Michelle Obama Voting Rights Push Includes Plan To Register More Than 1 Million New Voters

Former first lady Michelle Obama  hopes to register more than 1 million new voters within the next year as part of an effort by When We All Vote, a group she founded, and other voting rights organizations.

In a full-page ad featured in Sunday’s New York Times that she also shared on Twitter , Obama outlined plans for voter registration and urged voters to exercise their rights in the upcoming midterm elections.

“We stand united in our conviction to organize and turn out voters in the 2022 midterm elections, and make our democracy work for all of us,” Obama’s letter said.

“Generations of Americans have persevered through poll taxes, literacy tests, and laws designed to strip away their power — and they’ve done it by organizing, by protesting, and most importantly, by overcoming the barriers in front of them in order to vote — and now, we’ve got to do the same,” she wrote.

Obama’s comments come as President Joe Biden pushes for Congress to pass both the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Biden voiced his frustrations regarding the voting process on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, arguing he believes voting became “suppressed and subverted” thanks in part to far-right extremist groups sharing misinformation across social media platforms and other outlets.

“Right now, in state after state, new laws are being written — not to protect the vote, but to deny it; not only to suppress the vote, but to subvert it; not to strengthen or protect our democracy, but because the former president lost,” Biden said, according to The Washington Post .

Amid ongoing negotiations over his Build Back Better agenda , Biden has put renewed emphasis on sweeping changes in voting rights legislation. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Atlanta on Tuesday to speak about voting rights.