Issue One board member Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) and ReFormers Caucus Co-chair Amb. Tim Roemer (D-IN) urge Senate to support VRAA in key vote

In advance of a key Senate vote expected today on the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and following the announcement of a bipartisan compromise between Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Joe Manchin (D-WV), Issue One board member former Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) and ReFormers Caucus Co-chair former Amb. Tim Roemer (D-IN) released the following statement:

“Supporting the Voting Rights Act has been a bipartisan issue for decades because our nation is at its best when all Americans have a voice,” said former Rep. Curbelo. “To my Republican friends in the Senate: a vote in support of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act should not be a difficult decision. By restoring a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that prevents discriminatory voting policies, our elected leaders can proudly proclaim that voting should be accessible to all Americans — no matter your political ideology, gender, skin color, or ZIP code.”

Added Amb. Roemer: “Voting is our voice in American representative democracy. The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act will protect every American’s sacred freedom to vote. It will ensure that states seeking changes to voting laws that could discriminate against voters based on race or background are federally reviewed first. Unless we are prepared to put an asterisk next to the pledge that we are a ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people,’ it is time for Republicans and Democrats to come together and pass this.”