FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Christy McGillivray
christy.mcgillivray@sierraclub.org
808-726-5325
Thousands Fight Back Against Voter Suppression
More than 1,500 Michigan Sierra Club Members call in support of free and fair elections
Lansing, MI (June 30, 2021) – Sierra Club volunteers from across the country joined Michiganders to fight back against recent Republican-led voter suppression efforts. More than 100 volunteers made calls to inform constituents about this imminent threat to voting rights. In turn, over 1,500 constituents committed to calling their state legislators demanding opposition to the 39 bill package introduced in March designed to obstruct access to the ballot.
“After a safe, secure, and successful election in 2020, we should be celebrating the leadership of Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and local clerks, not making it harder to vote in Michigan,” said Christy McGillivray, the Political and Legislative Director for the Michigan Chapter of Sierra Club. She continued, ”The Republican response to losing in the 2020 election has been to try and make it harder to vote. That is not how democracy works. In Michigan we value democracy, and over 1,500 constituents just demonstrated this by committing to call to stop voter suppression.”
The bills drawing the most criticism in the package make it harder to register for an absentee ballot, restrict access to ballot drop boxes, prohibit the Secretary of State from making absentee ballot applications easily accessible online, ban local clerks from providing pre paid postage for absentee ballots, and bar clerks from counting absentee ballots in the weeks leading up to an election, among other things.
“Voter suppression in Michigan is part of a nationwide push to hamstring our democracy,” said Courtney Hight, the Democracy Program Director for the Sierra Club. “The Sierra Club is mobilizing across the country to stop voter suppression efforts in state legislatures and to support the For the People Act nationally. We need a healthy democracy to tackle the climate crisis, and Sierra Club members are ready to fight for both.”
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The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 4 million members and supporters nationwide and over 150,000 in Michigan. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org/Michigan.
