John, the Supreme Court just invited far-right state lawmakers to double down on their campaign of voter suppression.

This morning’s ruling in Brnovich v. DNC will make it much harder for courts to strike down racist anti-voter laws like those just recently enacted in Georgia and Florida.

In short, the forces of voter suppression are now emboldened to cut weekend voting, trim early voting, dramatically reduce the number of polling places, and get rid of dropboxes. The Court’s decision further guts the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965, granting state legislatures even more power to suppress Black and Brown voters.

Of course today’s decision is terrible, and terribly dangerous for our democracy. BUT… again and again -- most recently in the 2020 elections -- we’ve confronted the forces of voter suppression and won. Now, we must mobilize to defeat them once again.

The most important thing you and I can do to respond to this ruling is to ramp up our pressure to pass our priority democracy bills: the For the People Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

We have just a few short weeks to act -- and if today’s ruling doesn’t prove that failure is simply not an option, I don’t know what will. This summer's mobilization is our best chance to move the Senate to action -- and we need to give it everything we’ve got if we don’t want the vote suppression laws that the Supreme Court just greenlighted to define the 2022 midterms.

Furthermore, I will shortly convene an all-hands meeting of our national and state organizers and Voter Protection Team. The purpose: draw up Emergency Mobilization Plans for reactivating our Voter Protection Network.

I want to be able to assure them that funds will be available to undertake the massive task of fighting back in state after state, as well as pushing Congress to do its job and respond with legislation to override these terrible state laws. And that’s where you come in.

Will you -- right now -- make an Emergency Voter Protection contribution of $3 or more to make sure we have immediate funds on hand to counter this reactionary assault on democracy?

Yes, I'll Chip In $3

We already knew that next year’s midterm elections -- the first with these new, discriminatory state laws in effect -- would require a major effort on our part to protect every voter’s rights.

But today’s ruling dramatically raises the stakes -- which is why I am convening the Common Cause team to begin laying the groundwork TODAY for our Protect The Vote 2022 campaign.

With a mere 16 months to go before the 2022 midterm elections, we must:

• Reactivate our network of nonpartisan Election Protection volunteers -- many of whom are calling voters in states like West Virginia right now to demand Senate action on the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
• Build the massive network and infrastructure needed to counter malicious, anti-voter laws being put in place in state after state… field thousands of volunteers… and then on Election Day, position thousands of in-person poll monitors to assist voters.
• Enlist an increased number of online disinformation watchdogs to counter the massive disinformation -- since the vote suppressors are sure to take advantage of new voting restrictions and Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 election.

Make no mistake -- with your emergency help, we will fight and win the multiple battles before us right now. Battles to protect voters’ rights in states like Texas and Pennsylvania, where we’re putting it all on the line to stop anti-voter legislation.

And, today’s ruling adds major new urgency to our fight to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act through the U.S. Senate.

But no matter what, John, the all-out war on voting rights we’ve seen from Republican state legislators has convinced me that we’ll need to run a Protect The Vote 2022 effort as big -- or even bigger -- than we did in 2020. And that means starting immediately.

That’s right -- not only will we need to significantly increase the historic level of volunteer mobilization that you and thousands of your fellow Common Cause members made possible in 2020. But... at the same time, we must double down on our mobilization to pass the For the People Act currently before Congress, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act when it is introduced.

As you can imagine, undertaking a mobilization this massive will take a major investment of resources -- but the cost of inaction is so much higher. And, the amount of resources we are able to raise right now will determine how quickly we can spring into action.

John, if you agree that the time to act is NOW -- because the forces of voter suppression are already putting their sinister plans in motion -- I hope you will rush an Emergency Voter Protection contribution of $3 or more today >>

Yes, I'll Chip In $3

Our Protect The Vote work is one of the most impactful actions Common Cause delivers. Successful, on-the-ground actions that make a difference for literally millions of voters on Election Day and during early voting.

Unfortunately, because of today’s decision, that work is shaping up to be more important than ever in 2022. Sadly, more and more politicians have cynically decided that their only path to victory is by silencing voters and cheating us all out of our right to be heard.

Given our successful history in fighting the vote suppressors, there is every reason to be hopeful that, once again, we’ll win.  

We’ll win because we can once again count on your dedication and support -- and that you’re willing to do your part in this battle to defend our democracy.

For democracy,

Karen Hobert Flynn, President
and the team at Common Cause

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