Fighting Voter Suppression (2/28/21)
It has been another busy week of President Biden doing the job of being president. In contrast to the previous administration, he has signaled to other world leaders that America will not tolerate foreign intrusions into our affairs and that we value human rights. Good for him.
While President Biden is working to reclaim our place on the world stage and reassert our values, we cannot ignore the Republicans' disturbing assault on voting rights in state legislatures all over the country in response to the record turnout in recent elections. Clearly disappointed in the results of the presidential election in November and runoff in January, there seems to be no end to how far Georgia’s GOP legislators will go to subvert voting rights. The proposed laws in Georgia are an attempt to feed the big lie that there was voter fraud in the election and to react to Biden’s winning the state and Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock prevailing in their Senate races. With surgical precision, the Republican led state legislature is attempting to disenfranchise black, brown, and young voters. For more details about what is happening in Georgia, click here. Georgia is not the only state putting forth severe voter suppression laws as a reaction to the 2020 election. For an overview of the Republican dominated state legislatures enacting bills that will make it harder for people to vote, read here.
There is, however, federal legislation that could help. Next week members of the House of Representatives will be voting on H.R. 1, otherwise known as the For the People Act. The bill contains sweeping reforms to reduce barriers to voting, create non-partisan congressional maps, add automatic registration, require transparency around political money, and more items intended to increase voter access and allow all voices to be heard. In addition, Congress must also pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. This Act would restore full protection to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that was gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013. It will provide the legal tools to block acts of discrimination in our elections at all levels of government. This week would be a good time to get on the phone and let our legislators know we support these Acts. Sign up for tomorrow's Rise and Resist "call relay" below in the phonebanking section. It will take you less than 5 minutes.
On January 6th, we saw how fragile our Democracy is and we know that voter fraud is not the challenge that confronts our Democracy. Our votes are our voices and we must relentlessly continue the work to register voters, turn out the vote for all elections, and support passage of legislation that will allow access for all voices to be heard.
To learn more about H.R. 1 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, read these materials by the Brennan Center: work/policy, work/analysis, work/research
As Princeton Professor Julian Zelizer tweeted: "Voting reform can’t wait. Congress needs to take this up sooner rather than later, especially after the insurrection and what is taking place in many red states. This is about the fierce urgency of now, as MLK famously said in 1963." So call, email, and tweet at your elected representatives to let them know that passage of these bills is critical to protect Democracy. While pushing our representatives to pass H.R. 1 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, we must acknowledge that it is unlikely that either of these important pieces of legislation will pass the U.S. Senate unless they eliminate the filibuster, which President Obama called "a Jim Crow relic," and which, according to Julian Zelizer, "stifles, rather than encourages, deliberation." Look for more discussion about the filibuster in the coming weeks. In the meantime, read this thoughtful op ed by E.J. Dionne Jr.