FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 6, 2019
CONTACT: Shannon Faulise; press@turnoutpac.org
Progressive Turnout Project Calls on Congress to Honor the Voting Rights Act by Passing H.R. 4
Executive Director Alex Morgan released the following statement on the 54th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act:
“On this day 54 years ago, President Lyndon Johnson signed the historic Voting Rights Act into law with the goal of putting an end to racist voter suppression tactics that were designed to disenfranchise voters of color.”
“Unfortunately, just 6 years ago, the Supreme Court completely gutted the VRA, leading to a skyrocketing number of voter suppression laws and tactics across the country. In the 2016 presidential election, majority minority communities were disproportionately impacted by voter ID laws, voter purges, and under-resourced polling places. The Shelby County v. Holder decision essentially silenced millions of voters.”
“Now, the Democratic House is working to right these wrongs. Earlier this year, H.R. 4, the Voting Rights Advancement Act, was introduced to combat voter suppression and reestablish a key provision of the VRA: pre-clearance. The voter suppression of the Jim Crow era has not gone away—it’s simply changed over time. This is best illustrated by a recent study from the Brennan Center which shows that 17 million Americans were purged from state voter rolls between 2016 and 2018.”
“With little more than a year before the next election, the time to fight for voting rights is now. That’s why on this anniversary, Progressive Turnout Projects calls on Congress to honor the VRA by passing H.R. 4.”
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Progressive Turnout Project is a grassroots-funded political action committee with a single mission: get Democrats to the polls. PTP designs, tests, and executes specialized voter-turnout programs targeting inconsistent Democratic voters in the most competitive elections across the country. Since its inception in 2015, the organization has raised more than $33 million with a supporter base of over 3.4 million and invested in voter-turnout programs in 130 House and Senate races.
