Other events coming up

Please take note in our calendar of many other great events coming up, such as:

• This Saturday 1/14 – Winter Training for Real Women Run
• Saturday 1/21 – Women’s March at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City
• Saturday 1/21 – Clean Air, No Excuses Rally
• Monday 1/23 – Women’s March on the State Capitol

Weekly Actions

Utah Issues

Call To Action from the ACLU!

Did you make use of the Same Day Registration voting rights law anytime in the last three years? If so, this action is for you!

Same Day Registration (SDR) allows eligible voters to register to vote and cast their ballots on the same day. Depending on the state, this one-stop process for registering and voting may be offered on Election Day, during the early voting period, or both. The benefits to SDR are many, including that it increases voter turnout, eliminates arbitrary deadlines that cut off registration when voters are most interested, remedies inaccurate voter rolls, and it can assist geographically mobile, lower-income citizens, young voters and voters of color.

Fifteen states plus the District of Columbia presently offer same-day registration (SDR), allowing any qualified resident of the state to go to the polls or an election official’s office, either before or on Election Day, register to vote, then cast a ballot, all in that day. In most other states, voters must register by a deadline prior to Election Day. The deadline varies by state, with most falling between eight and 30 days before the election.

In 2014, Utah enacted HB 156, which created a pilot project to test Election Day registration, to run through 2016.  For three years beginning in 2014, Utah counties could voluntarily opt to provide SDR.  In the 2016 election, Utah voters in Salt Lake, Weber, Davis, Kane, Cache, Millard, San Juan, and Sanpete County were all able to register and vote on Election Day.  Unfortunately, the pilot program has now expired, and new legislation is required to permanently implement SDR across the state.

CALL TO ACTION: The ACLU of Utah is looking for voters in Salt Lake, Weber, Davis, Kane, Cache, Millard, San Juan, and Sanpete Counties who made use of SDR in the 2016 election to share their stories with us, and with legislators.  If you fit this description, please contact Marina Lowe at mlowe@acluutah.org. 

National Issues

The US Congress is in now in session and working on a number of important hearings and bills. Now is the time to:

1. Reject Trump’s egregious picks for the White House Cabinet –  In an unprecedented move, the Trump transition team has blown off the Office of Government Ethics and has skipped moving its appointees entirely through the normal ethics review process by the OGE prior to the commencement of Senate hearings. Below is a list of appointees we believe are unfit to serve.

1. Call our Utah Senators to ask them to demand all appointees be thoroughly vetted by the Office of Government Ethics.
2. Ask our Senators to reject egregious appointees who are unfit for Cabinet posts (particularly those with Senate hearings this week: Sessions, Tillerson and DeVos).

Call Senator Orrin Hatch – D.C. (202) 224-5251, UT (435) 586-8435
Call Senator Mike Lee – D.C. (202) 224-5444, UT (801) 392-9633

Trump’s egregious cabinet picks:

1. Attorney General – Jeff Sessions, deemed too racist for a federal judge appointment in the 1980’s, numerous racist and bigoted comments, climate denier, legal director of the ACLU testifying against him in his Senate hearing. Senate Hearing Tues 1/10.
2. Secretary of State – Rex Tillerson, Exxon/Mobile CEO, a top funder of climate denial and attacks on climate action, connections with the Russian government. Senate Hearing Wed 1/11.
3. Energy Secretary – Rick Perry, former Governor of Texas, threatened to close the Energy Department then later famously forgot the name of the department as the one he wanted to eliminate, on the board of the Dakota Access Pipeline, climate denier.
4. Head of the EPA – Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma Attorney General, spent most of his time in office filing (and losing) lawsuits against the EPA, and he even let an oil company write some of his official correspondence, climate denier
5. Education Secretary – Betsy DeVos, staunch advocate of defunding public education and a voucher system, supporter of Christian conservative group Focus on the Family (which supports gay “conversion therapy”) and therefore a huge concern to the LGBTQ community. Senate Hearing Wed 1/11.
6. Head of the Department of Interior – Rep. Ryan Zinke, has been fighting to dig up as much coal, oil and gas from public lands as possible, climate denier

2. Ask our Senators not to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement – Last week the US Senate voted 51-49 to begin the process of repealing the ACA, which would leave 273,000 Utahns without health care. The vote was close, and some Republican Senators are wavering about repealing ACA without a replacement plan. Only 3 Repbulican Senators need to be swayed to stop or delay the ACA repeal.

• Call Sen. Hatch and Sen. Lee to ask them what their plan is for those 273,000 Utahns who would be stripped of health care if ACA is repealed. Ask them not to repeal ACA without a replacement plan.
• After you call, click here to report how it went.

3. Support Sen. Warren’s new bill on Trump’s conflicts of interest – Help Sen. Warren force Trump to divest and disclose his conflicts of interest by signing this CREDO petition to Congress to:

“Ensure the safety and security of the United States by immediately passing a bill forcing the president, vice president and their families to divest all assets that create financial conflicts of interest and strengthening rules against executive branch corruption.”

Thank you for taking action. Remember — calling our representatives is one of the most effective ways to let them ear our voices. Flooding them with calls forces them to listen. A flood is just a collection of individual actions, and every action counts!

Katie & Andrea