Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the SAVE Act. It’s an incredibly restrictive voter ID law that could keep tens of thousands of Americans — especially women — from voting.

The SAVE Act would require showing a passport or a birth certificate, in person, that matches our current last name to register to vote or to update our voter registration for any reason. Let’s be honest, how many women have one of those things handy? (Spoiler: 69 million married women don’t!) Not to mention, the bill would remove online and mail-in voter registration, making it harder for all first-time voters to register, even if they do have the required documents.

The good news is we can stop this outrageous bill from going any further. It will take 60 votes to pass the U.S. Senate. We can make sure that never happens by calling our senators today, and we have a calling tool that makes it really easy for you to do!

Pressed for time? No sweat. Our members’ calls are averaging less than a minute and a half, so you can call both of your senators in under 5 minutes!

Never called your elected officials before? Have no fear! Our tool walks you through it step by step, and we even provide a script to help you figure out what to say. What matters most is that you are using your voice and speaking out.

Let’s make sure this bill — the most restrictive voter bill Congress has ever considered — is dead on arrival. Call your senators today!

The post Do This: Call Your Senators About the SAVE Act appeared first on Red Wine and Blue.

We talked about the different types of modern day voter suppression laws last week, and unfortunately, we have a perfect example of a voter ID bill looming over us all right now.

The SAVE Act is a huge voter suppression bill, and Speaker Mike Johnson made sure it passed the U.S. House of Representatives this session. Watch here where he was recently caught on a hot mic proving our point — extremists want low voter turnout in elections.

This is why it’s important to vote in every election, and to make sure our friends and family do, too. It’s also important to keep using our voice with our elected representatives.

Fortunately, the SAVE Act has not passed in the U.S. Senate yet, so next week, we’ll give you a way to tell your senators how you feel about this awful bill!

The post Watch This: Modern Day Voter Suppression in America appeared first on Red Wine and Blue.

The right to vote is one of the most fundamental principles of our democracy, but it hasn’t always been guaranteed for all Americans. And for some of us, it’s still under constant threat. How is that possible? Let’s take a look at the progression of voting rights over time.

A History of Voting Rights and Voter Suppression

When America was founded in 1776, only white, landowning men could vote. Some states further restricted the right to only Christians. In the early 1800s, states began to remove the landowning requirement, allowing more white men to vote.

Black men gained the right to vote in 1870 through the 15th Amendment. But even then, many were not able to exercise that right, because the white people in power put up intentional barriers. They required literacy tests to vote when they knew that Black Americans were educationally disadvantaged, or completely random (and impossible) tests requiring Black voters to guess how many jelly beans were in a jar, or how many bumps were on a cucumber.

They also charged poll taxes — fees for registering and voting — despite Black Americans being economically disadvantaged. White voters were spared by a literal “grandfather clause” that said anyone with a father or grandfather who voted before the abolition of slavery (that is, white men) were excluded from the tax. And there was often intimidation and violence at polling locations from groups like the Ku Klux Klan to keep Black men from voting.

During this time, women were fighting for their voting rights, but white women did not always include Black women in the movement. All women finally gained the right to vote in 1920 through the 19th Amendment.

Progress and Regress

The Civil Rights movement brought about the passing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which outlawed those discriminatory literacy tests and other barriers to voting based on race. It also established a rule that the federal government would oversee the passage of any new voting laws in states that had a history of racism. This was known as “preclearance” and was meant to protect people of color from new voter suppression laws — and it worked! It led to an immediate surge of new Black voters in the same year. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t happily end there.

In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ended preclearance, ruling in Shelby County v. Holder that it was unconstitutional. This meant that the states with a history of discrimination could oversee their own voting laws again. Almost immediately, states began to introduce new, restrictive voter laws.

Modern Day Voter Suppression

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, since Shelby, 29 states have passed 94 new laws making it harder for people to vote. At least 1/3 of those laws likely would’ve been prevented by federal preclearance under the Voting Rights Act if it still existed. And the gap in turnout rates between white voters and voters of color has grown since the decision.

After the 2020 election, 440 voter restriction bills were introduced nationwide. This included a wave of bills targeting mail-in voting, mainly because its growth during the Covid-19 pandemic led to an increase in voter turnout. In 2023 alone, 356 restrictive voting bills were introduced.

Why does this voter suppression persist? For the same reason it started 250 years ago — the white, Christian men in power want to stay in power and they are afraid that they won’t win elections if there is an increase in more diverse voters. Far-right extremist legislators in districts and states with high populations of voters of color are the ones pushing the hardest for more restrictive voter laws.

What do restrictive voter laws and voter suppression actually look like?

Here are just some examples:

• Laws requiring an approved voter ID (that can be costly and harder for some groups to get).
• Laws restricting and criminalizing voter assistance (like making it a crime to hand out snacks or water to voters waiting in line).
• Putting restrictions on who can hold voter registration drives, and how they’re run.
• Limiting voter registration periods, early voting periods, or polling locations.
• Ending or restricting mail-in voting.
• Purging voter rolls, especially without informing purged voters.
• Unfair drawing of voting districts to favor a certain party (aka gerrymandering).

According to the Brennan Center and the ACLU, these types of laws disproportionately keep Black and brown people from voting. These are usually state laws, but we’re also currently facing federal attempts to suppress voters.

Donald Trump just issued a sweeping Executive Order to take more control over elections and to implement a highly restrictive voter ID requirement nationwide. At the same time, MAGA extremists in Congress are trying to pass the SAVE Act, which has a similarly restrictive ID requirement. These efforts could take away voting rights from tens of thousands of married women, immigrants, transgender people, and new voters.

What Can We Do?

