Voting Rights Advocates to Host “Vote for Our Lives” Virtual Rally Today

The rally held today, June 9 at 4:00 pm PT, features Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign Rev. Barber, and labor activist and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta.

On Tuesday, June 9 at 7:00 pm ET, the Declaration for American Democracy, a coalition of over 160 nonprofits serving the public interest, in partnership with The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights will host a national virtual rally – "Vote for Our Lives" – to urge swift action from Congress to secure our right to safely vote in our elections and advance the solutions that will allow us to do so.

As the national dialogue focuses on our country’s long history of systemic racism, combined with the fast-approaching seven-year mark of the detrimental Supreme Court ruling in Shelby County vs. Holder, which unleashed rampant voter suppression efforts, the “Vote for Our Lives” virtual rally will highlight how we can knock down barriers to voting and discuss the role that racial inequality has played in disenfranchising communities of color across this country.  

During the virtual rally, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign Rev. Barber, and labor activist and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, as well as representatives of voting rights and good government organizations, will speak to the need to secure our elections this year during this unprecedented pandemic, and how voting rights tie directly into racial justice issues. 

The rally will demand that the U.S. Senate secure at least $3.6 billion in funding for election protection this year, and mandate critical reforms to ensure everyone in America has equal access to the ballot box. Many of these important reforms are laid out in the HEROES Act, but five key reforms, in particular, would ensure Americans don’t have to choose between their health and their vote:

1. Ensuring that states take steps to protect the health and safety of poll workers and voters. 
2. Expanding voter registration options such as online registration and same-day registration.
3. Requiring states to expand early voting to prevent lines and crowded polling places where people could be exposed to the virus. 
4. Enacting postage paid no-excuse vote-by-mail as an option for every voter in America.
5. Ensuring accessibility for voters with disabilities or other accessibility needs. 

The virtual rally will also feature leaders from the Democracy Initiative, People for the American Way, and the Center for Popular Democracy, with more speakers to be announced.

The event will be held, Tuesday, June 9, 2020 at 4 PM PT via Facebook Livestream at this link: https://www.facebook.com/events/600744160850537.