Open Letter to U.S. Senators Asking for Debate on S1 to Ensure Equal Citizen Access to Participate in Federal Elections
(To send this letter to your senators, please go here.)
Dear Senators,
E pluribus unum — out of many, one.
We are deeply committed to this vision for our nation and believe it is reflected in our governing principles. As a nonpartisan organization made up of women with diverse political views, we have experienced the benefits of good faith discussion and compromise. As S1, the For the People Act, is brought to a vote, we ask you to come together with your colleagues and model open, intelligent, and collaborative governance, including honest debate. We ask for sincere engagement with legislative efforts that reflect the clear will of the American people to protect the vote.
As an elected official, you have the ethical obligation to prioritize protecting the right to vote over any other political ideal. The source of American power is granted to our leaders by equal citizens exercising their will through voting. The disenfranchisement of voters by direct or indirect means diminishes the authority of representative government and corrupts all derivative ideas and systems that flow from that democratic center. For this reason, we must always prioritize every citizen’s right to vote, protecting it from those who would limit access in pursuit of their own power.
Our national experiment has been most just and successful in the moments when we have come together in defense of our first principle: the sacred idea that each individual is equal before God and the law, with the right to engage in self-governance through democratic participation. Our deepest moral failures have come when leaders have weaponized other ideals — such as states’ rights or bipartisanship — over the rights of individuals to participate freely in representative government.
We ask you to act now and make good faith efforts to ensure that local and state governments are not able to exercise disproportionate influence over the results of federal elections. The impact of this influence disenfranchises citizens in the affected states, and the exclusion of some voters also diminishes the legitimacy of federal election outcomes in the eyes of all voters. Federal elections that affect every American should not be manipulated by state actors who exist beyond the reach of democratic accountability to all citizens. And while states should maintain the right to administer elections, federal officials have the right and obligation to protect their legitimacy.
S1 is dedicated to protecting and extending that right, ensuring that all Americans have equal access to vote in federal elections regardless of their gender, race, economic status, education, state of residence, or party affiliation. The majority of Americans support laws that decrease corruption and increase citizen representation through voter access. We plead with you to allow this legislation to be debated and to engage in good faith efforts to compromise and pass a version of S1 that, at the minimum, provides all citizens equal access to participate in federal elections.
Most respectfully,
Mormon Women for Ethical Government
