Hello? Joe Manchin?! Are you paying attention?

After many Republican state legislatures passed the most sweeping attacks on voting rights since Jim Crow, Joe Manchin called for new federal voting rights legislation, saying that "inaction is not an option."

Dear MoveOn member, 

After many Republican state legislatures passed the most sweeping attacks on voting rights since Jim Crow, Joe Manchin called for new federal voting rights legislation, saying that "inaction is not an option."¹

But Senate Republicans just blocked Joe Manchin's own voting rights proposal, the bill he claimed could get the 10 Republican votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

Now it's time for Joe Manchin to put up or shut up. It's undeniable that Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans will never, ever allow voting rights legislation to pass, no matter how much bipartisan support it has across the country, because they know these racist voter suppression laws are the best way for them to hold on to power and steal elections.

If Manchin really believes that "inaction is not an option," as he said, then he must end the filibuster and protect the right to vote.

This is it. Our very democracy is on the line. Our votes are our power, and over 81 million of us used our power to elect Democrats to deliver the progressive changes we need. If we don't restore voting rights and strengthen our election processes before the 2022 election, then Republicans will almost surely take back the Congress and be in a position to overturn the results of the next presidential election.

We're mobilizing grassroots pressure on Joe Manchin to keep his word and end the filibuster by flooding Congress with phone calls and planning to run ads across the internet to call out Manchin and every other Democrat who hasn't clearly committed to support ending the filibuster to protect the right to vote. Will you chip in $65?

Yes, I'll donate and help demand Joe Manchin end the filibuster and pass voting rights legislation.

In a sweeping attack on voting rights unprecedented since Jim Crow, so far this year, 19 states have enacted 33 laws that will make it harder to vote.²

These bills include provisions making it harder to vote early or vote by mail, imposing more-draconian voter ID requirements, and making it more likely for voters—especially young people and people of color—to purged from the rolls. Some states are going beyond making it harder to vote by giving partisan officials the power to simply throw out votes and overturn the results of an election.³

This is why Joe Manchin was correct when he said that "inaction is not an option." If these laws are all in effect in 2022 and 2024, we simply will not have free and fair elections. 

But when Democrats passed the For the People Act in the House of Representatives, Joe Manchin came out against it, saying that voting rights should be done on a bipartisan basis. So Senate Democrats let Manchin take the lead in writing a bill that he thought could get Republican votes.⁴

And yesterday, Joe Manchin's voting rights bill was filibustered, with no Republican support at all.

This is exactly what we said would happen. And now, it's up to Joe Manchin to put his money where his mouth is and support getting rid of the filibuster to pass voting rights.

We're launching a huge push to hold Senator Manchin to his word, with ads across social media and a flood of phone calls to Congress. But donations to MoveOn are sharply down this year, and we need an influx of donations to run this campaign at the scale needed to win. Will you chip in $65?

Yes, I'll donate.

Thanks for all you do.

–Emma, Evelyn, Sandra, Liia, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "Manchin, Murkowski Call for Bipartisan Reauthorization of Voting Rights Act," Office of Senator Joe Manchin, May 17, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/159371?t=4&akid=308829%2E53570607%2EOGvTXY

2. "Voting Laws Roundup: October 2021," Brennan Center for Justice, October 4, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/159369?t=6&akid=308829%2E53570607%2EOGvTXY

3. "How Republicans seek to make it easier to challenge — and even overturn — election results," The Washington Post, October 14, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/159372?t=8&akid=308829%2E53570607%2EOGvTXY

4. "McConnell Just Blocked a Voting-Rights Bill. It's All Part of Democrats' Plan," Rolling Stone, October 20, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/159373?t=10&akid=308829%2E53570607%2EOGvTXY

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