WASHINGTON – Democrats said yesterday they were putting voting rights protections on the Senate floor to combat a wave of new restrictions in conservative states, despite Republican opposition that is sure to thwart the effort.
Named for a leading United States civil rights figure and Democratic congressman who died last year, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore protections lost in Supreme Court decisions over the last decade.
The legislation being introduced today also reinstates a crucial requirement that states changing their election rules get the reforms cleared beforehand by the federal Justice Department.
The House passed the bill in August but it was modified to build support in the Senate, where Republicans have blocked previous House-passed voting measures.
Even so, Senate watchers are expecting Republicans to object again – their third straight block on even allowing debate on voting rights legislation – ensuring it will not get the 60 votes needed to advance.
“We can’t force so much as a debate if at least 10 Republicans don’t join us and vote in favour of letting the Senate do its work on this most important – this most vital – of issues,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told colleagues on the floor.
“Senate Republicans shouldn’t be afraid of merely starting debate on an issue we’ve long debated in this body and long supported in a bipartisan way in the past.”
Republican-run states have spent months leveraging ex-president Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election to introduce restrictive laws that opponents say are an assault on voting rights.
So far this year, at least 19 states had signed off on 33 laws that restrict voting access, according to the liberal-leaning Brennan Centre for Justice.
The curbs include a ban on handing out drinks or snacks in voting lines, outlawing drive-through and 24-hour voting, and a prohibition on election officials promoting mail-in voting by election officials.
“The clock is ticking for the Senate to stop these attacks: starting next year state legislatures will return to session and many will surely build on the flurry of restrictive laws we’re already seeing in states like Georgia and Texas,” Schumer said.
Elections are administered locally in the US, and Republicans tend to see Washington telling states how to run their own votes as federal overreach.
New laws such as photo identification requirements – a normal measure in many countries – are just common sense, they argue.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell directed every Republican last month to block a debate on the Freedom to Vote Act, a sweeping package of voting, redistricting, and campaign finance reforms.
Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski, the sole Republican publicly backing the John Lewis act, said protecting the ability of all Americans to have their voices heard in elections “defines us as a nation”.
“Every American deserves equal opportunity to participate in our electoral system and political process, and this bill provides a starting point as we seek broader bipartisan consensus on how best to ensure that.”
The National Congress of American Indians lauded Murkowski for taking a stand.
“American Indians and Alaska Natives face some of the greatest barriers to voting,” first vice-president Mark Macarro said in a statement. – AFP, November 3, 2021
