 Tell AT&T: Drop your support of ALEC! Dear Melissa, More than 100,000 CREDO activists, along with 85,000 ColorOfChange members, have called on corporations to stop supporting the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) because of its role in voter suppression. Last week, news broke that Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft Foods and Intuit have all ended their relationships with ALEC — a major step forward in our campaign. But many major corporations are still funding ALEC. AT&T is one of them. Our friends at Color of Change contacted AT&T to make sure it understood that through its membership in ALEC, it is supporting racially-discriminatory voter ID laws that have the potential to disenfranchise over 5 million people in the upcoming elections. But despite numerous emails and telephone calls, AT&T's management will not respond. It appears that AT&T executives believe that if they ignore us we'll simply go away. Tell AT&T to stop supporting ALEC and voter suppression. Click here to automatically sign the petition. AT&T is a well-known household brand. By associating the company with ALEC, it lends legitimacy to a radical organization that is undermining voting rights and our democracy. AT&T has made a substantial amount of money from consumers who are disenfranchised by voter ID laws — people of color, seniors, and young people. AT&T has given at least $150,000 to ALEC since 1998. And although the company insists it only funds particular programs at ALEC, AT&T has played a leadership role within ALEC for many years — including serving as a corporate co-chair in California, Connecticut, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas as recently as November 2011. Tell AT&T to stop supporting ALEC and voter suppression. Click here to automatically sign the petition. Supporters of discriminatory voter ID laws claim they want to reduce voter fraud (individuals voting illegally, or voting twice). But such fraud almost never actually occurs, and never in amounts large enough to affect the result of elections. What is clear is that voter ID laws prevent large numbers of eligible voters from casting a ballot, and could disenfranchise up to 5 million people. ALEC's voter ID laws are undemocratic, unjust and part of a longstanding right wing agenda to weaken the voting blocs that historically oppose Republican candidates. We have to expose the major companies like AT&T that are helping ALEC suppress the votes of millions of Americans before it's too late. And the ballot box isn't the only place where ALEC's policies are dangerous for Americans. Florida's "Shoot First" law has thus far stopped George Zimmerman from being arrested for shooting Trayvon Martin, a 17year-old armed only with a pack of Skittles and an iced tea. ALEC views the Florida "Shoot First" law as a "model" piece of legislation for other states to adopt and it has helped push this dangerous law into over two dozen states, with it under consideration in eight more. The group has also written legislation to impose harsher criminal penalties on juveniles, to privatize education, and to break unions. AT&T's financial support of ALEC must end. Tell AT&T to stop supporting ALEC and voter suppression. Click below to automatically sign the petition:
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=5546005&id=38083-4888946-zWrQ5lx&t=10 Thank you for standing up to corporate funded voter suppression. Becky Bond, Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets | 
