intimidate voters.^3
And now that a judge has given them the go-ahead to ramp up their efforts
with impunity, the GOP is back to the same dirty tricks, targeting
Democratic voters—and particularly voters of color—in 15 battleground
states. It's a baldfaced effort to steal the election for Donald Trump and
the Republicans.
Our democracy will not survive if GOP operatives and right-wing activists
get away with it. Which is why MoveOn is launching a massive,
all-hands-on-deck campaign to save our elections from Republican meddling
and to defend access to the ballot box for every single American.
On average, MoveOn's monthly donors chip in about $10 a
month. John, can you chip in $10 a month
to help fuel this critical campaign all the way through Election Day?
[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll chip in monthly.
[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
With the coronavirus pandemic still raging, voting in this year's
elections is already at risk, but instead of working to protect Americans'
constitutional rights to access a ballot, Republicans are capitalizing on
the crisis to keep turnout low to benefit Trump and his cronies.
Here is what we're doing to fight back:
* Demanding that states set up and properly fund universal vote-by-mail
programs. More than ever before, every American should have access to
a vote-by-mail ballot to protect our health and the safety of our
communities. But only a few states are set up to run these programs,
which is why we are pushing governors and state legislators to get
these systems in place immediately.
* Helping 100,000 voters across the battleground states vote by mail. To
do this, MoveOn's Creative Lab will be creating educational videos
that we will release as paid providing key voters in these areas with
detailed information about how to register to vote and request
vote-by-mail ballots. Our efforts are focused on "high-potential
voters," meaning young voters, new voters, and voters of color who
tend to be more progressive but are often ignored by campaigns—and who
are precisely the voters that the GOP is hoping will stay home.
* Training MoveOn volunteers to become poll workers. Many of the
so-called "poll watchers" that the GOP intends to hire will be
off-duty law enforcement, who often show up armed to scare away voters
from the polls. This is blatantly illegal, which is why MoveOn will
work with our partners to train volunteers to become poll workers who
can ensure that any such intimidation is stopped in its tracks.
* Joining our partners to support legal cases that seek to protect
access to the vote. If Republicans plan to spend $20 million to strip
access to voting from Americans across the country, we will turn out a
grassroots movement that reveals their shameful tactics and fights to
stop them.
The GOP has the backing of billionaires and corporations to do this work.
We only have you. Can you chip in $10 a
month? (The average gift from a MoveOn monthly donor is about $10
a month, but whatever you can afford will go a long
way.)
[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll chip in monthly.
[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
These efforts by Republicans shine a light on a central truth: When more
Americans are able to vote, right-wing politicians lose. They lose because
their policies of protecting the ultra-rich over regular Americans,
stripping health care from those who need it most, destroying the
environment, demonizing immigrants, and dumping billions of dollars into
endless wars do not serve the interests of most Americans; they only serve
the interests of their wealthy corporate backers.
Which is why the right spends so much time and money to keep people from
the polls.
Luckily, there are far more of us than there are of them, and when we show
up, we WIN.
Will you help us ramp up our efforts to protect our elections from
Republican efforts to suppress the vote by chipping in $10 a
month? (The average gift from a MoveOn monthly donor is about $10
a month, but whatever you can afford will go a long
way.)
[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll chip in monthly.
[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
Thanks for all you do.
–Chris, Robert, Natalie, Julia, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "Freed by Court Ruling, Republicans Step Up Effort to Patrol Voting,"
The New York Times, May 18, 2020
[link removed]
2. Ibid.
3. "The Republican Party Emerges From Decades of Court Supervision," The
Atlantic, January 9, 2018
[link removed]
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day
by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage,
defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's
pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must
never give up on. And to do it we need your ongoing support, now more than
ever. Will you stand with us?
[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll chip in $5 a month.
[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
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