Friday, December 30, 2021

Senator Dianne Feinstein
United States Senate
331 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510

San Francisco Office
One Post Street, Suite 2450 San Francisco, CA 94104

RE: VOTING RIGHTS LEGISLATION and the filibuster

Dear Senator Feinstein:

The members of the Sonoma County Democratic Party write to you to express our grave concern about the crisis of democracy promulgated by the Republican Party and their allies. The attempted coup on January 6 continues more subtly in statehouses across America. Many states have passed laws that create the loss or diminishment of voting rights through voter suppression, voter subversion, concentrating power to overturn election results and radically gerrymandered districts. Non-partisan election officials are being stripped of their election oversight or are being purged to be replaced by partisan ideologues who believe that the 2020 election was “stolen.”

We look to you, Senator Feinstein, a senior senator with a long and illustrious career, to fight back by working to pass federal legislation to save our democracy – the right for all eligible citizens to vote and have their vote counted. The Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act are two bills ready for the Senate to take up. However, the filibuster stands in the way — an abused Senate rule that blocks much needed legislation. We are calling on you to publicly state your support for creating a carveout exception to the filibuster for voting rights legislation. We also call on you to publicly express the need for all Democratic Senators to coalesce on this urgent issue. The window to get effective legislation passed is closing. You must act now.

Democrats and other volunteers have worked hard to elect you year after year. We expect our representatives to stand up for the voters. You cannot continue to allow the filibuster to block the will of the people and fail to protect voting rights. Your legacy may very well be determined by whether you choose to protect an outdated, abused Senate rule or the very foundations of American democracy.

Sincerely,

Sonoma County Democratic Party
Pat Sabo, Chair

PS. In an exclusive interview on Dec 22, President Biden told ABC “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir that if necessary, he would support changing Senate rules to allow voting rights legislation to proceed, saying “If the only thing standing between getting voting rights legislation passed and not getting passed is the filibuster, I support making the exception of voting rights for the filibuster.” 
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-tells-muir-filibuster-exception-voting-rights-t akes/story?id=81919381

We’re asking you to publicly support the President’s position.