END VOTER SUPPRESSION!

This is not a fun post. But people of color, youth and seniors--who sometimes don't have photo ID--really need to read this. Your access to vote is being taken away in many states and it's all part of a corporate-funded plan. While we pretend the spread democracy in pitiful wars in the middle east, we are killing it here at home. Minorities fought hard for the right to vote--are you really going to let it slip away?

For years, the right wing has been trying to stop people of color, young people, and seniors from voting in order to help Republicans get elected — and now some of America's biggest companies are helping them do it.1

These companies have helped pass discriminatory voter ID legislation by funding a rightwing policy group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Voter ID bills linked to ALEC have already passed in seven states, and similar voter ID bills have been introduced in 27 other states.

That's why we're joining our friends at Color of Change and calling on "ALEC corporations" to remove their support of this rightwing organization.

Tell these companies to stop funding ALEC and its attempt to disenfranchise millions of voters. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

And momentum is on our side. Coca-Cola, an ALEC Corporation, announced yesterday that it will no longer support ALEC because of its support for discriminatory policies like voter ID bills.

Supporters of discriminatory voter ID laws claim they want to reduce voter fraud (individuals voting illegally, or voting twice). But such fraud almost never actually occurs, and never in amounts large enough to affect the result of elections. What is clear is that voter ID laws prevent large numbers of eligible voters from casting a ballot, and could disenfranchise up to 5 million people.

ALEC's voter ID laws are undemocratic, unjust and part of a longstanding right wing agenda to weaken the voting blocs that historically oppose Republican candidates. We have to expose the major companies who are helping ALEC suppress the votes of millions of Americans before it's too late.

Tell these companies to stop funding ALEC and its attempts to disenfranchise millions of voters. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

The truth is that voter ID laws are discriminatory — African Americans, Latinos, seniors, students, and the poor are all less likely to have the photo IDs necessary to vote under these laws. For example, if you've recently moved because of foreclosure or some other economic circumstance, you're more likely to have an address that is not your current residence on your license license. If you don't have a car, you're less likely to have a driver's license in the first place.

In many states, it can be expensive and time consuming to secure the proper ID. Even when the ID itself is free, it often requires supporting documents like a birth certificate which cost money to achieve. There are already stories of voters who have been eligible to vote for years who are now struggling to navigate a frustrating bureaucratic maze in order to vote.

Requiring ID to vote amounts to a modern day poll tax. And that's the real purpose of voter ID laws — they are an important part of the modern effort to suppress the votes of groups that usually vote against rightwing politicians.

Some of the companies supporting ALEC may simply be unaware that the group is involved in voter suppression. Others might think that voter suppression will benefit their political interests, and hope that they can get away with supporting it because so few people have even heard of ALEC.

Our friends at Color of Change have already started reaching out to these companies to make sure they know what they're supporting, and to demand that they stop. Adding your voice to this campaign will help us convince these companies that continuing to support ALEC will hurt their reputation with consumers.

We hope that many of them will simply do the right thing and stop supporting ALEC. If they don't, we'll be prepared to shine a spotlight on them and make sure the world understands what they're involved in.

Tell these companies to stop funding ALEC and its attempt to disenfranchise millions of voters.

Click below to automatically sign the petition: CREDOACTION

Thank you for standing up against voter suppression.