Tell Congress:
"Pass The Voting Rights Advancement Act Of 2019 to ensure equal access for every American to vote."
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Friend,
Last November, Jadana Donely — a 45-year-old black Georgia woman — waited in line for more than four hours at a Gwinnett County elementary school to cast her vote in the election. Jadana wasn't the only one.
Not only thousands of Georgia voters like Jadana faced huge obstacles to voting on election day, over fifty thousand black voters didn't even get to vote in 2018 because Brian Kemp – the current Governor of Georgia – used his position as Georgia Secretary of State to purge them off the voting rolls to ensure his election victory.
This kind of gross injustice is prevalent because in 2013 the conservative majority on the Supreme Court in Shelby v. Holder decision gutted the Voting Rights Act (VRA) – the landmark 1965 bill – that protected communities of color against racist voter suppression. Since then, the conservative movement has done all they can to disenfranchise voters and suppress the vote because they know their side cannot maintain power if everyone can vote.
That is why we need to push for the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2019 now to ensure equal access for every American to vote.
The VRA is what people fought and died for half a century ago, and it is unfathomable that in 2013, just seven years after Congress re-authorized VRA, five Supreme Court justices would undo this landmark law that has served as an essential protector of our democracy, and continues to be necessary today.
Through our Respect My Vote! campaign we at Hip Hop Caucus are working every day to make voting a lifestyle so that our communities are playing an active role in critical policymaking process that ranges from from climate change, environmental justice, water in Flint, healthcare, education, jobs, and economic security.
But, we need to make sure our vote matters. It doesn't make sense for us to do all the work to get our communities engaged, to get people to register and to want to vote and then their vote does not count. That's why we need to engage today and work to bring voting rights act back to life.
We need to build momentum for the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2019 by pushing for its passage in the House of Representatives, where the Democrats are in charge. If the House moves first on this bill it will force the hand of Senate Republicans to either pass the measure or go on the record as opposing the right to vote.
What happened in Georgia in 2018 was the same old story of Republicans using the irrational fear of "voter fraud" as a cover to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of eligible voters. And, it wasn't just Georgia. North Dakota’s state government passed a restrictive voter ID law to make insufficient the types of ID most of the state’s Indigenous population uses. And North Carolina had 20% fewer early voting locations than there were in 2014.
The truth is, voter fraud is exceedingly rare. More Americans are struck by lightning than commit voter fraud. The real problem, the one that can affect the outcome of our elections if we're not vigilant, is voter suppression. We need to push hard for meaningful election reform now.
For future generations,
Rev Yearwood
President & CEO
Hip Hop Caucus
President & CEO
Hip Hop Caucus
Hip Hop Caucus1638 R Street, NW #120, Washington, DC 20009
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