| For years, the right wing has been trying to stop people of color, young people, and seniors from voting in order to help Republicans get elected — and now some of America’s biggest companies are helping them do it.1
These companies have helped pass discriminatory voter ID legislation by funding a rightwing policy group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Voter ID bills linked to ALEC have already passed in seven states, and similar voter ID bills have been introduced in 27 other states. That’s why we’re joining our friends at Color of Change and calling on “ALEC corporations” to remove their support of this rightwing organization. Over 150,000 CREDO Action members have signed our petition and we’ve made over 6,500 phone calls to ALEC corporations. Our pressure is making a difference. Since we joined our allies at ColorOfChange to fight ALEC’s voter suppression work, major corporations including Coca Cola, Procter and Gamble, Kraft Foods, and McDonald’s have pulled their funding.2 But other major brands including Amazon.com, State Farm, AT&T and Johnson & Johnson are resisting escalating calls to drop their support of ALEC. ALEC and other proponents of discriminatory voter ID laws misleadingly claim they want to reduce voter fraud (individuals voting illegally, or voting twice). But such fraud almost never actually occurs, and never in amounts large enough to affect the result of elections. What is clear is thatvoter ID laws prevent large numbers of eligible voters from casting a ballot, and could disenfranchise up to 5 million people. ALEC’s voter ID laws are undemocratic, unjust and part of a longstanding right wing agenda to weaken the voting blocs that historically oppose Republican candidates. We have to expose themajor companies who are helping ALEC suppress the votes of millions of Americans before it’s too late. The truth is that voter ID laws are discriminatory — African Americans, Latinos, seniors, students, and the poor are all less likely to have the photo IDs necessary to vote under these laws. For example, if you’ve recently moved because of foreclosure or some other economic circumstance, you’re more likely to have an address that is not your current residence on your license license. If you don’t have a car, you’re less likely to have a driver’s license in the first place. In many states, it can be expensive and time consuming to secure the proper ID. Even when the ID itself is free, it often requires supporting documents like a birth certificate which cost money to achieve. There are already stories of voters who have been eligible to vote for years who are now struggling to navigate a frustrating bureaucratic maze in order to vote. Requiring ID to vote amounts to a modern day poll tax. And that’s the real purpose of voter ID laws — they are an important part of the modern effort to suppress the votes of groups that usually vote against rightwing politicians. Some of the companies supporting ALEC may simply be unaware that the group is involved in voter suppression. Others might think that voter suppression will benefit their political interests, and hope that they can get away with supporting it because so few people have even heard of ALEC. Our friends at Color of Change have already reached out to these companies to make sure they know what they’re supporting, and to demand that they stop. Adding your voice to this campaign will help us convince these companies that continuing to support ALEC will hurt their reputation with consumers. Tell these companies to stop funding ALEC and its attempt to disenfranchise millions of voters. Click below to automatically sign the petition: |
