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Video Transcript
Making sure that you have a robust system in place for in-person voting by extending out the early voting opportunities as well as the opportunities to vote, perhaps on election day in multiple polling sites, so you can socially distance yourself in an effective way. It's gotta be a combination to ensure that every American can vote the last point that I'll make in this area is that over the last three. Plus years we've we've been compelled to think about a lot of the founding values of this country because of the dynamics of who's serving in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue right now, and we know that it's a country that was founded on several high ideals founded on the principle of checks and balances separate and coequal branches of government the independent judiciary, the free and Fair press the preeminence of the rule of law and Government of the people by the people and for the people and you can't have self government unless there's a meaningful opportunity for the American people to participate and at the end of the day. That's what this democracy reform effort is all about and in the House from Speaker Pelosi down through every single member of the Caucus, including the 60 - two members of the freshman class. We are committed to bringing our democracy. To life in November, thank you so much Representative Jeffrey's. We really appreciate you being here and we do have a good question for me for you from Stacey Long Simmons, the director of advocacy and action at the National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund, She writes that on April seventh hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin voters were unnecessarily forced to risk their health in order to exercise their. Vote hundreds of thousands more or potentially disenfranchised because they didn't receive absentee balance in time or could not risk their health to vote in person. These adversities are particularly harmful to racial and ethnic minorities. Older adults LGBTQ people and others. So how can we make sure that the Wisconsin primary isn't replicated 50 times this November? Yeah. It's a great question. We wanna make sure that it's not replicated a 50 times plus. US because, Of course, we have Washington DC, as well as the territories in Washington, DC, at least those residents will be able to weigh in on who is elected as President of the United States of America is a great question. we are committed as we negotiate as my colleagues in the Senate have said the next Corona virus relief package which in the House at least, were labeling as cares two point. Oh sorry for all of these mathematical equations, I know my Senate colleagues have label it. Covid- 19 four Point Oh, but in the House cast It's all of you that we have to make sure that we provide the funding necessary building upon the four million 400 million dollars That was in cares. one point Oh, but we have to go much further to ensure that every single state can full in the territories can fully implement mailing voting in November and at the ballots can be provided to every single voter free of charge. With their ability to mail it back in and or drop it off if they choose but to mail it back in without any financial burden on them and so we had a call earlier today the House Democratic Caucus about 210 members were on including all of our leadership and Speaker Pelosi once again made it clear and this is the view of the members as well that this is one of our top priorities in terms of negotiating the provisions. Of cares to point out because our democracy is at state, we're in the midst of a pandemic, we cannot force Americans to have to choose between their health and well-being and the well-being of our democracy and their ability to vindicate that precious value of self government government of the people by the people and for the people and so we link arms with our colleagues in the Senate and all of. A common calls and all of the advocates who are joined in this effort and we're gonna work as hard as we can to get this done. Thank you so much Chairman Jefferson Jeffrey's for joining us today. Please stay safe out there and we appreciate all the work that you've done. Thank you very much cheer. Jeffrey's is a member of the Judiciary Committee and Budget Committee and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and I just wanna emphasize something he said as a Washington DC citizen, I appreciate him remembering the district and remembering that the citizens in the district and in the other US territories that also need funding to be able to safely vote in our elections this. And I was also heartened to hear that this is a top priority for House leadership, so we're very grateful for that. And now we're going to hear from Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman Terry Wiseman. Hello. I'm Jenna. Thank you so much for putting this together. This town Hall is wonderful and I'm really honored to be a part of it. it's been really interesting to hear my colleagues in in the Senate and the House in Washington, DC. talk about vote by mail and this is something here in Washington State. We've been doing for almost a decade now as a state and I realized is gonna date me, but this is my eighth presidential election as an election administrator, and I mentioned that because I think my take might be a little different than what we've heard from the speakers already and that I don't think vote by mail as an option in the coveted 19 social distancing environment we find ourselves in is a Democrat or Republican issue. This is about instilling confidence in the public that our elections are fair and that they are. Accessible and secure and election officials jobs