Vice President Kamala Harris Outlines Strategy To Protect Voting Rights Nationwide
WASHINGTON D.C. — Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated the White House’s continued support for voting rights on Tuesday when she hosted a roundtable discussion with leaders and organizers leading the fight on the issue.
In a speech before the closed-press meeting, Harris outlined the White House’s four-part strategy to protect voting rights, describing voting as “a fundamental freedom that unlocks all the other freedoms.”
The strategy includes:
- Instructing federal agencies to do all they can to inform Americans on how to vote and when they are eligible,
- Promoting voter participation for students by allowing students to get paid to register voters and be poll workers through federal work study,
- Protecting election workers by creating the Elections Threats Taskforce that has held more than 100 events to train officials on protecting election workers and
- Fighting voter suppression laws by challenging discriminatory laws in court via the U.S. Department of Justice.
Harris announced new developments on the strategy — the Health and Human Services Department has begun emailing voter registration information to every individual covered by the Affordable Care Act and the Social Security Administration will display signs from Vote.gov in all of its offices. The Department of the Interior will also display Vote.gov information at national park entrances and visitors centers.
Harris also called for Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act — bills that would drastically improve the voting rights landscape nationwide.
The vice president closed by announcing “three national days of action” for voting to continue “work that is about uplifting communities, strengthening coalitions, strengthening communities around their power and ability to lead in their own communities.” The days include Juneteenth (June 19), the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act (Aug. 6) and National Voter Registration Day (Sept. 17).
Watch Vice President Harris’ remarks here.