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Russ Feingold 'A bold thing to demand right now' PDF Print E-mail
Commentary
Written by Russ Feingold   
Monday, 05 June 2017 11:21

russ-feingoldMADISON - This week I published an op-ed calling for a 21st Century Voting Rights Act to achieve today what the original VRA of 1965 set out to do: protect the equal right to vote for all.

To meet that standard today, we need to go beyond the original VRA and insist on a 50-state pre-clearance requirement to undo and prevent further voter suppression.

This is a bold thing to demand at a time when it seems like the deck is more stacked against us in Washington than ever. But right now, when we’re in the greatest legitimacy crisis our government has ever seen, is precisely the time we absolutely must demand this.

Thousands of your fellow supporters have already signed on to show their support for the 21st Century Voting Rights Act, but I didn’t see your name on the list. Will you join this effort today?

Join thousands of your fellow supporters now. Sign the petition to show your support for a 21st Century Voting Rights Act today.

A modern Voting Rights Act must include certain provisions, supplemented by state voting rights legislation if necessary, in order to truly restore legitimacy to our elections:

  • Establish an independent Office of Voting Rights, solely to review and approve any proposed changes to voting rights regulations in the country.
  • Establish a national standard for ID requirements that states cannot exceed.
  • Mandate same-day voter registration.
  • Mandate a minimum length of time for early voting.
  • Ban any change to voting laws within 90 days of an election.
  • Publicize any changes to voting regulations or procedures for a minimum length of time in multiple languages.
  • End felony disenfranchisement, which keeps one in 14 Black citizens nationwide from voting but only restrict one in 56 non-Black citizens.
  • End partisan gerrymandering so that the voters can choose their officials instead of officials choosing their voters.

Voting is the most important democratic right. Any infringement on the right to vote is a threat to the legitimacy of our democracy. This could be our generation’s civil rights moment, our 1965, and we must rise to meet it. We need a 21st Century Voting Rights Act. The onus is on us to demand one, and on Congress to pass it.

Sign the petition to show your support for a 21st Century Voting Rights Act today.

Just as the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 addressed many of the worst voter suppression tactics of its day, like poll taxes and literacy tests, so must the new 21st Century Voting Rights Act address modern abuses.

Thank you for standing up for our legitimacy,

Russ Feingold

 
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