We can all agree that we want safe and fair elections, but passing extremely restrictive voter laws is not how we ensure that. Everyone should be able to vote. In the coming weeks, we’ll dig deeper into what we can do to fight voter suppression and ensure voting rights for all.

The post Read This: A History of Voting Rights — and Voter Suppression — in America appeared first on Red Wine and Blue.

Take 5 minutes to visit our website and sign up for Rally.

Rally is our organizational tool that helps you have conversations with friends and family about the importance of voting. Signing up only takes a few minutes. Then, you can come back to it and spend a few minutes every day picking from a list of quick actions to help inspire your people to vote.

We’ve proven that relational organizing with Rally works. Red Wine & Blue Ralliers increased voter turnout by more than 10% last election! That’s a big deal, because we know that this election is going to be close and that every vote matters.

If everyone who reads this blog uses Rally to help turn out other voters, we can mobilize tens of thousands of people to help secure big wins on November 5.

Look, we’re all feeling some election anxiety. It’s totally fine if you want to stress-eat Halloween candy for the next five days — we know we will! — but don’t let that be all that you do!

Sign up for Rally today, and take just a few minutes every day through November 5 to take simple actions. We promise it will help you feel better, and together, we’ll defeat extremism!

The post Do This: It’s time to get out the vote! appeared first on Red Wine and Blue.

We’re hearing from some Red Wine and Blue members who are filled with joy and hope, and others who are filled with anxiety. Either way, you are not alone!

It’s natural to feel some anxiety, especially if you’re prone to doomscrolling, but there are many reasons to be excited about the importance of this election. Just think of what we can accomplish if we get our common sense candidates elected!

Our favorite piece of advice for how to overcome election anxiety is to take action! You’ve already taken the first step by reading this post, now watch this quick video about how Red Wine & Blue can help you take action and overcome election anxiety between now and November 5.

Feeling inspired? Stay tuned and we’ll talk more next week about how our Rally relational organizing tool can help you channel your anxiety and hope into action!

The post Watch This: It’s time to get out the vote! appeared first on Red Wine and Blue.

No matter where you live, extremists are on the ballot, from the Presidential race to state houses to judicial races to school boards. It’s not hyperbole when the pundits say that this is the most consequential election of our lifetime. It’s crucial that we all show up and vote for common sense candidates and the preservation of democracy.

As a member of the Red Wine and Blue community, chances are you are a more engaged voter than the average citizen. That’s why your friends and family look to you — and trust you more than any other source — for guidance on elections. So let’s all be prepared, not only to vote ourselves, but to help everyone we know vote confidently too!

Here are some things informed voters are thinking about right now:

• Double checking our voter registration status.
• Learning our county’s early voting schedules and locations.
• Confirming mail-in or absentee voting requirements if we’re voting that way.
• Making note of our state’s voting rules and requirements, like: Do we need an ID to vote? Or, is it illegal to take a picture of our completed ballot? These things vary by state!
• Knowing our Election Day polling location and hours.
• Researching who’s on our ballot.
• Making our voting plan. Studies show that people who have made a plan to vote are more likely to do it!

Suburban women are a powerful part of the electorate. We can — and will — make a difference in this election. It starts by being up to date on all of this information, and then sharing that knowledge with everyone we know.

Start working through this list today, and in the coming weeks, we’ll share even more about how we can get out the vote and defeat extremism everywhere in November.

The post Read This: It’s time to get out the vote! appeared first on Red Wine and Blue.

Wow, this year is flying by – Election Day is just a few days away! Are you ready to be the difference between winning and losing an election? Yes, you really do have that power!

From school boards to mayoral races to state legislatures, local and state races are often won by just a handful of votes–and there are thousands of seats across the country that are on the ballot this November. And because it’s not a presidential election year, many people don’t have them on their radar.

And you know what’s really wild? These are the elections that affect our communities the most! Even though they don’t usually make national headlines, the results will be felt in our schools, our towns, and our homes. You can have a huge impact simply by voting and reminding your friends and family to vote.

Your Easy Action for this week…Take a few seconds to tell us how you plan to vote! ??????

The post We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Programming: Time to Vote! Election Day Is Tuesday, Nov. 7th appeared first on Red Wine and Blue.

So we have a question for you: what’s your voting plan?

Step 1: Do you know when and where you can vote? In many states you must be registered before election day, and those deadlines are fast approaching in October. So if you haven’t done it yet, check your voter registration status.

Step 2: Nail down the details. Will you vote early in person, vote by mail, or wait for election day? What time of day will you head to the polls? Do you need to schedule around your work or kids? Some employers do allow you to take time off to vote. Use your state’s board of elections website to find polling locations and times. Once you decide, put it on your calendar and set a reminder! And be sure to make a note of what time the polls close in your district. If the polls close while you are still standing in line, don’t leave. Stay in line until you vote. It’s your right!

Step 3: Now that you have a plan, reach out to your friends, family, neighbors and coworkers. Make sure everyone you know is planning to vote by November 7th!

The post We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Programming: Make Your Plan to Vote! appeared first on Red Wine and Blue.

Feeling a little busy? We get it. Summer vacation plans are in the rearview mirror. It’s back to school season, and fall sports are picking up. And the holidays are right around the corner – but do you know what else is coming up? Election Day!  And because it’s an “off-year election” voter turnout is usually pretty low. So that means your vote is even more important! That’s right…You have the power to influence the outcome of this election! This week’s Easy A action is simple, just check to make sure you are registered to vote and that all of your information is up to date. Head to www.vote.gov to check your voter registration. It’s that easy! Thanks for taking your Easy A for this week.

The post We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Programming: Are You Registered to Vote? appeared first on Red Wine and Blue.