really is to make sure that the most left leaning Progressive Democrat to the most conservative right wing Republican and every voter in between believes that the election was accessible and secure because for those things to happen, it makes the election fair and it makes it accurate and so really what we need to be focusing on as a country. Is building out the capacity for these States that are gonna have elections primaries in the in the coming months, and then, of course building to the November general election building out the infrastructure so that we can conduct elections that have this compensating controls to balance out sending a ballot potentially to every single voter in their state and each day is gonna need to have options that will vary because some States are just simply not ready to flip the switch from you know two. Three percent of their ballots being cast by mail to casting a hundred percent of their ballots by mail, but what we do need to do is make sure those States have options and that they can build out the infrastructure so that they can see an increase of maybe I don't know 50 percent to 70 - five percent of their ballots being cast by mail. I think that's a real strong possibility in many States across the country. They're gonna need to have the infrastructure in terms of space in their buildings to have people process those ballots. Have high-speed scanning equipment to scan the ballot envelopes that are coming back in and sort them and do it in an efficient manner and then also build out the capacity to back fill all of these employees who they use on a seasonal basis to process ballots work in polling places that now can't work when you're talking about a workforce whose average age is about 70, I know and in our state, at least I would say that two thirds of our our workers are not gonna be able to return. This fall and helping those elections so we're gonna have to also have the biggest recruitment effort nationwide of workers to to back fill those positions and have months on on hand in case some of those workers lift and I think if we all pull together and stop worrying about how it is going to advantage or disadvantage the party that we're in or the other party and really start focusing on how are we gonna make sure that people believe the results of the election? we're all gonna be better for it. I know we can achieve it, so that's what election officials across the country are working on and I look forward to working with the people on this call at this town Hall meeting to get to that end. Thank you, Secretary Women and of course, you've said it just right. This isn't about benefiting Democrats. This isn't about benefiting Republicans. It's about benefiting Americans and making sure that every citizen can access the ballot and so we we have a question for you. this is from Gary Decker, who is the issue campaigns Director for the Alliance for Youth Action. this one 's kind of a two parter, so you'll forgive us for that. what would your advice be to fellow secretaries of States who have concerns The partisan implications implementation challenges and security of vote by mail and then how can secretaries of States ensure that there are resources available to educate young people and first-time voters about the vote by mail process so that they feel prepared to participate in November. Well, the the thing I would say and have been saying quite frankly to my colleagues across the country is first and foremost assess what your your infrastructure is currently and with the 50 States. The territories and Washington DC, keeping in mind what resources you have and again, it's gonna depend on where you're at right now with your absentee voting. So if you're a state like mine that is completely vote by mail, you have different challenges and infrastructure than a state, where maybe three or four percent of your votes are cast by an absentee ballot. so first and foremost do that infrastructure check and how are you going to mitigate the fact that you will have a dramatic increase in absentee ballots. Do you have centralized tabulation machines that can put the throughput of ballot counting through your system, hundreds of thousands of ballots that need to be counted, maybe in a Central environment when you're right now, counting those in polling places across your state and and I guess my biggest piece of advice would be really to to check in with States like Washington, Oregon Utah and in Colorado, those States that have a lot of experience doing vote by mail elections. Learn from us learn from our our hard lessons and sometimes I came from mistakes, but also the things that have worked well to make Mobile male work in our States and then finally in terms of of voter outreach, it's not only to the youth vote. It's to any voter who hasn't voted absentee before and really it. it's multiple platforms. just like you would any voter information campaign doing it in social media platforms doing it in the news media and doing it in print form that you send to voters and get them information provide that those services online so that they can have their questions and. And can be successful in making sure that their ballot gets counted when it's returned to election officials. great. Thank you so much Secretary Woman for joining us today. So Secretary Woman has been speaking virtually across the country with both Democratic and Republican secretaries of States to emphasize the importance of working across the aisle to secure our elections this year, and in fact solutions like she spoke about like vote by mail have popularity across the political spectrum as do solutions like early voting online online and same-day voter registration, and these things all need to kind of come together in one so that