Stand Up for Voting Rights to Honor Dr. Martin Luther King's Legacy

A healthy environment necessitates a healthy democracy, in which everyone has the opportunity to exercise their sacred right to vote and have their vote counted. That's why the National Wildlife Federation is banding together with our allies to demand that the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act be passed.

John Lewis and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. marched, lobbied the White House and Congress, were arrested, bled, and fought for the passage of the Voting Rights Act more than 50 years ago. We must now safeguard their legacy in order to honour their memories. We saw the scary fragility of our democracy little over a year ago, on January 6th, when a violent insurgency tried to overturn the results of a free and fair election. Since then, 19 states have implemented over 30 laws aimed at making voting more difficult for Americans, disproportionately affecting Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian-American, Muslim, immigrant, and other oppressed communities.

What are these two bills, and what protections do they provide for voting rights?

The Right to Vote Act

The Freedom to Vote Act is a game-changing piece of legislation that will restore voting rights across the country, reversing all of the state-level voter suppression laws implemented in the last year. For example, all 50 states would be required to provide mandatory early voting at least two weeks before election day. In fact, it would force states to limit voting lines to 30 minutes and prohibit governments from imposing limitations on supplying food or water to people waiting to vote. The bill also protects people with disabilities' right to vote through a variety of safeguards and establishes a national standard for secure and accessible mail-in voting for all Americans, among other things.

Voting Rights Advancement Act of John Lewis

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act restores the 1965 Voting Rights Act's legal protections by prohibiting the implementation of legal modifications to voting rules that discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity and restoring the power of voters to challenge discriminatory legislation.

When states allow marginalised populations to be disenfranchised and have their political influence limited, they perpetuate long-standing injustices that have resulted in communities of colour and low-income communities suffering from the health and economic repercussions of pollution. We can't protect wildlife, combat climate change, or achieve environmental justice unless we defend everyone's right to vote, especially those who are disproportionately affected by voter suppression and environmental injustice.

The Senate is currently reviewing these proposals, but if they do not act in the coming weeks, we risk seeing our voting rights and democracy eroded for decades. Following Reconstruction, states enacted Jim Crow laws that effectively barred Black people from voting for over a century, until the 1965 Voting Rights Act was enacted by the federal government. Now, we've seen another wave of state laws over the last decade that have eroded the voting rights of Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian-American, Muslim, immigrant, and other oppressed populations — a wave that has escalated since the violence on January 6th and over the previous year. We can't afford to wait another 100 years for voting equality to be restored; we need to act immediately.

You can support this legislation right now by contacting your Senators and requesting that they vote in favour of the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act today.