Happy Hump Day, Shit Givers.
It was National Voter Registration Day this week, so we’re going to focus this issue on protecting democracy, which starts with registering to vote!
And if you’re already registered to vote, fantastic, we have some actions for you to protect your vote once it’s cast, and then to make it easier for other people to vote too.
Let’s go.
— Willow
APL Positions covered this week:
🗳 Automatic voter registration in all states
📆 Election Day federal holiday
⚖ Restore Voting Rights Act preclearance
🗺 Independent redistricting commissions
🇺🇸 DC statehood
📜 Paper ballot backup nationwide
☑ Same-day voter registration
Count me in
Being eligible to vote and being registered to vote are two different things, and a lot of people lose their voice when they fall through that gap. Some states already offer automatic registration or same-day registration, which is great. Let’s catch the rest of the country up.
Here’s what you can do:
Tell your Senator to support automatic voter registration with the Register America to Vote Act (go).
Tell Congress to support same-day voter registration with the Same Day Registration Act (go).
Tell Congress to oppose the SAVE Act, which would require documents like a passport or birth certificate just to register, disenfranchising millions of eligible citizens who don’t have easy access to either (go).
![Caption reads, "Negro voting in Cardoza [i.e., Cardozo] High School in [Washington,] D.C. / [MST]." Original black and white negative by Marion S. Trikosko. Taken November 3rd, 1964, Washington D.C, United States (@libraryofcongress). Colorized by Jordan J. Lloyd. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003688167/](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1597700331582-aab3614b3c0c?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3w0ODM4NTF8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw1fHxiYWxsb3R8ZW58MHx8fHwxNzg5NTc5OTgzfDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=1080&utm_source=beehiiv&utm_medium=referral)
Guard the ballot
These days, casting a ballot is only half the job. It also has to get counted accurately, and the people running that process need to be protected from intimidation while they do it.
Here’s what you can do:
Rig-proof
Some of the biggest threats to fair elections happen long before anyone votes, from who is drawing the district lines, to whether working people can actually get to the polls, and who gets full representation at all.
Here’s what you can do:
Make Election Day a federal holiday so working Americans don’t have to choose between a paycheck and their vote with the Election Day Act (go).
Ban mid-decade gerrymandering and require independent redistricting commissions with the Redistricting Reform Act (go).
Support full congressional representation for DC residents with the Washington, DC Admission Act (go).
Beyond the ballot
Actually getting people registered, informed, and to the polls, is unglamorous but essential work.
Here’s what you can do:
Support Fair Fight’s work protecting voting rights for all (go).
Join large-scale get-out-the-vote organizing with Vote Save America (go).
Back electoral reform, ranked choice voting and beyond, with FairVote Action (go).
Run for county clerk, the office that actually administers your local elections, with Run For Something (go).
That’s it for this week. Remember, voting is sexy!
Thank you — as always — for giving a shit.
— Willow
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