Demos Senior Campaign Strategist, Vijay Das, gave the following prepared remarks on Demos and ACLU's Ohio voter purge case, Husted v. APRI, at a rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court. Das urged the Supreme Court to rule in favor of protecting the freedom to vote.
Vijay Das' Remarks
Thanks Wendy.
It’s great to see such a good crowd show up! We all know why. Nothing is more important than defending our democracy.
For years, Demos has urged the Courts to protect the freedom to vote. This fundamental right is THE pillar of our democracy. We cannot afford another voting setback.
For voters of color, the poor, people have died for progress.
For me, I can get why Ohio’s purging hurts. Like most immigrant families, my folks moved around a lot. We lived on both coasts. We lived in 6 states. I can only imagine how hard it could be for my parents to register. To Vote. Showing up at the polls only to be turned away.
For too many Americans, voting remains a struggle. Registering a hastle. And Ohio has chosen to make it worse. Removing voters from the rolls just because they don’t vote every election is nuts.
We have a law, the National Voter Registration Act, that was designed to protect voting, ease voter registration, ensure states keep good rolls. The law allows states to remove a voter from the rolls only if they become ineligible. In fact. It prohibits states from removing voters for not voting.
Ohio’s so-called ‘supplemental process’ violates this law. If it survives, it rips into the fabric of our ever-fragile democracy.
Now here’s hoping the justices do the right thing. We cannot let another voting rights decision gut access to the polls.