people can choose from a variety of options to be able to cast their vote. Next up, we have a video of remarks from former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele in this video, he discusses the important bipartisan nature of protecting every American's right to vote with universal vote by mail during the Kobe in 19 pandemic and I wanna thank our partners that represent us who provided us with this video from one of their recent Unreal Unreal virtual roundtables let's turn to the video again going back to my time in public office. My belief has always been that if you make the case. People If that's a good case, you don't have to worry about the vote right, your vote is gonna be there for you and I can get them across to vote for me secondary can get Democrats to vote for her. We can get Republic Democrats and get Republicans to vote for them. So why is this a long head of view? it's looking largely through a political lens, So think that if you allow voters to stay at home and both is that somehow purchase your own vote is is crazy. Why because we look at who makes up the Republican vote, just for example, a lot of voters 50 at. Alright, so they have a larger proportion of elderly voters and vote for them. They're not gonna go and stand in line at a poll number one number two. They are the volunteers and a lot of cases at these polling places. so they're not there to volunteer so to disenfranchise them that way to me is just bone headed. It makes no sense. I don't think that when it comes to voting this November is someone's gonna raise their hand and propose you know what I just don't think we should hold the National election because of color 19. Well, I'm gonna be out there screaming from every mountain I can have been find hell No, and that's what every American. To do you have to take this seriously because if you don't they will Strip as much of it away from you as they can, they will continue to journey manager you into the districts that don't make sense. They will continue to move your polling places so Grandma catch two buses to vote and guess what grandma just don't go vote. Well, that's too bad right and so we own this franchise. it was given to us under the Constitution. It is the way we define our government, those buildings and those elected officials don't get in the game. We do you gotta stand up. You gotta be loud and work with the secretaries of States help them put in place. Volunteer be a part of the solution and changing the direction we are now headed when it comes to voting in this country. 50 percent Turnout 40 - five percent turnout is a crazy. It's doesn't make sense. young people get off your behind. take a seriously So, thanks again to our friends at represent us for providing this video, which just further emphasizes why this isn't an issue for just Democrats or Republican issue, but one that hits at the core of our democracy. Thank you to all of our government leaders for speaking with us today, we appreciate your work to stand up and advocate for our right to safely access the ballot box in our primary elections and in our elections in November, now for those of you who are just joining in this is the National kickoff of the declaration for American Democracy, Protect our vote Virtual town Hall series we. Speaking with elected officials and voting rights experts about what action Congress must take to ensure that we can all safely and securely exercise our right to vote this year. To learn more, please go to our website at Declaration for American Democracy dot org. Now, our next set of speakers represent organizations advocating for equal access to the ballot box, particularly for vulnerable communities who already face significant challenges to participating in our democracy. These challenges are being further exacerbated because of the complications of the Corona virus. So to start us off, I will turn it over to Vanity Gupta, the President of CEO, the President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, followed by Michelle Bishop, a voting rights specialist at the. Disability rights Network Vinita Hi good evening. Thank you so much. I'm Vinita, Gupta, President and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Several and Human Rights, a coalition of more than 200 National organizations working to build an America as good as its ideals. Thank you to the declaration for American democracy. For hosting this call, the leadership conference is proud to be part of the Defense Coalition to ensure that our democracy works for all of us and I wanna thank. Senator Klobuchar Senator Wyden Senator Warren Congressman Jeffries and Secretary Whiteman and all of my colleagues on this call for their leadership for fair and safe elections. Our state nation is in the state of emergency and so to is our democracy. We all saw what happened in Wisconsin with voters forced to choose between their safety and their vote, and we cannot allow that to happen ever again when under seven months until the general election States have. Next to no time to spare in preparing for November, a mid this pandemic given this country's dark history of denying voters of color access to the ballot box. be happy for vigilant to guard against any obstacles to prevent our communities from voting. That means that Congress must ensure that every person's voice and vote count as we build our future together. This is a massive undertaking. Congress recently passed a relief package, but the bill fell hopefully short of protecting our democracy. A lot of makeup is approved own. 400 million dollars for state election assistance civil rights groups are calling on Congress to secure an additional three point six billion dollars in additional funding to afford every voter a fair safe and accessible opportunity