Communist Party USA
Our country’s election system and our democratic rights are under severe attack by the Republican Party, pro-fascist forces, and their corporate backers. They are particularly attacking African American, Latinx, Native American, Asian American Pacific Island and young voters, with the proliferation of voter suppression laws ranging from making it more difficult to register and vote, to allowing the nullification of votes already cast. Since the 2020 elections, more than 350 voter suppression laws in 49 states have been introduced. This is nothing new, but it is on a scale not seen since the Jim Crow era. These laws have escalated from election to election because, as is now understood by millions and even admitted by some Republicans, the more people who vote, the more progressive the elected representatives. Republicans know they cannot win without these laws. The so-called excuse for this proliferation is the myth of voter fraud, the same false excuse made for the last 30 years. Their aim is to push the Big Lie that Donald Trump “won” the election last Nov. 3 despite overwhelming proof that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were elected with 81 million votes to 74 million for Trump. It was the most enormous voter turnout in history, the cleanest, fairest, most carefully observed election, and the most meticulous vote count ever. The right-wing rationale for this myth is to undermine people’s confidence in the electoral system. This fraud continued in Maricopa County, Arizona, with a fourth, and secret, recount by a private firm with no accountability or transparency many months after the election. The Republicans seek to reverse the huge grassroots victory won by the people in the 2020 presidential election, first by recapturing majority control of the House and Senate in the 2022 mid-term elections and then capture of the White House in 2024. The Republicans know they cannot win without smashing the grassroots coalition that mobilized such a huge voter turnout in 2020. Their weapons are familiar: vicious white supremacy; hatred of unions and organized labor; an open war on Latinx, immigrants, and Muslims; and the targeting of women and youth. At a cost of hundreds of thousands of lives, they whip up hysteria against COVID-19 vaccinations and all public health measures like wearing masks in their crazed drive to recapture majority control of government. They are determined to split the powerful grassroots unity of all these forces that won so decisively in 2020, turning out enough votes to defeat the Republicans in most battleground states—Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The single purpose of the Republican vote suppression drive is control of all three branches of government by a right-wing minority. The goal is a system where the losers win (the same as the purpose of the filibuster). With the composition of the current Supreme Court, which will hear legal challenges to the laws, fighting these latest efforts to stop voting is yet another uphill battle for democracy. It is imperative that a new universal federal election law and process be put into place to guarantee free and fair elections—one person, one vote. This struggle for a national election law is not an easy one because of the ongoing legacy of the old segregationist battle cry of “states’ rights.” There are 50 different sets of state election laws plus D.C. But support is growing for a uniform national election law that would at least cover federal elections. There is no rationale for 51 different laws governing congressional and presidential elections. The Trump-instigated January 6th coup attempt brought the struggle for democracy to a new level. In the run-up to…
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Act now to stop the assault on voting rights!