Life can be incredibly tough. Staying engaged doesn’t have to be.
We’re sliding over our Civic Engagement Cheat Sheet because we believe that big changes come from small acts.
Cheat Sheet Tasks are designed with two things in mind: expeditiousness and effectiveness, so even one or two minutes can leave a meaningful impact.
Think of the Cheat Sheet as your weekly Civic Engagement “To-Do List.” We make the list, and you get to work feeling good about your actions supporting a healthy and thriving civic society.
On the docket for this week:
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT CHEAT SHEET
Background
Officials at the national level have proposed more onerous rules that would make all of us have to prove our U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. That’s really tough.
It discriminates against poor people because, in essence, it means needing a passport.
Women who get married and change their name have special problems. And requesting a birth certificate to obtain a passport can be a huge hassle.
If these rules change, it would also mean having to show up in-person at a government office to register to vote: no more voter drives. If you’re moving and need to re-register, you’d have to prove your citizenship all over again. Just imagine having to wait in line at the DMV simply to register to vote… no, thank you.
Protecting the vote is an especially important issue considering all the other voting restriction efforts, like mass purging of voting records that deregister people through no fault of their own.
These rules were so unpopular that they already failed twice: once in Congress and once through Court Order.
Now, they’re being introduced through a small but powerful agency that affects national voting rules: the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). With less than two weeks to go until all public input is closed, now is the time to act.
Cheat Sheet for This Week’s Civic Engagement
Write the EAC and tell them that these onerous rules make it more difficult for people to vote. Tell them that you want to keep the rules the same and protect a thriving civic society. Tell them to stop wasting time creating these rules and focus instead on supporting a healthy and robust voting public. Use our words or write your own. Write them at the link below.
Then go ahead and place that reminder on the calendar, come back same time next week, and keep up the good work!
