Fighting Voter Suppression
Legislative Committee
Greater Seattle Area Local
WHEREAS, voter suppression is a strategy to influence the outcome of elections by discouraging or preventing people from exercising the right to vote;
WHEREAS, throughout the U.S., state legislatures, at the urging of right-wing think tanks, are passing voter suppression laws under the pretext of preventing voter fraud and safeguarding election integrity, even though actual cases of voter fraud are rare, and
WHEREAS, voter suppression attempts are deliberately designed to set up barriers to voting which disproportionately affect the poor, hourly workers, the elderly, and minorities, thereby undermining basic principles of democracy, and
WHEREAS, contemporary voter suppression techniques include voter ID laws, voter caging, intimidation of voters at polling places, felony disenfranchisement, and even blatantly illegal activities that physically intimidate prospective voters, and
WHEREAS, voting right are protected by the 15th, 19th, 24th and 26th amendments to the Constitution: “The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State. . .on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, on account of sex, by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or any other tax. . .on account of age.”; therefore be it
RESOLVED that the APWU educate our members on the voting rights in their states and to advocate that our members check their own voting status, and be it further Resolved that the APWU join with other unions and allied groups to actively fight to protect the voting rights of all our citizens from any proposed laws, rules, or extra-legal tactics that are designed to discourage or impair voting.