Issue Position: Voting Rights

Issue Position

The right to vote is central to who we are as Americans. One of our core progressive values is to make it easier for eligible voters to exercise their rights; we have already seen the fruits of recent efforts by the Wolf administration to make it easier for Pennsylvanians to register and vote.

Our elections are under now under attack by forces from both foreign and domestic sources. The Trump/Sessions administration has failed completely to investigate Russian attacks on our 2016 elections, or deter future interference. Instead, this administration has encouraged a false and partisan narrative involving virtually nonexistent voter fraud that undermines public faith in our elections.

However, there are other threats to our elections. In recent years, voter suppression efforts have escalated, fueled by the REDMAP strategy, a project of the Republican State Leadership Committee of the United States to increase Republican control of Congressional seats by gerrymandering, and the 2013 Supreme Court ruling in Shelby that undermined the Voting Rights Act.

Mary Gay Scanlon has been a staunch advocate for voting rights for decades. In 2005-6, she organized a team of lawyers to developed testimony and a report that was submitted to Congress on behalf of the National Coalition of Voting Rights. As the Co-Chair of the Voting Rights Task Force of the Association of Pro Bono Counsel, she has worked to combat voter suppression and gerrymandering through modern day Jim Crow tactics such as strict voter ID laws, roll purges and impediments to voter registration. Her nationally-recognized pro bono program also helped to pass a ballot initiative that resulted in Maine's 2016 adoption of ranked choice voting, which gave voters more say in who they elect. In Congress, Mary Gay will support legislation including, but not limited to:

Protect Elections from foreign and domestic interference.

We must upgrade election security from both foreign and domestic threats, providing funding for states to upgrade machines and security.

Automatic Voter Registration

We should make the process of voting easier for eligible voters. Automatic voter registration, authorized in nine states and the District of Columbia, would increase voter turnout and help ensure the electorate reflects our diverse society. After Oregon implemented automatic voter registration in 2016, voter turnout rose by 4.1 percent -- the largest rise in turnout of any state that year -- with turnout rising the most among working-class communities of color and those living in rural areas of the state. In Congress, Mary Gay will support federal legislation to register all eligible voters, automatically, when they fill out paperwork for the DMV or other state agencies, unless they opt-out.

Restore Voting Rights for Nonviolent Felons

Currently, 6.1 million Americans cannot vote because of a felony conviction, and 1 out of every 13 African Americans has lost the right to vote, compared with 1 out of every 56 non-black voters. Restrictions upon the restoration of voting rights following conviction of a crime disproportionately impact low income voters and people of color, resulting in hundreds of thousands of Americans being denied access to the ballot box because of something like a traffic ticket or unpaid debt on the cost of their own prison bed. Mary Gay thinks it is past time to tear down purposeful, racially motivated voter suppression. In Congress, Mary Gay will support legislation to automatically restore voting rights for people with convictions, to ensure that people who have paid their debt to society are given a voice again in our public life.

Restore Voting Rights Act

In 2013, the Supreme Court gutted portions of the Voting Rights Act. Only hours after the Court ruling was released, the Texas state legislature introduced a strict Voter ID bill that had previously been blocked. The law disproportionately affected non-white voters, and quantifiably reduced voter turnout. Other states, including Pennsylvania, have since passed similar Voter ID laws. Mary Gay will support legislation to strengthen the Voting Rights Act and protect our sacred right to vote.

End Partisan Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering dilutes the influence of voters and allows elected leaders to choose their voters, rather than voters choosing their elected leaders. Absurd gerrymandering has led to permanently safe districts, where politicians only worry about primary challenges from the far left or right, disincentivizing bipartisanship. Although the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's 2018 League of Women Voters' decision has resulted in fairer districts being drawn for the 2018 election, Republican partisans in Harrisburg have continued to try to rig our elections in their favor, threatening to impeach the judges who ruled their prior gerrymander unconstitutional, and recently gutting the Fair Districts' proposal to establish a nonpartisan citizens commision to draw our electoral districts. Mary Gay will introduce legislation to end partisan gerrymandering and increase federal oversight.

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