to ask their ballot. Some people have pitched vote by mail as the universal solution to voter access. There's no question that vote by mail is an essential part of an auction response, admit the pandemic, but voters have to also have a very clear range of options to cast their ballot focusing exclusive. Unveiled by we all can actually just franchise voters of color and other communities who historically faced barriers to the ballot survey show that States reject absentee ballots at far greater rates for black and Latino voters and other voters of color than for White voters and studies have also shown that voters of color vote by mail at lower rates, sometimes due to historical mistrust of the postal system in the mail and ballot process. go by mail systems can also impose hurdles made of American voters. May not live or have postal addresses would let that are living on tribal lands given that many really have limited and access to to postal services and the like and voting by mail does not adequately serve communities that tend to move frequently such as the students and low income families. But vote by mail remains are really important option. They're just have to be guard rails in place, including prepaid postage, the ability to post Mark an absentee ballot on our forum election. Day relaxing technical requirements and increased availability of drop boxes in all communities States need to give voters options for safe voting immediate pandemic along with expanding vote by mail States of got to ensure full voter access by establishing safe in person polling places stage would also extend early voting periods for at least two weeks prior to the election. Expand online voter registration options and distribute information to the public about voting changes. It's gonna require a man. Voter education effort to make sure everyone knows of the new changes there is no question that no one should have to choose between public health and functioning democracy The decisions that our leaders make now are gonna determine not just how we weather the storm that kind of democracy. We're gonna have when it's over. Thank you so much. Thank you so much Benita and now I wanna turn it over to Michelle. I'm Michelle, I think you're on mute so you just wanna unusual. I am muted. Thank you. This is Michelle Bishop. I'm the voting rights specialist for the National Disability Rights Network. We are a National Membership Association based in Washington, DC, but our member organizations are in every state territory and district in the United States and are mandated to the Help America Vote Act to protect access to the vote for people with disabilities. If I could tell you one thing tonight is that whether or not there's a global pandemic America's electoral system is not accessible to people with disabilities. The federal government has studied this. Found that polling places less than half are actually compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act somewhere around 40 percent. Now, you might say what could possibly be less accessible than that, And unfortunately, the answer to that question is actually vote by mail. There are a lot of compelling reasons right now for vote by mail. We're supposed to be staying at home. We're supposed to be socially distancing and vote by mail enables that for a lot of folks. Unfortunately, let's say you have a voter who's blind who goes to their polling place and they're given a pen and a paper ballot and has to fill it out that voter who's blind can. See and fill out that ballot privately and independently and we'll protecting the secrecy of that ballot. Well if you mail that same voter a paper ballot to his home, he doesn't magically become sighted when he sits down at his kitchen table. It's still inaccessible We have to have options that make vote by mail accessible for everyone, including people with all types of disabilities. The closest we've come at this point and we've made some progress thanks in large part to those vote by mail States. In many of those States, you can have a ballot sent to electronically and you can market on the techno. That you have at home, but typically that requires at some point in the process being able to print out that ballot. once again, you're left with a piece of paper that you can't verify if you can't see it or can't return if you can't physically handle the paper even under normal circumstances. now you add in the covid- 19 pandemic where we can't leave our homes and I don't know about you. but I'm also at home and I don't even own a printer so that method isn't even accessible to me right now when I can't go to my office or Down the streets, my local library to print out that ballot. There are a handful of systems that actually allow you to electronically return your completed ballot, but they are constantly under attack by election security advocates, and they often actually produce a paper ballot of the back end that is actually tallied and maintained by your elections Official, which means at some point of paper ballot, is produced that the voter never sees and once again, they can't verify their vote. so well, we've made a lot of progress in making vote by mail more accessible. We're not all the way there. That becomes a really big problem when we talk about vote by mail capacity to protect the most vulnerable as you heard from Senator widen, you also heard something incredibly important from Senator Warren and that's the need to protect in-person voting options. I believe that that's true. there's some people for home vote by mail is just not going to work. We have to have in-person voting options and we have to be able to make them as safe as possible. But what also concerns me is that we can't say we're so sorry are. By mail isn't accessible