Hello there,
“Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote. There is no reason which can excuse the denial of that right. There is no duty which weighs more heavily on us than the duty we have to ensure that right.”
President Lyndon Johnson spoke those words over half a century ago. In fact, last week marked 55 years since the signing of the Voting Rights Act -- the landmark legislation passed by Congress and signed by Johnson that, for decades, protected the right to vote by putting an end to the racist suppression tactics that had disenfranchised millions.
But seven years ago, the Supreme Court dealt the law a body blow -- and ruled that states could change their voting laws without preclearance from the federal government.
The results have been a disaster for democracy. North Carolina passed a strict voter ID law that a federal judge ruled was designed to “target African Americans with almost surgical precision.” Hundreds of thousands of voters, disproportionately of color, were purged from the rolls in New York, Georgia, and Ohio.
And the duty we have to protect the right to vote has never weighed heavier.
There’s a solution: the Democratic House has passed a bill to restore the protections in the Voting Rights Act. It’s the best way to ensure all Americans are heard in November. But Mitch McConnell has refused to bring it to a vote in the Senate.
That’s why we’re reaching out to you.
Thank you for standing with us,
ASPIRE
