If our votes aren’t impactful, why are MAGA lawmakers working so hard to keep us from voting?
Dear friends,
Voter suppression is a longstanding problem that undermines democratic freedoms in many countries, even in established democracies. Some people try to discourage or prevent others from exercising their legitimate right to vote, often targeting legally protected demographic groups.
Since Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, and his constant lies falsely claiming the election was “stolen” from him, elected members of his MAGA cult in 48 states have introduced more than 400 anti-voter bills, of which more than half aim to limit access to mail-in voting. Some U.S. states have implemented strict voter ID laws that deliberately and disproportionately affect people of color, seniors, physically challenged people, young people, and low-income voters.
Voter suppression laws may limit early voting, close or relocate polling places in “certain communities,” and involve deliberately spreading misinformation about voting procedures or election dates to trick potential voters.
Texas recently purged one million voters from its rolls, mostly based on fake claims or technicalities such as punctuation. In Georgia, lawmakers made it a crime to provide food and water to voters standing in line at the polls — lines that are notoriously long, especially for communities of color. Georgia also created a website to give anyone the ability to cancel someone else’s voter registration!
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton did not stop his voter suppression efforts at purging one million people from voter rolls. Right-wing extremists are doing all they can to cheat their way to power.
Appallingly, in August 2024, 87-year-old San Antonio resident Lidia Martinez, a long-time member of the esteemed Hispanic civil rights organization LULAC working to expand voter registration, was awakened in the early morning by nine police officers of the Texas Gestapo. They were dressed in tactical gear, carrying guns and a search warrant. Martinez was forced to remain in her nightgown and not allowed to get dressed.
For the next three hours, Martinez was questioned about her voter registration efforts in Texas. Several other Hispanic activists were harassed similarly. Their computers and cell phones were confiscated supposedly for use as evidence of participation in voter fraud. LULAC has called on the Justice Department to investigate these illegal voter intimidation tactics.
As civil rights icon Heather Booth says of such right-wing extremism: “There are more of us than there are of them.” “We the People” must vote in such large numbers that the validity of election outcomes cannot be successfully challenged.
Please confirm you are correctly registered to vote at https://verify.vote.org and encourage all your social media followers to do the same.