so people with disabilities who are considered among the most vulnerable in terms of covid- 19, You are the ones who will have to take to the streets to go and vote in person because we failed to make our vote by mail accessible for you, everyone who's eligible deserves to cast their ballot, but everyone who cast their ballot deserves to live. We simply have to do better by Americans with disabilities and make every method of casting your ballot fully accessible and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Our democracy depends on Thank you so much for Michelle and Vinita for your very compelling remarks and for reminding us that the fight to protect every American's right to vote has been going on since this country began and it still continues today, especially for communities of color for voters with disabilities and others. so as we look to find solutions to voting during this pandemic, we also need to know that vote by mail is not the easy answer. It is not the only answer so we have to be careful about how we talk about it. It must be implemented in concert with other options that ensure accessibility for all voters. Including in person, voting options and options for voters with disabilities. Thank you, Anita and Michelle. Thank you. So what are some of the ways that we what are some of the the the reforms that we can implement that will provide accessibility for the most Americans that we can now we're gonna hear from an expert who will speak to those important solutions that must be enacted to ensure all Americans, including our most vulnerable communities do not have to choose between their safety or their. I'd like to introduce Max Feldman Council at the Brennan Center for Justice. Thanks so much Jenna I wanna thank the declaration for American democracy for organizing this important event. my fellow speakers for all that they're doing to defend our democracy and all of you participating in this town Hall for standing up for our rights and for our country. let me start by adding my voice to those who have already called for Congress to appropriate four billion dollars for our elections this year in the face of this insidious. Virus we're gonna have to make serious modifications to our election systems. We can't afford to do democracy on the cheap. It's critical that Congress step up and fully fund our elections this year. Now, why do we need four billion dollars? Well, you've heard a lot of the reasons already the bread and centers put together a plan for how to protect the 2020 election from Corona virus or working arm in arm with other advocates on this call and off to get our recommendations implemented in States. basic principles are these we believe that States should off. Every voter the opportunity to cast a mail ballot at the same time state should maintain or expand in-person voting options consistent with public health mandates. This is important since as you've heard many Americans can't or won't vote by mail. In addition, States are gonna have to bolster their voter registration capacity and especially their capacity to register voters online and we need major investments in public education so that voters are well aware of any changes to voting rules and procedures, But that's the high level a little bit more detailed. We need to make and be broken into five basic categories. First is polling places We need to ensure that in-person voting options for those who can't or won't vote by mail are safe and sanitary. That means everything from relocating polling places outside of senior care facilities to reconfiguring polling places to allow for social distancing to sanitizing polling places consistent with CDC guidance. It also means enhancing election day resources to minimize lines and intensifying poll worker. Efforts Second, we believe States should expand early in-person voting options the ideas to spread out voting over more days and locations minimize crowds on Election day. third, a universal male voting option. the debate over male voting has grown increasingly sharp in recent weeks, but the reality is that every state allows at least some voters to cast a mail ballot and most States allow every voter to cast a mail ballot. So the question for most of the country isn't whether all voters can vote a mail ballot. It's whether election officials are gonna be prepared for a surgeon use. There's a number of steps they need to start working on now get ready. It means printing enough ballots in ballot envelopes, acquiring machines and staff to process those ballots and request for them. relaxing deadlines for balance. Be requested and returned and implementing reasonable non-discriminatory processes for counting and evaluating the validity of those ballots. Fourth category enhanced voter registration options and capacity. Historically, most people have registered to vote in person. We're anticipating a potential surge in online registration as a result of the virus and then response States need to test and bolster their online systems or generally they need to up their capacity to process registration applications and extend registration deadline. If needed, fifth and final piece of this is voter education, major modifications, the system are needed, but it's not enough to just make the changes voters need to be informed about them, especially given the risk of serious disinformation campaigns around the election, Let me just emphasize that for all of these modifications, as you've heard you need to ensure that language access and disability access or accounted for in closing, let me just say we can do this. These are significant changes, but they're achievable. We need Congress to step up. And get States the money they need as soon as possible because we have time to protect our elections