Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Alabama head coach Nick Saban have a friendship that goes back to the 1950s. Saban’s father and Manchin’s uncle were best friends back in the day, and the younger Saban and the future Senator were football players in West Virginia.
“Well, I just know how Joe is,” Saban once said of Manchin. “I know the foundation that he came from, the principles that his dad and my dad, we all grew up with. Not really a whole lot of compromise for not doing the right thing. Or try to do the right thing.”
Now, Saban and other prominent West Virginia sports figures are asking Manchin to do the right thing regarding the right to vote without obstruction. In a January 13 letter signed by Saban, basketball legend Jerry West, former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, former Bills, Falcons, and Vikings linebacker Darryl Talley, and former NFL quarterback and XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck (yes, that’s Andrew Luck’s father), Manchin was strongly encouraged to use his influence to help pass the Freedom to Vote Act.
University of Alabama head coach (and West Virginia native) Nick Saban is among signatories on a letter to Joe Manchin urging passage of the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act. https://t.co/xGdmtrvg52 pic.twitter.com/kfXCG9XTur
— Michael Li 李之樸 (@mcpli) January 18, 2022
“We come from some of our Nation’s most popular sports leagues, and teams,” the letter said in part. “Some of us have roots and lives shaped in West Virginia, others followed very different paths, and some of us have been rivals in sports or business. But we are all certain that democracy is best when voting is open to everyone on a level playing field, the referees are neutral, and at the end of the game, the final score is respected and accepted.
“So we are united now in urging Congress to exercise its constitutional responsibility to exact laws that set national standards for the conduct of Federal elections and for decisions that determine election outcomes. We commend you for ensuring that such legislation rests on critical features of our Constitution. These guarantee that all Americans have an equal voice in our democracy and that Federal elections are conducted with integrity so that the votes of all eligible voters determine the election outcomes.”
As the letter points out, “In the last year, some 20 states have enacted laws that restrict voting access and allow local officials and state legislatures to interfere inappropriately with election outcomes.”
The Freedom to Vote Act would require all 50 states to have uniform standards for early voting, voting by mail, Election Day as a legal public holiday, protections for individuals with disabilities, and voter validation. It would also clamp down on deceptive and intimidating practices, restoration of voting rights, and the elimination of long voting lines and related discriminatory practices, which disproportionately affect minorities who have fewer places to vote as the result of gerrymandering and the closing of voting centers in certain areas.
It would also prevent election sabotage by increasing protections for election administrators who could otherwise be removed for partisan or political reasons, provide increased protections of ballots and records from tampering, and provide legal remedies for the failure to certify voting results.