Your weekly source for analysis and insight from experts at the Brennan Center for Justice
The Briefing
Last week, John Kavanagh, a Republican state representative in Arizona, told CNN that “everybody shouldn’t be voting.” Arizona is one of 43 states where Republican lawmakers, citing fraud, are trying to make voting harder. They’re doing this even though the 2020 election was the most secure in history. Kavanagh went on to say, “Quantity is important, but we have to look at the quality of votes, as well.”
Remarks like his have a long, ugly, racist history. They go back to the country’s founding, when only white men who owned property could vote. For two centuries and more, we’ve fought for the idea that all Americans have the right to an equal voice in government.
I’ve written in the Briefing about the overwhelming legislative assault on voting rights we’re seeing in state legislatures across the country. My colleagues estimate over 250 bills have been introduced that would make voting harder, two of which have already passed and many of which are aggressively moving through state legislatures. These bills have the potential to dramatically reduce voting access, especially for Black and brown voters.
But Congress can stop this. The For the People Act (H.R. 1/S. 1), which is expected to be introduced in the Senate this week after already passing the House, would thwart virtually every single one of these bills. To a greater degree than realized, the legislation is not just a valuable reform. It would work, immediately, to stop the worst abuses. A new Brennan Center resource shows how.
The For the People Act would create a national baseline for voting access that every American can rely on, and it would foil state efforts to manipulate voting rules to exclude eligible voters or create discriminatory outcomes. Our resource outlines each of the major elements of the pending state voter suppression bills and explains how the For the People Act would address them.
While Republican lawmakers in 43 states are trying to keep people from voting, Congress has the opportunity to not just fight to uphold democracy, but to expand it. It’s not a moment for hand-wringing. The Senate must act quickly to pass the For the People Act.

 
Democracy
Faces of Small Donor Public Financing
The campaign finance arms race forces politicians to spend too much time chasing large contributions instead of serving the public. Public campaign financing — one of the reforms included in the For the People Act — offers candidates the chance to run competitive campaigns focused on contact with constituents rather than call lists of big donors and special interests. Among those happiest with these systems? The candidates themselves. The Brennan Center has compiled a collection of testimony from elected officials around the country about how public financing helped them connect with their communities. // Read More
Voter Suppression Efforts in Georgia and Texas Are Escalating
In the fight for the vote, Georgia has emerged as a flashpoint. Legislators are pushing to eliminate early in-person voting on the day used by Black churches and to eliminate no-excuse absentee voting for younger voters, among other measures. These bills would disproportionately hurt Black voters. In this Q&A, Tim Lau talks with Myrna Pérez about the nature of these restrictive voting bills, the myth of voter fraud, and how Congress can stop these bills with the For the People Act. // Read More
Republican politicians in Texas are also hard at work creating obstacles to the vote, introducing a slew of bills in the Texas legislature, including an omnibus voter suppression bill. The proposed policies range from restrictions on voter registration to tightening eligibility on absentee voting — “a particularly noteworthy turn of events given that Texas is already more restrictive with those two things than most of the states in the country,” writes Myrna Pérez. // Read More
Why the For the People Act Is Critical for Fair Voting Maps
This fall, congressional districts around the country will be redrawn based on the 2020 Census. With the For the People Act, Congress can replace a murky and abuse-prone process with one that is fair, transparent, and inclusive. “Packaged together in one bill, the reforms are the most significant effort in American history to rein in gerrymandering and other abuses that have long plagued congressional redistricting,” writes Michael Li. // Read More

 
Justice
The Real Harm Caused by Misdemeanor Convictions
One misdemeanor can result in hefty fees and fines or jail time. It can cost you your job, professional license, or housing application. Misdemeanor convictions reduce people’s earnings by hundreds of thousands of dollars, roughly 16 percent annually. Reducing the number of people who carry these charges is vital, and New York has developed tools to do just that. But one tool — pretrial diversion, which allows someone cited for a misdemeanor to avoid being charged with the offense — “is underutilized, underfunded, and at the risk of collapse because of budget cuts,” write Jackie Fielding and Robin Hood’s Chloe Sarnoff. // Appeal

 
Coming Up
  • Monday, March 22 | 1:15 p.m.–2:15 p.m. ET
    For decades, philanthropist George Soros has been dogged by conspiracy theories and disinformation. The new documentary Soros from filmmaker Jesse Dylan shows how his opponents — from Glenn Beck to the Proud Boys — have leveraged racist, anti-Semitic tropes to smear not just Soros but those who’ve benefited from his support for open societies globally. Join Dylan, Mark Malloch-Brown (Open Society Foundations president), Michael Waldman (Brennan Center president), Suzanne Nossel (PEN America CEO), Andrew Banks (A/B Partners and Win Black founder and CEO), and Arisha Hatch (Color Of Change vice president and chief of campaigns) for a screening of the documentary and a panel conversation about truth, lies, and how to support open societies at a fractured historical moment. RSVP today.
    This event is produced in partnership with PEN America.
  • Wednesday, March 24 | 12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m. ET
    A pathbreaking New York Times bestseller, Four Hundred Souls ranges across disciplines and genres to tell the many histories of Black Americans from 1619 through the present. The volume’s coeditor, historian Keisha N. Blain, and two of its contributors, political strategist Donna Brazile and anthropologist Laurence Ralph, join the Brennan Center’s Theodore R. Johnson to discuss how African-American resistance and engagement has shaped the contours of U.S. democracy. RSVP today.
    This event is produced in partnership with New York University’s John Brademas Center.
  • Thursday, April 1 | 12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m. ET
    After the election of Donald Trump, journalist Seyward Darby went looking for the women of the so-called “alt-right” — really just white nationalism with a new label. Join Darby and Brennan Center Liberty & National Security Program Codirector Faiza Patel for a conversation about Darby’s new book, Sisters in Hate. RSVP today.
    This event is produced in partnership with New York University’s John Brademas Center.

 
News
  • Alicia Bannon on public financing for judicial candidates in New Mexico // AP
  • Ángel Díaz on what the Post Act reveals about the NYPD’s surveillance technology system // The Economist
  • Lauren-Brooke Eisen on jail population trends during Covid-19 // Reuters
  • Michael German on the FBI’s weak response to the Proud Boys // New York Times
  • Michael Li on upcoming redistricting // Pennsylvania Capital-Star
  • Eliza Sweren-Becker on state efforts to restrict access to the vote // Texas Public Radio
  • Wendy Weiser on Republican efforts to restrict voting rights // MSNBC
The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to reform, revitalize – and when necessary defend – our country’s systems of democracy and justice.

 
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