Executive actions the new administration can take to help ensure the integrity of our elections and strengthen opportunities for civic participation for Black and brown Americans.
This year, as we attempt to keep our loved ones safe during a deadly pandemic, more people in our communities will be voting by mail (absentee) than ever before. Counting those votes will take time.
Efforts to change the long-standing practice of counting every individual in the country for the purposes of drawing legislative districts would reduce the political power of—and the resources provided to—Black and brown people.
An overview of the vote-by-mail eligibility criteria in Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Nevada, and California and the hurdles Black voters may face.
If we are to survive this crisis—and imagine a more equitable, dynamic economy to come, we must start with a recommitment to the value of universal, inclusive public infrastructure.
Potentially thousands of voters were deprived of their right to vote because Florida was “unable to run a functional voter registration website” during the crucial final hours leading up to the registration deadline.
Our analysis of voter turnout in Ohio’s primary finds large disparities in absentee ballot request rates and voter turnout between predominantly white and non-white neighborhoods.
States must now take swift action to design racially equitable voting systems—including dramatically scaling up vote by mail, while also maintaining accessible in-person voting—so communities are not disenfranchised this fall.
"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."
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.
"To say that people post-crisis, as they try to rebuild their lives, have to carry the impact of this is just another round of disadvantage and discrimination.”
This platform proposes a set of actions the executive branch can take to equitably address the climate crisis without new legislation, major new appropriations, or other Congressional authority.