Indivisibles,

Hi! I’m Betsy and I’m an Indivisible group member and a longtime organizer in the great state of Wisconsin. I’m here to talk to you about how I’m committed (I’m an organizer and a mom, after all), but I’m not all-powerful. 

So let’s back up. You may have seen this little bit of insight from President Biden in yesterday’s New York Times: 

“In private calls with voting rights groups and civil rights leaders, White House officials and close allies of the president have expressed confidence that it is possible to “out-organize voter suppression,” according to multiple people familiar with the conversations.” (NYT, July 22, 2021)

I love the idea that organizing can solve everything -- and in a lot of cases it can -- but we can’t out-organize voter suppression because voter suppression moves the foundation that organizing is built on. And I know that’s true, because Wisconsin, where I live and organize, has been the GOP’s testing ground for all their voter suppression ideas for years now. A couple examples:

I vote in a rural township with about 800 registered voters. The poll workers know all of us by sight and our children and grandchildren. Still, we are now required to show ID -- ID which is restricted to driver’s licenses. Scott Walker reduced the hours and availability of places to get these driver’s licenses, especially inconvenient for senior citizens and people who don’t drive. I’ve asked my poll workers if there has ever been a fraudulent vote in our township. They are sure there has not. Not one.

Another requirement is that the driver’s licenses have your current address on them. College students, who often move dorms every semester, tend to leave their address as their parents’ address rather than change them, especially if they live out of state. I’ve tried to show them the process for either getting an absentee ballot or changing their driver’s license. I’ve seen the look in their eye -- too complicated! 

Our district has been incredibly gerrymandered. It looks like a snake, curling around the two college towns where there would be any chance of fair competition. And it’s no accident that the worst voter suppression is aimed at Milwaukee, where most of our state’s Black and brown people live and organize. 

We’ve been organizing our hearts out in Wisconsin for a decade, with thousands of activists statewide out in all weather (here I am in 2011 collecting ballot signatures in 30 degree weather!), day in and day out. And we’re not going to stop!

But the truth is, organizing in states like Wisconsin with entrenched anti-democratic policies and highly organized, well-funded Republicans who are propped up by one of the worst gerrymanders in the country takes time. Decades. And we don’t have decades to fix the major problems facing us today -- we don’t even have years. Organizers like me are going to continue pouring our hearts and souls into this work, but we need help. Fortunately, S. 1, the For the People Act, is that help. It’ll reduce money in politics, address gerrymandering, and make voting easier. And all of that will supercharge what we’re able to do as organizers. 

So here’s what I’m asking you today, as a longtime state-level organizer: Pick up your phone, right now, and call your senators. Tell them to pass S.1 and to abolish the filibuster when Republicans try and use it to stop us. You can call the Senate directly, or click here and put in your information and we’ll call you back and walk you through how to make the call and what to say. With S. 1 and organizing working together, we’ll be able to make great progress in this country.

In solidarity,

Betsy Bacon