ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES: SINCE SUPREME COURT WON’T PROTECT VOTING RIGHTS, WE NEED LEGISLATURES AND A PRESIDENT WHO WILL
ACTION ONE: CALL YOUR SENATORS
SAMPLE SCRIPT FOR WYDEN AND MERKLEY:
My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code]. I am calling because we cannot continue to allow election results to be predetermined by a web of gerrymanders and voter suppression laws passed by state lawmakers and upheld by the Supreme Court. The House has stepped up to combat voter suppression and expand access to the ballot box for all Americans, and Senators must join this fight, by insisting that McConnell bring the Voting Rights Expansion Act and the HEROES Act to the floor for a vote. Now more than ever, we need you to keep messaging about the importance of this election for the future of our democracy.
CALL SENATOR MERKLEY
CALL SENATOR WYDEN
ACTION TWO: CALL YOUR HOUSE REPS
Not sure who your U.S. Representative is? Find out here.
SAMPLE SCRIPTS FOR REPRESENTATIVES:
My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code]. I am calling because…
For all but Walden: We cannot continue to allow election results to be predetermined by a web of gerrymanders and voter suppression laws passed by state lawmakers and upheld by the Supreme Court. Thank you for stepping up in the House to combat voter suppression, expand access to the ballot box for all Americans, and provide funding so Americans can safely vote from home. Now more than ever, we also need you to keep messaging about the importance of this election for the future of our democracy.
For Walden: Now more than ever, we need our elected representatives to recognize the importance of this election for the future of our democracy. Expanding access to the ballot box and combatting voter suppression are important American values, no matter your party. You have an educational role to play for the voters in your district, which I hope you will take seriously.
CALL SUZANNE BONAMICI (OR-01)
CALL GREG WALDEN (OR-02)
CALL BLUMENAUER (OR-03)
CALL PETER DEFAZIO (OR-04)
CALL KURT SCHRADER (OR-05)
ACTION THREE: DUMP TRUMP, FLIP THE SENATE, ELECT REPS WHO WILL PROTECT OUR RIGHTS, AND KEEP EDUCATING YOURSELF.
-Keep learning about racism — how is baked into our country’s design and how it works today. Justice in June has 10-, 25-, and 45-minute actions you can take every day. They recommend this video [NOTE: please add hyperlink]
–Dump Trump, Flip the Senate, Stop Gerrymandering, Get Out The Vote.
- Turn out for elections work! Indivisible Oregon is partnering with Swing Left and its smart Super State Strategy. We’ve adopted Arizona—where we are working to flip the White House, the Senate, and the state legislature (to roll back Republican gerrymandering). Action is the antidote to anxiety (and despair)!
- Join our letter writing events on Zoom every Saturday —sign up at https://swingleft.org/group/indivisible-oregon. Or join any of hundreds of letter-writing parties all over the country, whenever it fits your schedule.
- Write letters to voters from home, whenever it’s convenient for you. Register with votefwd.org and get started.
- Host your own virtual letter-writing party through Swing Left. It’s easy and fun.
- Coming soon: Indivisible Oregon phone-banking parties!
BACKGROUND:
No act is more fundamental to democracy than unencumbered voting rights. That the Roberts Court would strip it away, especially from poor and non-white citizens, is unconscionable.
- 2013: 5-4 requiring DOJ had to “pre-clear” changes to election laws where documented histories of racial discrimination unconstitutional.
- 2018: 5-4 states can purge from voting rolls if hadn’t voted for 2 years.
- 2019: 5-4 partisan gerrymandering, although distasteful, beyond courts’ reach.
- This term: despite coronavirus pandemic, Roberts Court won’t protect voting rights
- Wisconsin: 5-4 no extra time to submit absentee ballots
- Alabama: 5-4 won’t relax absentee ballot requirements
- Texas: 5-4 needn’t extend absentee voting to those under 65
- Florida: 6-3 permitted ex-felon disenfranchisement
Elections have consequences. Had Trump lost, the Supreme Court, voting 6-3, would have disallowed voter suppression and allowed alternatives to in-person voting. Had the Senate flipped, voting rights would have been protected. Had Dems won more state races in 2010, we’d have less voter suppression and political gerrymandering.
There’s still time to make the 2020 election count—by voting in the right people we can change courts’ ideological makeup, get pro-voter legislation through Congress and statehouses and redraw legislative districts to ensure one-person-one vote.