Folks, our communities are being ravaged by a pandemic -- that in large part has spread like wildfire due to Donald Trump’s lack of leadership.

Now, Donald Trump is threatening access to the ballot box as states pass measures to encourage mail-in and absentee voting that would make it easier and safer for voters to cast their ballots during a pandemic.

I’m calling on 5,000 members of this grassroots team to speak up and demand that Senate Republicans stop doing Trump’s bidding. Can I count on you to add your name and tell the Senate to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act? →

Now, even though the days of poll taxes and literacy tests are SUPPOSEDLY behind us -- the generational effects of systemic voter disenfranchisement are still alive and well today.

We see their oppressive tactics in thinly veiled efforts to exclude communities of color, rural communities, and young people from the electoral process.

We saw it when local and state governments closed polling locations in low-income and rural communities. We saw it when more than one million names were purged from the voter rolls.

We saw it when they threatened to close DMV offices in several rural, predominantly African-American counties after passing a voter photo identification law -- which would have left 8 of the 10 counties with the highest percentage of non-white voters in Alabama without a nearby DMV office.

And now, we see it as Donald Trump threatens to withhold federal funding from states that are attempting to reduce crowd sizes at polling locations and promote mail in voting during an unprecedented pandemic.

There is unfinished business in the Voting Rights Movement, and in the words of my dear friend Congressman John Lewis -- we must continue the Good, Necessary Trouble of fighting for our rights.

So I’m asking for your help in calling on the Senate to restore the Voting Rights Act today. Can I count on you? →

Thanks for using your voice,

Congresswoman Terri Sewell