WASHINGTON – Rival vigils are being planned on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by both a right-wing group that insists those charged in the insurrection are “political prisoners” and liberal organizations marking this date by urging Congress and President Biden to pass federal legislation to protect voting rights.

These vigils for Jan. 6 – when a mob supporting President Donald Trump and his false claims of election fraud stormed the seat of the U.S. government, brawled with police and disrupted Congress during the certification of Biden’s election victory – reflect the nation’s splintered view of reality that is increasingly determined by a person’s political party rather than a shared set of facts.

“Ideas about election fraud have now rooted themselves so deeply in the Republican Party … where we have a big chunk of the population who doesn’t believe in our democratic system anymore,” said Heidi Beirich, a co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism and former director of intelligence at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “In this country, red and blue are so far apart in terms of what they see as reality.”

Dozens of liberal groups are organizing vigils across the country to remember the deadly attack on the country’s democracy by demanding lawmakers protect voting rights. At the same time, Look Ahead America, the right-wing group behind the widely-anticipated but sparsely attended Justice for J6 rally in September, announced on Monday its plans for a vigil outside the D.C. jail, where they argue those charged in the riot are being held unfairly inside.

D.C. Department of Corrections and D.C. police officials did not immediately respond on Monday to a request for comment.

Look Ahead America had also organized a protest in front of the jail in July, where about 100 people rallied in support of those charged in the insurrection, chanting, “Let them go!” The group’s rally in September, held outside the U.S. Capitol, amassed much more attention and a heightened security response from local and federal agencies and the reinstallation of the temporary Capitol perimeter fencing.

On the day of the September rally, journalists, police officers and counterprotesters outnumbered the demonstrators.

Matt Braynard, Look Ahead America’s executive director, denies there ever was an insurrection, echoing conservative talking points that hundreds of people charged in the storming of the U.S. Capitol are now being persecuted for a nonviolent political protest.

The group will also be honoring Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer as she attempted to breach a set of doors inside the Capitol during the riot, and Rosanna Boyland, who authorities said had been “trampled by the mob.”

Others died from the attack as well, including police officer Brian Sicknick, who was sprayed with a chemical irritant, suffered a stroke and died the next day.

Braynard said he does not know how many people will attend the vigil outside the jail, but plans include gathering from 6 to 7 p.m. with supporters singing hymns such as “Amazing Grace.” The group said it will announce other anniversary vigils across the country in the coming weeks.

“We’ve got to keep the focus on this,” Braynard said. “We’ve got to continue to shift public opinion.”

Nearly three in four Republicans surveyed in early November in a Monmouth University poll said Biden won the presidential election due to voter fraud. About one-third of Americans overall agree with this false assertion – a percentage that has not moved much in the last year, according to the poll.

Furthermore, a September survey from the Pew Research Center showed a growing partisan gap regarding whether Americans think it is important to prosecute people who stormed the Capitol, with Republicans finding it less important over time.

Specifically, the percentage of Republicans who said it was important to prosecute rioters fells from 79 percent in March to 57 percent in September. During that same time, the percentage of Republicans who said it is very important to prosecute rioters dropped from 50 percent to 27 percent, the survey showed.

People from across the country converged on the nation’s capital on Jan. 6 and listened to Trump say during his Save America rally on the White House Ellipse that Democrats committed massive voter fraud and rigged the election. And they believed him.

The way this falsehood spread and gained power among large portions of the population concerns Jonah Minkoff-Zern, co-director of Public Citizen’s Democracy is for People campaign. It’s why liberal organizations are working together to push back on false counternarratives about the insurrection and emphasize the need to protect democracy through federal voting rights protections.

Republican-led legislatures across the country have introduced and passed restrictive voting legislation after Trump and his allies repeatedly pushed false claims of widespread voter fraud costing him the 2020 election. Voting rights advocates and Democrats continue pushing back, demanding federal voting protections to counteract restrictive voting laws.

Minkoff-Zern said organizers are calling on Congress and Biden to pass the Freedom to Vote Act, a federal voting rights bill, and the Protecting Our Democracy Act, a bill that includes reforming oversight of the executive branch, among other legislation.

The vigil is scheduled to take place outside the U.S. Capitol at 4:30 p.m., though a location has not yet been finalized, Minkoff-Zern said. There will be similar vigils across the country.

“The uprising against the U.S. democracy didn’t end on January 6 and has continued in state houses that have passed laws to undermine our freedom to vote,” Minkoff-Zern. “The fact that there’s any discussion of counterevents or other such events than what we’re planning speaks to the need of continued vigilance for our democracy.”