Dear friends,
I’ve talked about the idea of collective relentlessness. One of the ways I organize my week is to think of Thursdays as a day for following through on some of our most important efforts. In some cases, a thrashing out of a complex issue is also called for.
Today, we’re going to sort through the scope of two pieces of voting rights legislation, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and the more expansive For the People Act.
The original Voting Rights Act contained provisions for pre-clearance of changes to voting procedures. The Department of Justice reviewed proposed changes before they could be implemented in order to prevent discriminatory provisions in jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination.
The new legislation will provide a necessary update; the Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that the formula for DOJ’s oversight power was outdated.
Sewell explained that the revised formula now takes into account only the past 25 years of voting misconduct from states and localities.
“If a state or jurisdiction has had 10 or more violations — including a statewide violation — or 15 violations with no statewide violation, then that state would be considered a covered jurisdiction,” the Alabama congresswoman said.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of jurisdictions that have implemented discriminatory voting laws that constitute violations of the Voting Rights Act. And of course, there are hundreds of new voter suppression bills that were introduced following the 2020 election.
Spend one minute on this ready-made action to ask all of your federal legislators to support the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
The legislation named for John Lewis, HR 4, is not as sprawling as the For the People Act (H 1/S 1), which appears to be stalled in the Senate.
The For the People Act includes a comprehensive set of non-partisan reforms:
The key reforms in the For the People Act are modeled off successful practices that have been implemented in red, blue, and purple states. Forty-three states have some form of early voting and 34 states allow no excuse vote by mail, which the bill would require for all federal elections. The bill also requires states to adopt Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) — where eligible voters are registered when they provide their information to a government agency like the department of motor vehicles. AVR has been passed in 19 states of all political hues, including by a unanimous vote in the Illinois Legislature and two-thirds of voters in a Michigan ballot referendum. Redistricting reforms like those in the For the People Act have been adopted by voters in red and purple states like Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, and Utah, often by overwhelming margins. Republican states like Alaska and Montana have some of the nation’s strongest campaign finance rules.
Creating a non-partisan process for redistricting and a voluntary small donor matching system for federal elections are critical to creating a truly representative government.
Small donor matching benefits the vast majority of candidates, but it is especially useful for candidates of color, particularly women, who thanks to historic discrimination often cannot access the same wealthy networks as their white counterparts.
This program does not use any taxpayer money. It is entirely funded by a surcharge to be assessed primarily on penalties from corporate lawbreakers. The bill expressly forbids any use of taxpayer funds.
Collective relentlessness is how we un-stall legislation. Did you sing to your senators this week? If not, today’s the day!
Learn the song! Then, call 1-888-453-3211 and then sing it to your Senator’s voice mail in support of the For the People Act.
For a few days, it probably appeared that I was ignoring world events. I was not. They are hard to process.
Almost 3.5 million people are internally displaced within Afghanistan, according to the UN refugee agency. I expect that the numbers of people displaced are growing by the hour.
[M]any are now sleeping rough in Kabul without access to basic goods or medical assistance.
In early August, the US expanded its Afghan refugee criteria to include current and former employees of US-based media organisations, aid and development agencies and other relief groups that receive US funding.
However, the US’s ability to quickly process visa and refugee applications remains in question.
According to the US government 15,000 Afghans entered the country under Special Immigrant Visas program before the Taliban advance and as many more are waiting for their applications to be processed.
Biden has committed to evacuating all of the Americans in country, even if that requires maintaining forces past the August 31 deadline; this may be good news for refugees trying to reach the airports, although the Taliban control the roads leading to the airports.
Without question, the US has a moral obligation to provide a safe haven in the unfolding humanitarian crisis. We must actively counter the racist rants against accepting refugees.
Sign this petition to the president and members of congress calling for an open door to Afghan refugees, prioritizing women and girls, LGBTQ+ people, activists, and religious and ethnic minorities.
The situation in Haiti is also devastating. Tens of thousands of people have lost their homes in the recent earthquake. Other infrastructure — hospitals, roads, churches — has also been destroyed by the earthquake and Tropical Storm Grace, which has been dumping rain on the wreckage.
UNICEF estimates roughly 1.2 million people, including 540,000 children, have been impacted by the back-to-back disasters in recent days.
The humanitarian organization estimates that it will need at least $15 million to respond to the most urgent needs of at least 385,000 people. That's including 167,000 children under the age of five for a period lasting at least eight weeks.
The US has not sent enough aid and there is already a working group — composed of the Congressional Haitian Staff Association, the House Appropriations Committee, and the Haitian Consulate General’s office in Miami — generating a proposed number. Once there’s an aid figure, we’ll contemplate our next move. Here’s an action for right now:
Support World Central Kitchen’s efforts to feed people in Haiti!
It’s going to be another hot one.
Watch Nydia Velazquez’s short video about the urgent necessity for climate action and then attend a local action today to demand that Congress invest in sustainable infrastructure.
with love,
L