Democracy 21 Urges Senate To Pass The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act

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“Protecting the sacred right to vote for all eligible Americans should be a goal for all Members of Congress.” 

Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, introduced in the Senate on Tuesday, is a vitally important step forward in the work to protect the sacred right to vote for all eligible citizens.

Today, millions of Black, brown, and other minorities, are at risk of losing their ability to vote due to voter suppression laws being passed in numerous states. These laws represent the greatest voter suppression effort in the United States since the Jim Crow era.

A companion measure, the Freedom to Vote Act, also pending in the Senate, would overturn the dangerous voter suppression laws that have already been passed in 19 states and are being considered in other places.  The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would help ensure that future state suppression efforts are prevented.

Together, these complementary reform measures will help turn back today’s dangerous tide of Jim Crow-era voter suppression and discrimination that threaten the sacred right to vote for tens of millions of Americans and our very democracy.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore the preclearance provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and modernize the formula for determining which states have a pattern of discrimination and would fall under the preclearance provision.

The Act has already passed in the House.

“The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act builds for us a fire station to protect against future fires,” Senate co-sponsor Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) said on the Senate floor yesterday.

If enacting laws to ensure fairness, equality, and access when it comes to voting seems like a no brainer, it is.

The voter suppression efforts underway in our nation today, fed in no small part by Donald Trump’s Big Lie, threatens the very foundation of our democracy.

Protecting the sacred right to vote for all eligible Americans should be a goal for all Members of Congress. There is no place for partisan excuses here.

“The vote is precious. It is almost sacred,” the late Representative John Lewis, the civil rights champion, once said. “It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democracy.”

It is time for all Senators to stand up for democracy. We applaud the 49 Democratic Senators – led by lead sponsor Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) – for introducing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act in the Senate on Tuesday.

We call on the Senate to swiftly pass this essential legislation, along with the Freedom to Vote Act.

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