One day after President Joe Biden delivered a speech calling for the passage of voting-rights legislation, a group of business leaders are backing the idea.

A group of 40 corporate leaders, including six billionaires, addressed a letter to Biden, Senator Mitch McConnell and Senator Chuck Schumer on Wednesday, calling for the “immediate passage” of two bills—the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. The letter argued that the bills are “critical to the long-term stability of our democratic system and American rule of law.”

A group of three dozen business executives on Wednesday urged Senate leaders to change the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation.

The Freedom to Vote Alliance, which includes Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, Etsy CEO Josh Silverman and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, warned that U.S. democracy is under threat amid state-level GOP efforts to restrict voting rules and take control of election administration.

Washington, DC - Today, more than three dozen prominent business leaders sent a letter to President Biden, Senator Schumer, and Senator McConnell calling on the Senate to reform its rules to hold an up-or-down vote on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.

Trust in democracy is a cornerstone of the U.S. economy—and no one understands this more than business owners and leaders.

When it became clear in November of 2020 that then-President Donald Trump was taking steps to overturn the election, the Business Roundtable—made up of CEOs of leading U.S. companies—issued an unprecedented statement formally congratulating Joe Biden and declaring that the election was conducted with integrity.

Free and fair elections, the underpinning of our democracy, are in danger, and even though they can’t directly cast a ballot, American businesses are among the most concerned.

Several states have proposed or passed laws that threaten democracy by suppressing individuals’ rights to vote, undercutting decision-making authority of local elected and appointed election officials, and establishing the ability to nullify local election results if the powers-that-be don’t like the decision of the voters.

Read more at: https://www.thestate.com/opinion/article257184052.html#storylink=cpy

The U.S. Capitol riots of January 6 showed how easily our country could be thrown into chaos through misinformation and unethical behavior by our elected officials. Unfortunately, as we look back on that day one year later, it is clear that millions of Americans and too many lawmakers did not heed the lessons from that watershed moment.

One of Washington’s top business groups condemned those perpetuating “the falsehood of an illegitimate 2020 presidential election” as the anniversary of last year’s violence at the US Capitol prompted fresh scrutiny of corporate America’s response.

Seventy-two percent of business leaders say they are concerned that U.S. democracy is under threat, according to a Morning Consult poll of 400 company executives released on the one-year anniversary of the Capitol riot.

Business leaders say they are concerned about democracy and what the sense of crisis holds for the U.S. economy a year after insurrectionists stormed the Capitol.

Nearly half of business owners said they are very concerned about the state of democracy in the United States while another third shared that they are somewhat concerned, according to a new poll conducted by the data intelligence company Morning Consult. The poll, which surveyed 400 businesses, was carried out for the Washington D.C.-based consulting firm Public Private Strategies which helps create partnerships, build coalitions, and bridge opportunities between the public and private sectors.

When 700 business executives and supporting firms and institutions signed a petition last March to protest legislation to restrict voting in Georgia, it felt we crossed a threshold on CEO activism.

The leaders’ names appeared in a two-page ad in the New York Times under a bold banner: “We Stand for Democracy.” That this would even be in question is still remarkable. But two months prior, in the wake of the insurrection at the US Capitol, employees and the press began to link spending by their companies’ political action committees to the 147 Republican members of Congress who voted against the certification of the 2020 US presidential election. If executives weren’t openly against democracy, they at least seemed to be enabling anti-democratic forces.

At key moments between November 2020 and January 2021, America’s business community did something extraordinary. Typically fearful of the political spotlight, executives called unequivocally for a peaceful transfer of power in their home market as Donald Trump contested his election loss to Joe Biden.

In the past few months, the Business Roundtable has sent a clear message to Washington with a successful multi-million dollar campaign to push back on corporate tax increases. But while companies are messaging around societal issues like climate change, racial equity, and voting rights, they are not backing their words up with action, particularly now, when we are presented with a once-in-a-decade opportunity to support federal legislation addressing these challenges. The authors recommend that 1) the Business Roundtable lead a large-scale campaign to support the most ambitious climate provisions in the Biden administration’s proposed budget, and 2) that the business community support critical legislation to shore up U.S. voting and election systems.

As Americans go to the polls, some of the more influential observers of the election process will be the agencies that determine the country’s credit rating.

The country’s nearly top-notch, coveted rating is partly a reflection of the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency and the fact that the roughly $20 trillion U.S. Treasury market is the largest and most liquid in the world.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that two restrictive provisions in an Arizona voting law could remain in place. It's a disheartening development in the ongoing voting rights battle waging across the country. Not only does the decision weaken the Voting Rights Act by making it harder to challenge racially discriminatory voting policies, but it also undermines the health of our democratic institutions at a time when voting rights reform is needed most.

This month, lawmakers passed legislation restricting voting access in Florida, making it another swing state to pass such a law, with another 361 more restrictive voting laws introduced in 47 state legislatures. With these and other laws on the table, we’re seeing companies get increasingly vocal about the importance of voting rights. And in response, elected officials, including Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz have criticized this move from the business community.

President Trump’s refusal to commit to accepting the results of next month’s presidential election isn’t just threatening America’s democratic norms—it could also damage the country’s pristine credit rating.

According to credit rating agency Fitch Ratings, it appears likely that the winner of the Nov. 3 election will “take longer to determine than usual,” as the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a “sharp rise in mail-in voting this year” and will likely cause “logistical challenges at physical polling places.”