again against the crisis, but we have no time to waste. I encourage you all of you on this call to make your voices heard and demand real protections for our democracy in the coming months. Thank you. Thank you so much Max for talking us through those incredibly important and detailed solutions. I appreciate you being here. And common sense policies like accessible early voting posted page No excuse vote by mail among others will go a long way in ensuring Americans can have their voices heard this November, but Congress must provide the four billion dollars that States need in order to implement these reforms. Our next speakers come from two incredible activist organizations with chapters all over the United States. First, we have Deborah Kron Miller, the executive executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin who will give us a cautionary. Tail based on her experience with the state's recent primary election, then we'll hear from Karen Hobert Flynn, the President of common cause who will discuss how citizens can exert pressure on their local governments to enact the reforms that max and others have discussed to secure our elections. Deborah Dana Thank you so much and thank defend for all you do as everyone in the nation saw a good. many things went wrong with Wisconsin Spring election and presidential primary one of the biggest issues. Was the contradictory messaging sent by the governor about holding an election he issued an executive order to be safer at home, but exempted voting from the order days before the election. he called a special legislative session hoping the Legislature would act to postpone the election and only when they fail to do so did he finally call for the election to be postponed only to have the courts determined he did not have the authority to do so educating the votes. Public on how to successfully request and submit an absentee ballot was a tremendous challenge in such a short period of time the need for so many voters to use the absentee ballot option brought to light problems Associated with voting by mail. Not all voters have access to computers and the Internet the elimination of the special voting deputies to help those who are shut in elderly and disabled meant they could not easily cast their ballots and the acceptance. That people of color, those known to have higher same day registration and voting rates would be disenfranchised. It's important to know that Wisconsin's extremely gerrymandered district lines in Bolden, the electric elected majority in the state to act in their own political interest and not in the best interest of their constituents, health and safety at the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin. we work closely with the National League. Ship and staff on everything from litigation to support our messaging and we took the time in the moment and continue to learn from this experience and we'll work to ensure that the greatest number of voters can successfully exercise their right to vote in all our upcoming elections. No voter should have to choose between their health and their right to vote in Wisconsin or in any other state, and we wanna do our part to support those communities who were disproportionately impacted in this process. It was Milwaukee for us. But it could just as easily have been any other similar community in your state, and while Wisconsin proved to be the test case of sorts around the importance of insuring adequate and safe in-person polling places, it will be important that we do what we can to avoid this situation across the country for the 40 plus States who still have primaries between now and summer to make sure that we are all best positioned for November. thank you for the opportunity share experience stand stand and i hope you all remains safe and healthy celebration thank you so much siyempre we really appreciate you telling that story and we are already earned work with you and activist around the country to make sure sampung like that never happen again and now we're trying to here and thank you thank you very much uhm I'm very proud to represent our one point, Two million members and our staff in 30 States as we work on a broader array of democracy issues and many of the reforms that we're talking about needing to do here tonight. I wanna thank each of you for joining us to hear about this critical issue and to thank Senators Clover Char widen Warren House Democratic Caucus Chair who came Jeffrey's and Secretary of State Wiseman for their incredible leadership to protect our elections. Clearly the covid-, 19 pandemic presents an unprecedented challenge to our Ensuring public health and bolstering our economy are absolutely intertwined with protecting the health of our democracy and the right to vote common cause, state leaders and our allies are working on a daily basis with election officials at the state level to push for a package of reforms that will make voting safe and accessible for everyone and the challenges that in each state, it varies their infrastructure. whether they have vote by mail. We help pass the vote by mail package in Colorado overtime that have vote centers so people could vote. In person have same day, voter registration and many reforms, but States are in a different place and we need to rely on experts at the state level like our partners at the League, Brennan Center many on this call to be working on how we can make voting as accessible and safe as possible for people and there are many ways for you to engage in that work. We have some States you know that like Alaska, Indiana, New Hampshire and New York, whether it's Democratic control or Republican control that are rising to the challenge and expanding voting up. Through different reforms but the challenges also some States