Washington D.C. – Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Brnovich v. DNC, a case which could have profound implications for the future of voting rights in America. The case focuses on the role of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), a federal statute providing protection against racial discrimination in voting. Since the VRA was signed into law in 1965, it has been our country’s best defense against racially discriminatory voting policies, enabling advocates to advance more equitable voting systems that better represent communities of color.

“The Supreme Court should issue a ruling that upholds the Voting Rights Act, our nation’s most effective defense against racially discriminatory voting policies,” said Paul Smith, vice president of Campaign Legal Center (CLC). “Now is not the time to weaken the key provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Instead, we should be working to strengthen protections for communities of color to make sure every voice is heard in our democracy. Far too many people continue to face discriminatory barriers that make voting access needlessly difficult.”

Read CLC's amicus brief.

Our democracy works best when everyone can participate. However, after a record-breaking 160 million Americans voted in the 2020 elections, politicians have pushed back with a rash of legislative proposals introduced across the country attempting to limit access to voting in future elections. Many of these measures – like rollbacks to mail voting or cuts to early voting hours – would disenfranchise communities of color at a disproportionately high rate.

Brnovich began in 2016 when several groups affiliated with the Democratic party, including the Democratic National Committee (DNC), sued the state of Arizona, challenging two state laws that prohibited the counting of ballots cast in the wrong precinct and the collection of absentee ballots by third parties. Voters of color in Arizona are twice as likely to cast an out-of-precinct ballot than white voters. On average, they also tend to use ballot collection services at a higher rate because they have less reliable mail service and live further from ballot drop off centers and post offices. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ultimately concluded that Arizona’s out-of-precinct policy and ballot-collection prohibition violated Section 2 of the VRA. The court found that these laws resulted in a racially disparate impact, particularly on Arizona’s Latino and Native American communities.

While the case deals with Arizona’s laws, the Supreme Court’s ruling will have national implications. Especially over the last decade, there has been a concerted effort to chip away at the VRA. Proponents of Arizona’s laws want to dispense with Section 2 and are using Brnovich as a vehicle to do that – not just in Arizona – but around the country.

Every eligible voter should be able to exercise their right to vote and have their voice heard. The court must affirm its vital role in preserving voting rights by striking down Arizona’s discriminatory laws.

Washington, D.C. – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives will bring to the House floor the For the People Act, H.R. 1. The bill will help ensure all Americans have the right to vote, strengthen ethics laws, end partisan gerrymandering and decrease the influence of wealthy special interests in our political system. It is the most sweeping democracy reform the U.S. has seen in decades.

H.R. 1 would make our government more open, elections more fair and the ballot box more accessible. It includes provisions that ensure all voters can participate in at least 14 days of early voting, create independent redistricting commissions to draw voting maps, empower the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to enforce campaign finance laws and increase transparency in elections by closing dark money and digital ad transparency loopholes.

“Voters want and expect a democracy that’s open to the American people, and this landmark bill will make our government more accessible, transparent and responsive to citizens. At this critical moment for our democracy, the House and Senate should act now to pass the For the People Act, which has broad, bipartisan support from a clear majority of American voters,” said Trevor Potter, president of Campaign Legal Center (CLC), and Republican former chairman of the FEC. 

In February 2021, a Quinnipiac poll showed that 71% of Americans think that democracy in the U.S. is under threat. The reforms proposed in the For the People Act to address this threat earn resounding support from a majority of American voters across the political spectrum. A poll conducted by Data for Progress and Equal Citizens in late January found that 67% of Americans support H.R. 1, with 77% of Democrats, 68% of Independents and 55% of Republicans expressing their approval for the bill’s proposals.

Historically, when the country has confronted challenges to our democracy, Democrats and Republicans in Congress have come together to craft solutions. In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act with bipartisan support, which was subsequently renewed with broad bipartisan support for decades to come. In the 1970s, following the corruption revealed by the Watergate scandal, Democrats and Republicans worked together to reform campaign finance laws in the Federal Election Campaign Act. Wealthy special interests found loopholes in those laws during the 1980s and 1990s, so Congress responded in 2002 with the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. After the 2000 election revealed serious flaws in voting systems and processes, Democrats and Republicans worked together to pass the Help America Vote Act. When the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal exposed flaws in federal lobbying laws, Congress passed the bipartisan Honest Leadership and Open Government Act in 2007.

America’s democracy is once again in need of repair. Elected officials in Congress have repeatedly vowed to pursue reform and have the opportunity today to pass the For The People Act. Now is the time to address the most pressing challenges to our democracy by passing H.R. 1.

