Protecting the Right to Vote for All Americans

• The right to vote is the foundation of democracy. And free and fair elections that reflect the will of the American people must be protected and defended.

• But as many Americans, especially people of color, face significant obstacles to the right to vote, we must meet the greatest threat to our democracy since the Civil War. Denying the right to vote is grounded in autocracy, and it is undemocratic, un-American, and unpatriotic.

• Vice President Harris announced a dramatic expansion of the Democratic National Committee’s ‘I Will Vote’ initiative to address and overcome efforts by Republicans across the country to make voting more difficult and burdensome.  

• The DNC will invest $25 million in voter education, voter protection, targeted voter registration, and technology to make voting more accessible in order and to fight back against Republicans’ unprecedented voter suppression efforts.  
   
  • The $25 million announced is in addition to the initial $20 million investment that Chair Harrison has already announced the DNC will make before the general election in 2022 and the DNC’s $23 million investment in our 57 state and territory strategy -- with more investments still to come.

• With these investments, it’s more than clear the DNC is continuing to lead on matters of voting rights, and that President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Chair Jaime Harrison are putting every available resource into combatting Republican attacks.

• As part of the DNC’s ‘I Will Vote’ initiative, the DNC will initiate and support litigation against laws and practices that attempt to subvert our elections or interfere with the freedom to vote. The DNC and Arizona Democratic Party took the first step towards such litigation in Arizona. 
   
  • The DNC and ADP sent a demand letter notifying the state that it must address S.B. 1819’s violations of the federal protections for registered voters established by the National Voter Registration Act and the United States Constitution, or else face a federal lawsuit.
  • In late June, as part of the budget process, Arizona’s Republican legislature passed S.B. 1819, which takes power away from election professionals and gives itself the authority to appoint whomever it wants to unilaterally disqualify voters without even giving them notice.  
  • To make matters worse, Arizona does not have same-day voter registration, which means that voters can show up to vote without knowing they have been purged from the voter rolls -- by potentially an unaccountable private entity -- and have no opportunity for recourse.
  • As this action in Arizona demonstrates, where Republican legislatures infringe on the right to vote and mess with the professionals who run our elections because of post-2020 delusions, Democrats will step up and fight back to protect voters and their rights.