are politicizing this effort real challenges in States zona Michigan, Missouri, Texas, Tuckey and others were some Republican officials are fighting against even modest changes to boost voting access and are openly blocking common sense reforms that could protect the health of voters for example, an era Governor Ducey says he's opposed to conducting the Arizona August fourth primary by mail in Texas the state. Fused to extend extend absentee ballot availability due to in a court had to come in and relax injunction sure that all eligible in Texas could question absentee in Michigan, the Secretary of State of Democrat Justin Benson said her state needs 40 - dollars to hold and mostly vote by mail November, but the Republican Legislature won't go along with it. The interesting thing is these are the kinds of reforms Groups have been Mahal state level by support Pulse show these are. Dependence Republicans Democrats and we move these members people who say that this is politicized it. they're wrong, so we are doing all things if you're in change. In some of these state fights, you can connect with common cause We call 19 page outlining some of the reforms to urge Congress as you've heard from other speakers to put money on the table, We need $4 total to go to state so that they can they can pay for these reforms and pay for the public. Effort required to make that happen and you'll hear a little bit later in the call. We also need to call Republicans in the Senate in particular and ask them to support that four -bit dollars and also write letters to the editor and other ways to reach your members of Congress because remember they are also sheltering in place. So lastly, I wanna say that I wanna thank the declaration for American democracy for pulling us all together to talk about these issues and for Joining us in this fight, we can win this fight, but we need your help. Thank you so much to Deborah and Karen for your really inspiring remarks. we appreciate you being here and we look forward to continuing this work together so one thing is very clear from our last few speakers and that and that is that there is no one size fits all approach to ensuring that every voter can access the ballot and that is why Congress must pass common sense reforms like those we've discussed here today, safe early voting. No excuse, but by mail, online voter registration and other requirements to ensure the safety of voters and poll workers, Congress must allocate the four billion dollars in needed by the States to get this done. So if you feel as outraged as I did listening to the stories of voter disenfranchisement talked about by the United Michelle and Deborah and you're asking yourself now well, What can I do to help this next panel has the answers so I'd like to introduce Rio Tassel, the senior campaigns manager at people for the American Way. Brett Ed Kins the police. Director at Stand Up America and Christine Wood Democracy organizer for Public Citizens Democracy is for people campaign Rio. Why don't you kick things off? Great Thank you so much Janet. It's great to be with you all again. My name is Ria Tassel. I'm the senior campaign manager at People For the American Way and I just wanna start by thanking all of you the thousands and thousands of people that are viewing this and will come to see this live stream for taking part in this effort we are clearly living in such a pivotal moment in history and everything that we do all of our decisions will impact what happens in the coming months and years and even decades and so critically important that we take the time to educate ourselves and others about the vital reforms that we've been hearing about all. To safeguard our democracy because as it's been said it is simply unacceptable for people to have to choose between their health and their vote. It is fundamentally un-American for people to have to make that choice and we are working to try to make sure that people can participate in our democracy without putting their health in jeopardy. So as we've been hearing this evening, Congress is going to be voting on another round of stimulus. We're asking for four billion to be allocated for these reforms that have been discussed by our colleagues and the declaration for American democracy. Been mobilizing our hundred and 50 participant organizations around this effort. We represent millions if not tens of millions of Americans that are concerned around about a wide range of issues and we've come together to advocate for a broad spectrum of democracy reforms, including campaign finance reform to just the influence of big money in politics, protecting the right to vote closing the revolving door between corporations and government, But now we are fully focused on this fight. That's. Right in front of us and the need for this funding because nothing could be more important than making sure that people can safely participate in the upcoming elections. So we've heard from team members of Congress to the declaration of for American democracy as great relationships with we very much value all of the leadership that we've seen on the Hill we've heard from esteemed policy experts who have laid out some of these reforms what they can do and why they're necessary but myself and my colleagues that will be speaking with you in just a minute represent the grassroots mobilization piece of this coalition because they. Is where the change really happens as I mentioned, we represent millions if not tens of millions of Americans in order to achieve these objectives that we're hearing about tonight and to safeguard our democracy, We need to make sure that our voices are heard and that means we need to use all of the tools that are available at our disposal to put pressure on Congress, particularly the Senate