WASHINGTON, D.C. — Our democracy is broken. The corruption of money in politics and the scourge of voter suppression have brought our system of “one person, one vote” to the breaking point. Democrats in Congress have introduced a comprehensive democracy reform package, H.R. 1, the For the People Act, and the first order of business in the new Congress is to pass this vital legislation.
H.R. 1 clears many of the obstacles that have been deliberately placed in the path of voters, particularly voters of color. It will implement automatic voter registration nationwide, expand access to early voting and vote by mail, and restore voting rights to Americans with past criminal convictions.
The bill will also ban discriminatory manipulation of voting district boundaries that would favor one party over another and take other steps to make congressional redistricting more open and fair. And it will establish a small donor public financing system for federal elections to empower more diverse, grassroots-based candidates and give all Americans the ability to change the face of politics.
For far too long our democratic system has placed disproportionate power over our government into the hands of the privileged, who then end up determining so many facets of our lives, from education to employment to health care.
NOW urges Congress to listen to the voters who turned out in record numbers in 2020 to demand their democracy back. It’s clear we need transformative reform to fix our broken system. H.R. 1 will take a giant step toward a future where we all have equal power to create our government through elections – a government for the people and free of systems of racism, sexism, and oppression.