ATLANTA, GA – The Georgia House of Representatives has hastily introduced twin omnibus voting bills that would change Georgia from being one of the most inclusive states for absentee ballot access in the U.S. to one of the most restrictive. HB 531 was introduced last week and SB 241 was introduced last night, with votes coming as early as next week. The former would eliminate Sunday early voting, a provision with no legitimate rationale and blatantly aimed at Black communities’ effective use of Souls to the Polls events to mobilize their voters. The latter would set an age requirement for absentee voting at 65.

“If Georgia’s anti-voter legislation is passed, it would be devastating for voting rights. This partisan effort is part of a larger disturbing trend of restrictive voting bills that are gaining steam across the U.S. this year. Election laws should be structured to increase voter participation, not to suppress it,” said Danielle Lang, co-director of voting rights at Campaign Legal Center (CLC). “We all care about election integrity. That is why no-excuse absentee voting, just like in-person voting, incorporates rigorous and highly effective processes to ensure ballots are legitimate. The best way to strengthen confidence in our elections is for lawmakers to stop spreading false claims about the security of the 2020 election. No-excuse absentee voting is used by 34 states and was passed on a bipartisan basis in Georgia in 2005. After a record 1.3 million Georgians voted in 2020, there is no reason to move backwards.”

Georgia officials, including Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, have repeatedly debunked claims of systemic irregularities in the 2020 elections, which are being used to justify this legislative agenda. In reaction to the many bills making their way through the legislature, Raffensperger said, “At the end of the day many of these bills are reactionary to a disinformation campaign that could have been prevented.” House Speaker David Ralston and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who presides over the Senate, have both announced they will not support any bill that curtails eligibility to vote by mail.

A new national survey conducted by Strategies 360 finds that American voters firmly reject recent state legislation restricting eligible Americans’ ability to vote safely, securely, and in a convenient manner. Americans emphatically endorse states’ efforts over the past year to give voters more options for voting safely during the pandemic, including absentee voting. A 70% majority of voters approve of these changes while just 26% disapprove.

Washington, D.C. – Today, Republican and Democratic former chairs of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Trevor Potter and Ann Ravel, submitted a letter of support for the FEC reform provisions in the For the People Act (H.R.1/S.1) to congressional leaders. The failures of the FEC to protect the integrity of the federal campaign process by providing transparency and fairly enforcing campaign finance law, and the reforms needed to strengthen the agency are outlined in the letter from the former chairs, one appointed by former President George H. W. Bush and one appointed by former President Barack Obama.   

The FEC is responsible for enforcing the laws that govern the U.S. campaign finance system for campaigns for president and Congress. It is the only government agency whose sole responsibility is overseeing the integrity of our political campaigns. Over the past decade, the FEC has routinely failed to enforce the law even when presented with clear violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act. The agency routinely deadlocks and fails to reach the required four votes necessary to open an investigation and enforce violations or update campaign finance regulations. At the same time, there has been an increase in candidates, parties and independent organizations that push the boundaries of the Federal Election Campaign Act, violating the law, and operating under the safe assumption that any punishment is unlikely to be enforced by the FEC.  

“For the first three decades of its existence, the Commission performed its functions at least reasonably well,” said Trevor Potter, president of Campaign Legal Center and Republican former chair of the FEC, “But since then, the FEC has grown deeply dysfunctional, and our democracy has suffered as a result. To fix the FEC, the For the People Act draws from the bipartisan Restoring Integrity to America’s Elections Act, which was introduced with Republican and Democratic co-sponsors in the last three sessions of Congress.” 

Under current law, the FEC is led by six Commissioners nominated by the president, no more than three of whom can be from the same political party. The political custom is that nominees are recommended by party leaders in Congress. It takes a vote of four of those Commissioners to write new rules or take any substantive action. The current structure of the FEC means that any three Commissioners can paralyze the agency.   

“As political spending increases and the online political advertising landscape becomes more complicated and in need of regulation, the very agency we need to ensure the health of our democracy is ineffectual,” said Ann. M. Ravel, Digital Deception Project Director at MapLight and Democratic former Chair of the FEC. “It’s time for Congress to help restore public trust in government and our elections by enacting meaningful changes to the FEC and passing the For the People Act.”

The For the People Act would restructure the FEC in three ways. It would change the number of Commissioners from six to five, with the requirement that no more than two Commissioners be members of the same political party; create a nonpartisan advisory panel to identify and recommend qualified nominees; and strengthen the enforcement process to prevent Commissioners from shutting down investigations at an early stage.

The FEC’s inaction has resulted in an explosion in secret spending and our politics increasingly rigged in favor of wealthy special interests. To reduce political corruption and protect the voices of voters in our democracy, we need a stronger FEC that will enforce campaign finance law. The For the People Act would fix the FEC.