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 they will spend at least $20 million on nefarious lawsuits designed to suppress the vote this fall.

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?

Yes, I'll chip in monthly.

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.)

Yes, I'll chip in monthly.

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.)

Yes, I'll chip in monthly.

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
https://act.moveon.org/go/126847?t=8&akid=264604%2E40999114%2EMm9taJ

2. Ibid.

3. "The Republican Party Emerges From Decades of Court Supervision," The Atlantic, January 9, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/123102?t=10&akid=264604%2E40999114%2EMm9taJ

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?

Yes, I'll chip in $5 a month.

No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.

PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

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