After 40,000 initial calls to Senators, Fair Fight Action is doubling down on efforts to educate and mobilize voters around key provisions that must be included in any federal legislation to protect voting rights
ATLANTA — Today, Fair Fight Action, the voting rights organization founded by Stacey Abrams, redoubled the group’s Hot Call Summer campaign to secure federal legislation to protect the freedom to vote.
As a wave of anti-voter bills sweep the nation and on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee (DNC), the campaign will help educate and mobilize voters of color and young progressives in support of the For the People Act (S1) and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
The initial Hot Call Summer campaign drove more than 40,000 phone calls to U.S. Senators in just four weeks during June, helping to secure Democratic unity on the For the People Act. Yet while Democrats in the Senate continue to work tirelessly to negotiate a bill that protects the freedom to vote, Republicans in Congress are united in defying the will of the majority of Americans who support S1.
The campaign will hone in on a handful of specific provisions identified by Fair Fight Action as critical for safeguarding the freedom to vote and essential to any federal legislation on voting rights. These include:
Protecting and expanding vote by mail
Reducing long lines at the polls
Preventing polling location closures and voter purges
Ensuring fair districts and ending partisan gerrymandering
Reinstating and strengthening federal preclearance to protect voters of color from discrimination
Stopping threats to election workers and voter intimidation
Safeguarding the will of voters in elections
“With the recent Supreme Court decision in Brnovich v. DNC further weakening the Voting Rights Act, the urgent need for federal legislative action to protect the freedom to vote is greater than ever,” said Fair Fight Action Organizing Director Hillary Holley. “The success of our Hot Call Summer efforts in June paired with the litany of attacks on the freedom to vote we’re seeing in Arizona, Texas, Montana, and other states across the country has made our mission clear. Fair Fight Action is turning the heat up on Congress all summer long to ensure they take immediate action to establish minimum national voting standards and restore and strengthen the Voting Rights Act. Americans deserve legislation that addresses the crisis our democracy faces and strikes the proper balance to defend and protect the freedom to vote across our country—this is our moment to persevere.”
Since the June launch of Hot Call Summer, a number of states have seen an escalation of threats to the freedom to vote, prompting Fair Fight Action to double down on efforts to secure federal legislation.
The latest Arizona budget includes provisions that would undermine the authority of the Secretary of State while putting countless eligible voters at risk of being illegitimately disqualified from the voting rolls.
In Texas, Gov. Abbott convened a special session with the explicit aim of passing the anti-voter bill that failed during regular session and would make sweeping changes to Texas’ election system and severely restrict access for eligible voters while further muddling the election process.
The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brnovich v. DNC further undermined the Voting Rights Act by upholding Arizona’s ban on third-party ballot collection and policy invalidating out-of-precinct ballots, and it created new obstacles to challenging policies that discriminate against voters of color.
To learn more about the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, visit StopJimCrow2.com.
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