We must fight against restrictive voting laws!
In May of last year Arizona’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, signed into law a bill that aims to restrict voting across the state. SB 1485 will purge thousands of Arizona voters, around 150,000 according to Arizona legislators, from the states permanent early voting list. Opponents of the bill claim that it unfairly targets minorities, seniors, and independent voters. A claim that appears to hold up as these groups are more likely to receive mail-in ballots. Republicans claim that the goal of the bill is to increase election integrity, despite absolutely no proof that Arizona’s election system is unsecure in anyway.
Joining Arizona, 18 other states passed a total of 33 new laws in 2021 that aim to restrict voting rights according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Most of these laws target mail-in voting or voter identification. These laws demonstrate a clear effort by Republicans to restrict the ability of Democrats and minorities, mostly black and Latino Americans, to vote. A recent Harvard University study illustrates that voter ID laws disproportionately affect black and Latino voters, while a NBCLX/YouGov poll found that in 2020 65% of Democrats planned to vote by mail while only 35% of Republicans planned to do so.
Trying to restrict access to voting is nothing new for Republicans, a party that has not had an official platform for the last several years, continually rehashes the same failed policies ideas, spreads lies & conspiracy theories, and consistently tries to manufacture culture wars to gain attention, they know they are a fading party and the only way they can hold on to power is by disenfranchising voters. The last two Republican presidents, Bush and Trump, lost the popular vote, if not for the outdated and undemocratic Electoral College, our country might have avoided the disastrous outcomes presided over by their administrations. Democrats have been fighting hard to protect voting rights in the United States and getting the John Lewis Voting Rights Act passed in 2022 would be a major victory in this fight. This is why it is important that we do everything we can not only to hold our majority in House of Representatives and try to build a majority in the senate in 2022 but also work to oust Republicans from our local state houses and get this wave of restrictive voting laws overturned.
The Truth & Accountability Project is not only working hard to gather resources to campaign against Republicans at all levels of government but also fighting restrictive voting laws by coordinating voter registration and education drives here in our home state of Arizona. We have also added a page on our website with links to voter registration information for the residents of every state which you can visit here Register to Vote!
