Alyssa Milano was arrested on Tuesday during a voting rights protest at the White House.Â
In a tweet on Tuesday, the 48-year-old Charmed star said she was “arrested for demanding the Biden Administration and the Senate to use their mandate to protect voting rights.”
Milano was demonstrating with the organization People for the American Way. The nonprofit was founded by television producer Norman Lear in 1980. The group’s president Ben Jealous was also arrested during the protest.
“We came back to the White House to deliver a clear message to President Biden: we need actions that match the urgency of his words on voting rights – and time is running out,” Jealous said in a statement posted on Twitter. The Freedom to Vote Act has to pass now if we are going to protect voting rights in the next election for all of us: for Black voters and Brown voters, for women, for younger voters and older voters, voters with disabilities and working people of all backgrounds. The president needs to step up, or voting rights will die on his watch.”
The progressive advocacy organization says that it is trying to “fight right-wing extremism and build a democratic society that implements the ideals of freedom, equality, opportunity and justice for all.”Â
The Senate is likely going to start voting on the Freedom to Vote Act on Wednesday. It aims to set minimum standards for voting access in all states, such as same-day voter registration, two weeks of early voting and Election Day to be established as a public holiday. It’s a scaled-down version of the For the People Act, which was blocked by Republicans in June. The Freedom to Vote Act will likely meet the same fate as Republicans threaten to filibuster it.
