Count every legal vote, defend democracy!

Join the WSLC effort to count and protect every vote — and protect every person

(Nov. 5, 2020) — The basis of American democracy is that we pick our leaders — our leaders do not pick their voters. Despite the pandemic, American voters have done our job and turned out in record numbers. Now we are demanding that election officials be allowed to do their jobs and count every legal vote.

With each passing hour, it’s becoming more clear that voters have chosen Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our new leaders. But now that the will of the voters is becoming clear and Donald Trump knows he is losing this election, he wants to stop the count and have the courts throw out our ballots for his own gain.

Here is the response from America’s labor movement:

Together, we can ensure America’s democratic process will once again work in an orderly fashion. #CountEveryVote #1u pic.twitter.com/lsj633rBHd

— AFL-CIO // Count Every Vote (@AFLCIO) November 5, 2020

The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO has been mobilizing for months not just to get out the vote, but to defend democracy in the entirely predictable case that Trump refuses to accept the will of the people. Join the WSLC in this effort by taking the Defend Democracy Pledge, a survey where everyone has the opportunity become a Democracy Defender and receive alerts, training opportunities and invitations to take various forms of action to defend our democracy in the wake of this critical election.

Also visit the WSLC’s Defend Democracy: Protect Our Communities web page devoted to this effort, and sign up for tonight’s training from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on best practices related to safety, de-escalation, and your legal rights for union members looking to take action in the streets, from home, or in the workplace.

And finally, make plans to participate in a National Day of Action this Saturday, Nov. 7 in defense of democracy and (hopefully by then) celebrating that voters have chosen Biden/Harris to tackle COVID and move us forward to a better future. Details will be posted here at The Stand as they become available.

Most of us believe that for democracy to work for all of us, it must include us all no matter what we look like or where we live. But now that the will of the voters is becoming clear, Trump is trying to divide us by sowing doubts about our election and trying to throw out ballots cast by people struggling to make ends meet, Black people, and new Americans for his own gain.

Now it is time to come together across race and place to ensure that the leaders we’ve chosen are sworn in to deal with the pandemic and move us forward together to a better future. Let’s protect every vote and protect every person.