The right to vote is at risk for many in Michigan – and your state representative is to blame. Right now, they are poised to quickly pass dangerous legislation intended to restrict and suppress access to the ballot box.

Recently, I visited Alabama with the Faith and Politics Institute for Congressman John Lewis’ Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage. We visited civil rights monuments in Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama, before heading to Selma to commemorate Bloody Sunday. As we reflected on the rights that were so bravely fought for on that Sunday decades ago, we recognized that the fight continues on across the country. In Michigan, we’re taking the fight to the ballot and aiming to ensure all can vote. We want to make voting more accessible, secure, and fair for all Michiganders.

If anyone thought democracy had actually been returned to the residents of Flint, the Receivership Transition Advisory Board (RTAB) appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder just pulled out its hammer and shattered that illusion.

Despite public outcry, the five-person RTAB last week overrode a unanimous city council vote to place a yearlong moratorium on the imposition of liens on homes with delinquent water bills.

Statement from ACLU of Michigan Executive Director, Kary Moss, on the Election Integrity Commission's recent request to states for voter registration information: 

On the same day that Gov. Rick Snyder gave short shrift in his State of the State speech to the ongoing Flint crisis his administration created, U.S. Reps. Brenda Lawrence, D-Mich., and Elijah Cummings, D-Md., continued applying pressure in an attempt to hold accountable those responsible for the poisoning of a city’s water supply.

CHICAGO–As Michigan ignores a court order requiring “immediate” action to secure safe drinking water for Flint, residents and organizations filed an emergency motion to force the state of Michigan and city of Flint to comply. The court has ordered the state and city to respond to this motion by noon on December 23.

Although it wasn’t mentioned directly by name when state Attorney General Bill Schuette announced the filing of felony charges against four officials connected to the Flint water crisis, Michigan’s controversial emergency manager law was, for many, the target of the harshest indictment handed down Tuesday.

DETROIT—ACLU of Michigan Executive Director Kary Moss issued the following statement on Tuesday shortly after the Michigan Attorney General announced charges against former Flint emergency managers Darnell Earley and Jerry Ambrose, along with two others, for actions related  to the lead contamination of Flint’s water supply:

CHICAGO – Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit denied a request by Michigan state officials and the City of Flint to halt an order requiring them to immediately provide water filter installation and maintenance services or bottled water delivery to Flint. Flint residents have been living without adequate access to safe drinking water for more than two and a half years.

Lame duck session in Michigan always brings challenges.  Last week, on the heels of a truly concerning presidential election that will without a doubt have chilling consequences for our most basic constitutional rights, term-limited Representative Lisa Lyons, R - Alto, introduced bills to further restrict and suppress access to the voting booth.