Colorado must pass a strong Colorado Voting Rights Act this legislative session. We call on every member of the 75th General Assembly to support this bill, sponsored by Senadora Julie Gonzales, Assistant Majority Leader Jennifer Bacon, and Representative Junie Joseph.

Voting rights are under attack at the federal level. The federal Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 to confront racist gerrymandering and election rules that purposely denied Black Americans and other voters of color an equal voice in our democracy. Over the last 20 years, these protections have been chipped away by an organized effort to use state legislatures and the courts to dismantle our only tool for confronting voter discrimination.

Colorado needs its own State Voting Rights Act so that we can protect the right to vote for all Coloradans. This is not an issue of a bygone era: communities of color who have faced discrimination throughout history continue to face persistent barriers to their equal participation in elections, and many continue to live under local election systems that are stacked against fair representation of their communities in the halls of power.

A true democracy requires that all voters, regardless of their race, income level or other identities, have an equal ability to vote and to elect leaders that represent their needs and values. The Colorado Voting Rights Act will empower our state to monitor and enforce these common sense standards, to help us build a more equitable democracy for all.