The Fresno County Democratic Central Committee has not endorsed any candidate in this race.
More than fifty years ago, the federal Voting Rights Act prohibited states from using poll taxes and literacy tests to keep eligible people from voting.
Today, some states are now using new versions of those same voter suppression tactics. In nine states, a person who has outstanding court fines or legal fees is no longer eligible to vote.
Sign our petition if you agree that our right to vote should not depend on an individual’s debt.
The poll tax in the Jim Crow era required voters to pay in order to cast a ballot; this kept many poor citizens — disproportionately communities of color — from voting and having their rightful say in our democracy. To see this same tactic of excluding eligible voters from voting simply because of their economic circumstances is unconscionable.
Democracy works best when every eligible citizen participates. This new poll tax works to exclude eligible citizens from participating. That’s unAmerican and unacceptable. Together, we must resist this and all forms of voter suppression.
Thank you,
Alex Padilla
California Secretary of State
