MoveOn: BREAKING: Wisconsin will nullify tens of thousands of votes

Dear MoveOn member,

Our democracy is under attack.

Last night, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow Wisconsin to nullify tens of thousands of votes in their primary today for voters who were operating on a previously announced extended deadline to submit ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic.¹

This comes on the heels of Wisconsin's conservative legislature and state Supreme Court overruling an attempt by the Democratic governor to delay today's primary—as so many other states have already done—to protect public safety and election integrity during the pandemic.²

In her dissenting opinion of the Supreme Court's decision, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said this move "boggles the mind."³

Today, hundreds of thousands of people in Wisconsin are being forced to choose between risking their lives and the lives of their families by circumventing social distancing orders and going to one of few in-person voting locations or lose their ability to vote altogether. This is not a free and fair election.

Frighteningly, if, as Dr. Anthony Fauci predicts, the virus is not contained by the fall, it is the same reality hundreds of millions of us could face on November 3.⁴

This is unacceptable, and we have to do something about it. MoveOn is launching a campaign to demand that Congress provide $2 billion in funding for states to expand their vote-by-mail programs, and an additional $2 billion to protect in-person voting locations in the general election. Will you rush a donation of $3 now?

While 15 states have already moved their primaries to protect public health, the decision from Wisconsin should send chills down your spine and serve as a bellwether of things to come.⁵

Why? Because the reason that the Republican-held legislature and Republican-held state Supreme Court didn't want to move today's primary is this: They know that the lower the turnout, the better their chances of winning key elections.

Donald Trump himself said it recently: If voting is protected, made easier, and turnout is increased, "you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again."⁶

Wisconsin is a critical battleground state in the presidential election, and if this decision remains in the fall and is copied by other battleground states like North Carolina, Arizona, and Florida, Trump could easily walk into another victory.

We cannot let that happen. That's why we are quickly spinning up a campaign to flood Congress with calls and place ads in key districts and states demanding that the next stimulus bill include $4 billion in aid to states to expand vote-by-mail, while also protecting in-person voting, an expansion of early voting, and measures to protect against purging voters from the rolls.

Democrats are planning to fight for such measures, but Trump has already said he will do what he can to block them.

The future of our country is on the line. Will you chip in $3 now?

During this crisis, Trump has failed at every turn to protect us, instead focusing on his television ratings, poll numbers, and the wallets of his rich friends and donors.

We absolutely cannot allow him to capitalize on a deadly pandemic to steal November's election. Our country will not survive another four years of him in office.

Please, help us demand that Congress move immediately to protect and expand access to voting by chipping in $3 to our campaign.

Thanks for all you do.

–Chris, Dan, Sana, Emma, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "By a 5–4 Vote, SCOTUS Lets Wisconsin Throw Out Tens of Thousands of Ballots," Slate, April 6, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119513?t=5&akid=261191%2E3735812%2EdCtvKW

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. "The Coronavirus Will Return In The Fall, Fauci Predicts, But The U.S. Will Be Better Prepared," Forbes, March 30, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119514?t=7&akid=261191%2E3735812%2EdCtvKW

5. "15 States Have Postponed Their Primaries Because of Coronavirus. Here’s a List." The New York Times, April 6, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/117421?t=9&akid=261191%2E3735812%2EdCtvKW

6. "Trump says Republicans would 'never' be elected again if it was easier to vote," The Guardian, March 30, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/119515?t=11&akid=261191%2E3735812%2EdCtvKW

Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. 

Will you stand with us?

Click here to chip in $3, or whatever you can afford.

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