This brief describes the challenges currently facing Black and brown people when voting by mail and presents policy recommendations at each step of the vote-by-mail process to mitigate those problems.
Many state officials are stubbornly clinging to outdated, unsafe election procedures. For the health of our communities and our democracy, they should commit themselves to the three pillars of our voting rights agenda.
D.C. statehood is a critical racial justice and democracy issue. To move us closer to an inclusive, multiracial democracy, the House must pass, and the Senate immediately take up and pass, H.R. 51.
Rather than cutting funds for public needs while allowing police budgets to swell, cities, states, and the federal government must shift funding to the real priorities of communities.
“The troubling gap in voter turnout among racial groups indicates an immediate need for lawmakers to address the issues, both historic and current, that continue to silence Black and Brown voters.”
“The agreements we won in this case will protect Black and brown voters and all Floridians, ensuring they have multiple safe voting options and can be heard this November.”
Enacting these critical legislative measures would protect the integrity of the November election and counter the historical disenfranchisement of communities of color and voters with disabilities in America.
FRRC offers this brief to make three points informed by its experience working with formerly convicted persons struggling to participate in Florida’s democracy under the strictures of SB7066.
We encourage states to update their procedures if they have not been providing voter registration opportunities as part of ex parte Medicaid renewals and SNAP benefit extensions.
"Our brief urges the court to end the wealth discrimination Florida created when it conditioned restoration of voting rights on the payment of financial penalties even for people with no ability to pay or no idea what the State thinks they owe."
"I think they will ultimately be able to get mail ballots delivered for this election as well, despite the efforts of the Trump administration to slow that down or impede it."
“Trump will instigate intimidation and violence—possibly even using the military or federal agents—to suppress the vote in Black and brown communities."
"Many of these folks are asking what is the point of voting since politicians all seem to perpetuate a broken system. We need them to see voting as meaningful, and for them to see voting as meaningful they need to, I think, have a real choice."
“Without a doubt, the secret to Democratic victories in the past three years has been women’s leadership. The idea that that wouldn’t translate into the first woman president was heartbreaking for many of us."
"As the court recognized, purging voters with no notice based on a system that disproportionately targets Black and brown voters violates our democratic principles and undermines the democratic process.”
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has begun mailing voter registration forms to nearly 1.3 million Medicaid recipients who have had their benefits automatically renewed within the past year.