Democracy & Voting Rights

Over the past decade, 48 U.S. states introduced more than 400 voter suppression bills ranging from harsh voter registration compliance deadlines, strict voter ID laws, and polling place reductions to early voting restrictions. These bills continue to disproportionately affect people of color and their communities. Clearly, our democracy is at great risk. 

 

In response to these attacks, Worker Power has worked to defeat voter suppression through community education, grassroots advocacy, and policy change for over a decade. Our most expansive effort came in 2021 when we campaigned for the For the People Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and the Freedom to Vote Act, all of which would have strengthened voting rights by expanding the government’s ability to curtail voter oppression. During the campaign, Worker Power mobilized over 15,000 voters to call and 17,000 voters to email Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who urged her to reform the filibuster in order to pass federal voting rights legislation.

 

Additional efforts included organizing community forums; freedom rides to Washington D.C.; acts of civil disobedience at Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office; public letters of support; and op-eds in local, state, and national media outlets. The Acts did not pass, but our efforts generated awareness that democracy does not happen by accident and that we must fight for it.

 

Worker Power continues to invest our resources in defeating voter suppression through community education, grassroots advocacy, and policy change. In 2022, we successfully defeated two voter suppression referendums in Arizona, one of which would have allowed the Arizona Legislature to overturn the results of a successful citizens’ ballot initiative. The other would have required date of birth and voter identification number for mail-in ballots and eliminated two-document alternatives to photo ID for in-person voting.