right now, and there's a number of things that can be done and it's absolutely essential that we that we take these actions because believe it or not members of Congress. Really paying attention to how many calls they get, they're paying attention to how the media covers them, particularly in their state or in their district in every single phone call every single letter to the editor every single tweet every single share of this video can help bring the awareness that's needed in order to win this funding and hopefully safeguard our democracy. so I could not encourage everyone watching this video enough to share it and take part in these actions and get involved with us at declaration for American Democracy dot org. Alright, Thanks Rio Let's turn it over now to Brett, Thanks, Rio and and Jenna Hi everyone. I'm Brett from Stand up America. I'm here to ask you to take three minutes out of your day to call Congress to demand the four billion dollars we need to expand vote by mail and early voting, grab a pen and paper because I'm gonna give you a phone number to stand up a mirror cuz members have already made over A hundred and 10000 calls to Congress. just last week, we drove tens of thousands of additional calls with the help of daily Coast Indivisible and this amazing coalition as someone who. Has worked on Capitol Hill. I can tell you that these calls are noticed and that they make a difference. so please call your senators. Here's the number 18 eight eight 4154527 ask them to provide four billion dollars in funding to secure our elections in the next Corona virus relief package. You can also find that number at declaration for American Democracy dot org slash call with your help no voter will have to choose between participating in our democracy and their health. Christine Hi everyone. I'm Christine Wood and I'm here to talk to you today about the power of publishing letters to the editor. Letters to the editor play a key role in Advocacy A letter in your local paper has the ability to educate your community and catch the attention of your members of Congress Now that many publications are online, We haven't even greater opportunity to make an impact by sharing our letters on social media Tonight. We're asking everyone watching to submit a letter to the editor. Editor to your local paper this week and we've even pump. An online tool that can help you do that, but first, let's go over some best practices Every letter to the editor should include an introduction a briefing on the problem and a clear solution or ask. so for my letter, I might start by saying I'm a lifelong resident of Syracuse, New York Next I describe the problem and the solution specifically that the Corona virus condemn is putting our health and our democracy at risk and that we need at least four billion dollars to make sure that every person has safe. To vote, then I conclude by restating my ask, which is that Congress must pass four billion dollars in the next stimulus bill to secure our elections. Lastly, let's spell check it. I'd reach out to my local paper to submit my letter and I put lightly follow up on my submission. So now my ask is for everyone on this call to do a scheduled time this week to write a letter to the editor. You can use our tool. it's at declaration for American Democracy dot org slash L T E. It makes it very easy for you to submit a letter to the. To your local paper together, we can show the overwhelming support for safe and secure elections. So again, visit the Declaration for American Democracy dot org slash LT to get started today. Thanks great. Thank you, Rio Brent and Christine for your leadership and for your tireless activism on this issue and most importantly, thank you to everyone who tuned in to today's bipartisan town Hall. Your voice is essential in this fight and to ensure that you and your fellow Americans can safely vote in our election. I again want to thank all of our amazing speakers, especially Senator Klobuchar, Senator Weber Senator Warren House, Democratic Caucus Chairman Jeffrey's and Secretary of State Kim Winemaker and all those who took the time today to underscore the need for swift action and solutions from Congress to secure our right to safely and fairly vote in our elections now following today's bipartisan kickoff event, the declaration for American Democracy will be working with our partners to host State focused town halls in Maine, Arizona, North Carolina, Colorado. In Georgia, our next virtual town Hall is coming up very soon in Maine this Thursday, April 20, -third at Seven PM Eastern and our featured guest will be Senator Angus King and participants will be able to directly ask him questions about what Congress is doing to secure our democracy. Also once this live stream is is done, please share it with your networks and share our action requests with them as well to participate in the upcoming town Hall simply go to the event section of our Facebook page, and while you're there make Like the page and we'll let you know about other important upcoming events and if you prefer Twitter follow us there too. our handle is at the FA DJ Coalition or simply search for declaration for American democracy, and of course, you can find all of these information on our website Declaration for American Democracy dot org, including the letter to the editor tool that Christine mentioned that will help you to share your message of how we will defend democracy during Cobo to 19 far and wide and in a matter of minutes so whether it be a ton. A phone call or a letter to the editor. Your voice is needed now more than ever, and we hope that you leave this broadcast ready and eager to take action. Thank you again for listening in stay safe and good night.
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