Action Alert: Tell Congress to Protect Our Right to Vote

On April 7, at the near peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of thousands of voters in Wisconsin had to risk their lives standing in long crowded lines in order to vote.  We must not repeat this when we all vote in  November.

Fill out the form below to contact your members of Congress and demand that the next round of COVID-19 funding contain the $4 Billion that states will need to ensure we can vote safely in the November election.

Description of the issue
In the recent election in Wisconsin over a million voters requested no-excuse absentee ballots, and the state voting system was overwhelmed. The state was not able to mail them all in time for the election. Then on April 7, hundreds of thousands of voters had to decide whether to stay home during the COVID-19 Pandemic and not vote or risk their lives standing in long crowded lines at the polls. In Milwaukee, the usual 180 polling places were reduced to five. This was an outrageous situation that could and should have been prevented, and it made a mockery of the most fundamental piece of our democracy, the right to vote.

Why it’s important
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the coronavirus will remain a threat during our November elections. Millions of Americans with a wide range of political views will avoid going to the polls because it is not safe. We need to make it as easy as we can for them to vote from the safety of their own homes. This is especially true for at-risk populations and those who have transportation difficulties. The $400M for elections in the CARES Act was a welcome start but is woefully insufficient to cover the cost of preparing all of our states to put in place the needed solutions to keep us safe: voting by mail, early voting, and having easily accessible and safe polling places.

What’s needed to put these solutions in place by November 3, 2020?
The critical ingredients right now are the money and the will to do this. A new Brennan Center poll finds that four out of five Americans believe states should give all voters the option of no-excuse mail ballots during the November election. Much of the country already votes using mail ballots with infinitesimal fraud. Five states run their elections almost entirely by vote by mail. In 28 states and the District of Columbia, voters have the right to request a no-excuse absentee ballot. However, even these states are not ready for a huge increase in the number of absentee voting requests.

What we need to do
Congress has the explicit constitutional authority to protect the right to vote in federal elections and must use that authority now to safeguard the 2020 election.

Call or write your Representative and Senators and tell them they need to provide the necessary money to fund safe elections throughout the country. You can call them at (202) 224-3121 or complete the form below to send a message to your members of Congress. We encourage you to personalize the message.

By filling out the form below, your message will be automatically sent to your congressional leaders in the House and Senate. 

Sample Phone Message
My name is [ X ], I am a constituent from [ city, state]. I’m very concerned about my right to vote in our democracy. What happened in the Wisconsin election on April 7 was inexcusable and a violation of our basic rights as Americans. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 will remain a threat during our November elections. We have no choice. We must have the option for people to vote by mail in November. States don’t have the money for this and they need to start working on it right now so that by October, they will be prepared for people to vote safely and securely.

It is critically important to INCLUDE $4 BILLION IN THE NEXT COVID-19 LEGISLATION to fund voting by mail, early voting, and creating safe polling places. If Congress can spend trillions of dollars to help our economy, is it too much to ask to spend an additional $4 Billion to save our democracy? I urge you, for the sake of all of our lives and the future of our democracy, to please make this happen. Thank you.