Friend –

With less than a week to go in the election, we know anxieties are high. But rest assured, the ACLU has been, and will continue, defending your rights. You can see that for yourself.

And just as you've been making a plan to vote, we've been making our plans to protect it. That means that if anything occurs around Election Day threatening our civil liberties – we'll be ready.

This year so far, our legal and advocacy teams have won 26 voting rights victories nationwide. And we're prepared to act swiftly on November 3 and after, if necessary, to ensure every vote gets counted. Below is a rundown of the wins we've already secured to safeguard your right to the ballot this election – which you can read more about here:

• Voting safely during the pandemic: When the pandemic started, 34 states had laws permitting all eligible voters to cast their ballots by mail – leaving 16 that didn't. In five of these states – Missouri, Alabama, Connecticut, Kentucky, and South Carolina – we sued and helped ensure vote-by-mail eligibility for all voters for the general election. We also helped expand vote-by-mail eligibility in Tennessee for voters with underlying medical conditions – and in Puerto Rico, for every resident over the age of 60.
• Voter registration and voter rolls: In Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, North Carolina, and Virginia, our successful advocacy with partner organizations resulted in almost 3 million public assistance clients receiving a voter registration application. In Kansas and Tennessee, we won against unnecessary barriers to voting registration. And in California and Indiana, we fought to prevent flawed voter roll purge processes.
• Fair maps: It's imperative to our democracy that everyone is counted equally in the political process and that political district maps are fair. This September, a federal court ruled in our favor against the Trump administration's attempt to prevent undocumented immigrants from being counted in the Census – a case which the Supreme Court will take up later in November. And in Georgia, a federal district court in Albany ordered the Sumter County Board of Elections and Registration to adopt court-drawn maps for county school board elections as a result of our lawsuit.

ACLU Supporter, this is only a small snapshot of what our team has been doing in 2020 to protect your most fundamental right to vote. You can read a lot more about this critical work here.

After all, this is what we do: Defend our constitutional freedoms in the most urgent moments – and across every state. And we won't stop.

Come Election Day and the days that follow, we'll be there to fight back against anything that might subvert our democratic process – for you and for all our rights. Count on it.

Thanks for being a part of this critical work,

Dale Ho
Pronouns: he, him, his
ACLU Attorney, fighting for voting rights

P.S. As you prepare for next Tuesday, remember three things: One, if the results of the election don't come that night, it's okay. Counting every vote is more important. Two, ACLU attorneys like myself and our organizers will be at the ready to protect your civil liberties no matter what. And three, if you haven't done so yet, vote like your rights depend on it.