Editor, The Beacon:

Throughout my lifetime in this country, I have witnessed our elections becoming further and further corrupted by special-interest groups, giant corporations and the wealthiest few citizens, all of whom have been using their enormous wealth to buy unfair influence from our representatives, who are elected to serve us all.

This antidemocratic corruption has grown worse since the terrible Supreme Court ruling in the 2010 Citizens United v. FEC court case. This Supreme Court ruling opened the floodgates for unlimited “donations” to flow directly into political campaigns, essentially allowing those with the most wealth to purchase unfair influence over our politicians.

In the 11 years since that ruling, we have reached a point in our nation where we are witnessing many of our elected federal, state and local representatives choosing to neglect the needs of their constituents and, instead, focusing their efforts on the demands of their largest campaign donors.

HR1, or the For the People Act, could soon be brought to a vote on the Senate floor. Among the many desperately needed provisions included in this bill are protections that would help to end the unfair and corrupting influence of these “big money” donors and begin restoring integrity to our democratic process in the U.S.

It is for this reason that I am strongly urging Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Rick Scott to vote “yes” on the For the People Act when it is brought to the floor for a vote.

Shawn Russell

Sanford