In a recent letter to the Photo News, the Freedom to Vote Act, which has broad bipartisan support among voters, was in my opinion misrepresented. In the letter, the bill is portrayed as a Democratic power grab, when in fact this legislation pushes back against ongoing attacks forming a clear and present danger to the most basic of American virtues: the right to vote and to have that vote counted fairly.
Since President Trump lost the election, state legislatures controlled by Republicans have introduced hundreds and passed dozens of bills that will take away voting rights and interfere with our traditional, non-partisan system of administering elections. Since the certification of the 2020 election and the ceaseless spread of the Big Lie, attacks on election workers, and spurious election audits wasting taxpayer dollars, have spread like weeds. In many Republican-controlled states, redistricting is being done with “surgical precision” to suppress the votes of minority citizens. Campaign spending, including dark money by wealthy donors, dominates messaging and unfairly influences elected representatives.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the Freedom to Vote Act addresses the most serious problems in our democracy: by protecting the access to vote, ending partisan gerrymandering, and creating a small-donor matching system. It secures our franchise which so many Americans have died to protect.
The Freedom to Vote Act deserves the active support of every member of Congress. I urged mine to. I hope you will, too.
Fred Schuepfer
Harriman, NY