Former first lady Michelle Obama has urged the Americans to “vote like the future of our democracy depends on it" ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
In a letter titled "Fight For Our Vote", published as an ad in the New York Times on Sunday, Obama and her voting rights organisation When We All Vote warned that a historic attack on voting rights needed to be apprehended.
s"We stand united in our conviction to organie and turn out voters in the 2022 midterm elections, and make our democracy work for all of us," Obama wrote in the letter, signed by 30 other civic engagement, voting rights and voter mobilisation organisations such as the NAACP, Stacey Abrams' Fair Fight Action, Voto Latino Foundation, NextGen America, LeBron James' More Than A Vote and Rock the Vote.
According to the ex-FLOTUS, within the next year, When We All Vote, together with other organisations, will work to "recruit and train at least 100,000 volunteers" and "register more than a million new voters."
Thousands of lawyers would ostensibly be assembled to protect American voters, as they educate Americans on how to ensure their vote is “safe”.
Furthermore, Michelle Obama wrote that at least 100,000 Americans would be urged to call on their Senators in support of the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
These two Democrat-sponsored pieces of legislation have hit a roadblock in the evenly-split Senate due to the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to overcome.
GOP lawmakers have repeatedly blocked the voting bills, arguing that they would de facto mean "a federal power grab", limiting US states' right to define the time, place, and manner of holding elections.
The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, warn its opponents, would obligate states to pre-clear certain changes to their voting laws with the federal government, while the Freedom to Vote Act would “standardise” election rules nationwide.
Arguing that the proposed voting legislation could potentially open the door to election fraud on a massive scale through loosened ID rules, enhanced nation-wide voting by email, etc., GOP-led legislatures have enacted a slew of laws as “countermeasures” to tighten election rules by toughening ID rules, poll watchers' powers and other "election integrity" provisions.
Obama's letter also referenced the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, the necessity of passing which the Democrats have linked to the recent one-year anniversary of the US Capitol protests of 6 January 2021.
"We must give Congress no choice but to act decisively to protect the right to vote and make the ballot box more accessible for everyone," Michelle Obama added.
The letter echoed a similar call made last year by Obama and celebrities such as Tom Hanks, Tracee Ellis Ross and Kerry Washington, calling on Americans to encourage their senators to support the For the People Act, subsequently later blocked by Senate Republicans.
Hillary Holley, Fair Fight Action's organising director, was cited by CNN as saying that her organisation was “proud to join with Michelle Obama and When We All Vote alongside other civil and voting rights organisations to fight back against Republicans' anti-voter agenda.”
The letter by Michelle Obama left many on social media questioning the “tired”slogan “vote like the future of our democracy depends on it", and suggested the Democrats find a “new warning”.
Others on Twitter showed little inclination to vote and referenced “little change and broken promises.”