Everyone Deserves the Freedom to Vote

Our country is facing a difficult moment, where it is important to reaffirm our commitment to the core principles of democracy, including representation, equality, and freedom. Legislation upholding our voting freedoms is necessary, but S1, the For the People Act, failed to pass earlier this year. This occurred despite the wide bipartisan support among voters for federal protection of voter rights. Republican senators refused to engage with S1, citing concerns that its scope was too broad. In response, Senate Democrats developed the Freedom to Vote Act (FTVA), initiated by Senator Manchin.

The FTVA legislation contains three main divisions: voter access, election integrity, and civic participation and empowerment (which includes redistricting reforms and campaign finance). Taken as a whole, the bill is intended to provide much-needed updates to our democracy in order to protect the right to vote for every eligible American. It also promotes democratic processes that are representative of and accountable to the American people, offering transparency in campaign finance as well as severing the political tethers between PACs and campaigns. Americans, regardless of party affiliation, largely support the bill’s provisions for automatic voter registration, ending partisan gerrymandering, limiting campaign spending, vote-by-mail, restoration of voting rights, early voting, and fair voter ID policies. 

Voting Access

MWEG believes “political structures and electoral systems should be designed to maximize participation of and provide equitable access to all citizens in a society” (PEG 2a). And yet efforts to restrict access to the ballot have been evident and abundant across the nation since the November 2020 election. Between January and July 2021, more than 400 restrictive voting laws were introduced in 49 states, and 30 restrictive voting laws were enacted in 18 states by state legislatures. In each case, this legislation passed on partisan lines. These restrictive voting efforts are primarily premised on the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen or rife with fraud, despite top election officials asserting that it was the most secure election of our history.

Perhaps most alarming is proposed legislation that would enable state legislatures to exercise power over certifying state election results. Potential harmful effects of these actions are abundant, including disenfranchisement of some of the most historically oppressed Americans such as Native Americans and Black Americans; greater distrust in electoral processes; and erosion of shared democratic values and progress made toward representative governance. 

The FTVA creates a uniform standard for voting access nationwide. This standard can help alleviate concerns by residents of one state that elections are conducted fairly in other states. The Freedom To Vote Act would enact a variety of specific mechanisms to ensure that voting is accessible for all Americans, including automatic voter registration systems, no-excuse vote-by-mail, early voting, and more. The modernization of voter registration will protect the voting rights for Americans across the political spectrum — all of whom could be affected by discriminatory or inaccurate voter registration systems. Automatic, same-day, and online voter registration already exist in many states with support from Republican and Democratic election officials. Voting by mail has historically had bipartisan support in many states, and research shows that expanding vote-by-mail access does not result in any partisan advantage.

Election Integrity

FTVA includes provisions on preventing election subversion that are especially essential in light of recent concerns regarding voter intimidation of election workers and the possibility of state election boards overriding an election outcome. The measures in this bill are designed to protect election officials and poll workers from intimidation and harassment, ensure that election records and infrastructure are secure, prevent state election board takeovers, and prohibit harmful disinformation campaigns that could severely undermine the integrity of an election. These reforms should have bipartisan support as Americans across the political spectrum are concerned about securing the integrity of our elections.

Civic Participation and Empowerment

Partisan gerrymandering harms our democracy by enabling elected officials to essentially choose their voters rather than having voters choose their elected officials. It increases polarization over time by favoring candidates from either extreme and drowns out the voices of political minorities. Gerrymandering has occurred in states all across the political spectrum, and it harms both Democratic and Republican voters. There is significant bipartisan public support for limiting gerrymandering, which also aligns well with MWEG’s Principles of Ethical Government (especially PEGs 2a and 2b).

Additionally, there is a crucial need for campaign finance reforms to improve the health of our democracy and promote a government that is representative of and accountable to the people. In 2010, the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision essentially removed limits on how much money corporations could spend on political campaigns, as long as they were not coordinating directly with candidates. This decision gave rise to a new version of political action committees known as super PACs. Unlike candidates themselves, super PACs can receive unlimited contributions from individuals, unions, or corporations. Between 2010 and 2020, super PACs spent almost $3 billion on federal elections; the problem is evident among both of the major political parties. Although the Supreme Court ruled that independent political spending could not be corrupt, the last decade alone has included many scandals involving super PAC money, coordination with candidates, and corruption.

When money is considered free speech, wealthy donors have a disproportionate influence on elected officials and the electoral process, and this harms democracy for all of us. The issue is compounded by the influence of “dark money” in our elections, a term that refers to political campaign money originating from undisclosed sources. Dark money deprives voters of valuable information regarding whose interests will be reflected in support for a certain candidate. This lack of transparency impedes every citizen’s duty to participate in our democracy by casting an informed vote (PEG 3b). Additionally, shell companies enable illegal funds from foreign countries to be used in U.S. political campaigns with no accountability. This makes it difficult to enforce campaign finance laws and creates vulnerability to foreign interference in our elections. 

The Freedom To Vote Act requires super PACS, 501(c)(4) groups, and other organizations that spend money in elections to disclose their donors for donations over $10,000. The bill also prohibits the use of transfers between organizations that enable donors to hide their identity and evade disclosure. Additionally, the FTVA would require online political advertisements, which are currently largely unregulated, to be subject to the same transparency and disclosure requirements as ads sold on TV, satellite, or radio. It also seeks to stop illegal coordination of funds between campaigns and super PACs. For the first time, it creates a requirement for campaigns to report to the FBI and Federal Election Commission any foreign contacts within a certain period of time. Finally, it strengthens the nonpartisan oversight power of the Federal Election Commission to review and enforce campaign finance violations.

Conclusion

Each eligible American must have the right to participate in free and fair elections. The Freedom To Vote Act applies to federal elections. The Constitution (Article 1, Section 4, Clause 1) grants the federal government the ability to protect the freedom to vote in federal elections for eligible Americans. The FTVA would ensure that every American benefits from a national standard for access to voting, regardless of the state we live in. Such a change would ensure that voters from one state do not have their votes diluted by restrictive voting practices in another state, which undemocratically inflates their influence at the national level. Every American, in every state, deserves to have their vote counted.