Today, groups led by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, DEMOS, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) issued a report to commemorate the two-year anniversary of President Biden’s Voting Access Executive Order, which shows the progress agencies have made implementing their plans to expand access to voting.
The report found that a few agencies are on the right track to complete implementing their recommendations by the end of 2024, while several others have fallen behind and are at risk of not achieving the President’s goals.
The climate and environmental movement recognizes that the communities most impacted by the climate crisis and pollution are often the same communities targeted by voter suppression. Confronting the climate crisis and advancing environmental justice fully depends on a functioning democracy that ensures everyone’s rights are safeguarded and their voices are heard.
In response to the progress report, Clean Water Action, Climate Hawks Vote, Earthjustice, Greenpeace USA, League of Conservation Voters, National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, and Union of Concerned Scientists released the following statement:
“We applaud President Biden for continuing to prioritize voting rights and our democracy and commend federal agencies, including the Department of the Interior, Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Treasury for implementing plans to expand the freedom to vote and ensure every voter has equitable access to cast their ballot.
"However, this new report makes clear that several agencies are not on track to achieve these crucial goals by the end of 2024.
"We urge President Biden and federal agencies to fulfill the promise of this Executive Order and ensure it is fully implemented before the end of 2024. The attacks on our democracy are unrelenting, and we have no time to waste. Now is the time to finish the job and make our democracy work for everyone.”
In addition to the report, nearly 100 stakeholder organizations representing millions of voters and potential voters, urged in a letter to the Biden-Harris Administration to hasten the pace at which agencies implement and operationalize the executive order.
With less than two years before the end of this term, time is of the essence. It’s imperative that the administration fulfill the opportunity they have created to implement a whole-of-government approach to promoting voter registration and access to voting. View a PDF of the letter here.
