Today’s decision has opened a portal to the past, to an era where voters all across America — voters of color, voters of different religions, voters of different languages, voters with disabilities, and millions of others — were systemically disenfranchised. An era when many were made to pay poll taxes, take literacy tests, prove that their grandfathers were registered voters before they could become registered voters themselves.
This is by design. Sixty years ago, when the Voting Rights Act (VRA) was enacted, our nation rejected the radical right’s vision for a segregated, divided America, because that vision did not represent what Americans wanted for their lives, families, and country. It still doesn’t. And that’s why the rightwing is systematically working to remove the voice of the people. They know their vision for a segregated, divided America can only happen if millions of us are prevented from voting.
By further dismantling the VRA’s protections, MAGA candidates and lawmakers believe they will have a better shot at getting elected and bringing their hateful vision of America to fruition.
They are wrong.
Today the Supreme Court returned more power to the states to decide our future. The states are our homefield, where together we’ve been fighting for nearly a decade to elect pro-democracy majorities of lawmakers who believe every American has an inalienable right to vote.
We’ve succeeded in building powerful majorities of state lawmakers who have expanded voting rights by passing automatic voter registration, enacting same-day voter registration, restoring voting rights to people on parole and probation, and even redrawing Congressional maps to stop rightwing power grabs engineered in the halls and backrooms of Washington D.C.
Because this is our homefield, we have the advantage. We know that state legislatures have the power awarded by the Constitution to administer all elections at every level, even presidential elections. State lawmakers have the power to hold those who believe they are above the law accountable.
Every year, we’ve brought our friends, our networks, and our communities to this work and we’ve won more rights and protections for millions of Americans than existed before our founding in 2017. Our work is more important right now than ever before. And so we stay steady, eyes on the foundations of our democracy as we work to win power in more states and help those states build a better future for all.
— Tia and The Giving Circles Team
