Voting bills

In any democracy, voting is an essential right necessary to ensure the representation of the will of the people. The recently-failed Freedom To Vote Act, S2747, has many great policies to fight voter suppression and guarantee the right to vote in our democracy. Some of the many great policies include expanding early and in-person voting, making Election Day a holiday, and implementing automatic voter registration.

Yet the Freedom To Vote Act has a secret hidden among this great policy, a poison pill designed to suppress who you can vote for. These proposed policies include eliminating the Presidential Election Campaign Fund used heavily by alternate candidates, increasing the amount political parties can donate to elect congressional House candidates from $5,000 to $10,000, and requiring congressional candidates to raise a total of $50,000 from 1,000 individuals before qualifying for matching funds.

In an age of big money in politics, alternate parties like the Green and Libertarian as well as independents often refuse to accept big, corporate money, instead opting to represent their hopeful constituents. But rolling back the few laws that incentivize grassroots fundraising and further cementing the importance of big, corporate money isn’t healthy for our democracy.

The Freedom To Vote Act is an important bit of voting rights legislation, so I call on our congressional officials to amend this act or any other similar ones coming down the pike, and eliminate the poison pill provisions. I hope you too will join me in these calls on our elected officials.

— Blaizen Bloom, Chesapeake