Episcopalians and voting rights

 The Office of Government Relations of the Episcopal Church has weighed in on both the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and is urging people to speak out publicly on the importance of voting rights for all. Their website states:

As a Church, we have policy on most – although not all – of the issues in the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Primarily, we oppose voter suppression and encourage voting access. 


General Convention Resolution 2018-D003 calls on all states to cease and desist efforts to suppress the voting rights of American Citizens. We “call on governments on all levels to create policies to enhance voter participation by, among other strategies, seeking to implement policies that will increase early voting, extend registration periods, guarantee an adequate number of voting locations, allow absentee balloting without the necessity of having an excuse, and prohibit forms of identification that restrict voter participation.” 


This is their take on the recently passed H.R.1 – the For the People Act, which they note has five main components: 


1. Election administration: Expand voter registration and voting access, specify how to appropriate remove voters from voter rolls.


2. Redistricting: Require states to establish independent redistricting commissions to carry out congressional redistricting (states begin the redistricting process once the 2020 Census data is released, so this could have a huge impact for the coming 10 years).


3. Election Security: Investments and enhancement.


4. Financial transparency: Campaign Transparency, Countering Foreign Interference, Empowering Small Donors and Related Reforms, Enforcing Campaign Finance Laws, Strengthening Campaign Contribution Limits.


5. Ethics Reforms: Supreme Court Ethics Reform, Expanding Lobbyist Disclosure, FARA Reform, Recusal of Presidential Appointees, Executive Branch Ethics Reforms, Congressional Ethics Reforms, Disclosure of Presidential Tax Returns. 


The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, they note, deals more explicitly with racial discrimination in voting, directly highlighting the issue of racism and discrimination in our electoral process. 


The Act would update and strengthen the 1965 Voting Rights Act in response to a 2013 Supreme Court decision which, they say, gutted the 1965 law. The bill updates the coverage formula that determines which states and localities must pre-clear (that is, seek advanced approval for) changes to their election laws with the Justice Department to ensure those changes do not place an undue burden on Americans’ voting rights. These provisions were in place from 1965 to 2013, and produced the greatest increase in minority participation in the electoral process in American history. 

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