Financial Firms, CEOs Assert Americans' Right to Vote in New York Times Ad

As of March 24, legislators have introduced 361 bills with restrictive provisions in 47 states, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute at NYU Law School. Five restrictive bills have already been signed into law, including legislation in Georgia, which requires that absentee voters prove their identity when requesting and returning their ballots, prohibits people from handing out food and water to voters waiting in line and empowers a state board of elections to remove local election officials.

The greatest number of voting restriction bills have been filed in four states — Georgia, Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania — which are also among the states with the closest votes in the 2020 presidential election, according to the FiveThirtyEight website.

“We all should feel a responsibility to defend the right to vote and to oppose any discriminatory legislation or other measures that restrict or prevent any eligible voter from having an equal and fair opportunity to cast a ballot,” reads the Times ad. “Voting is the lifeblood of our democracy and we call upon all Americans to join us in taking a nonpartisan stand for this most basic and fundamental right of all Americans.”

The advertised statement was organized by Kenneth Chenault, a former chief executive of American Express, and Kenneth Frazier, the chief executive of Merck, who were among 12 people listed, along with the Black Economic Alliance that paid for the ad.