Recently, the ACLU of Michigan launched its Let Me Vote Campaign designed to supply Michigan voters with the information they need to cast a vote in November. Its hope is to remove any confusion voters may have about current regulations especially among persons of color, students and the elderly.

As many as 20 million people nationally may not be eligible to vote because of new GOP-sponsored voter suppression laws.

The ACLU wishes to empower the voters of our state against these laws that are designed to keep the disenfranchised from going to the polls because they tend to support Democrats, and could turn out in record numbers to re-elect President Obama and vote out the politicians who have been cutting social services and threatening their fundamental rights.

Earlier this year in Michigan, the GOP-dominated legislature passed a voting suppression bill that would require voters to show proof of citizenship in order to cast a ballot.

Governor Snyder refused to sign the legislation into law, but the Republican Secretary of State, Ruth Johnson, refused to remove the requirement from the ballot, and it caused a lot of confusion during the Aug. 7 primary elections. Some voters were even turned away because clerks misunderstood the language and did not receive the message that it was not to be enforced. Some critics have accused Johnson of abusing the duties of her office by using partisan tactics to disrupt the election process.

Voter suppression bills are one of the services provided by right-wing think tanks such as ALEC and the Mackinac Center to keep their ultra conservative agenda afloat because they fear losing their majorities in November.

Are we as Americans going to allow our political voice to be suppressed by the GOP and its corporate sponsors? Will we allow them to remove our right to decide who will govern us?

The very spirit of America is free will, and free will is based on choice. If you remove the ability to choose, then you will destroy our democracy and we will be left with nothing.

Stand up for America and stand up for democracy.