The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #167283   Message #4076810
Posted By: Stilly River Sage
25-Oct-20 - 04:38 PM
Thread Name: BS: 2020 national election, USA - BIDEN wins Nov 7
Subject: RE: BS: 2020 national election, USA
The court cases to do with how and when to count ballots, to let them come in for X number of days after election (if postmarked in time), the number of drop-off points, the FAKE drop-off boxes, it's an embarrassment. We need the voting rights bill updated and restored to its former status.

NY Times article from last year about the attempt to restore it.

“Selma is still now!” thundered Representative Terri A. Sewell, Democrat of Alabama, the chief sponsor of the measure, during debate on the measure on the floor. “I know I’m not the only black and brown colleague of ours who owes their very presence in this chamber to the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965.”

Republicans, for their part, argued that the bill would trample on states’ ability to dictate their own election rules by abusing measures in place to prevent voter disenfranchisement.

“The bill before us today would turn those federal shields that protect voters into political weapons,” said Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, adding that the legislation would do so “when there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that those states or localities engaged in any discriminatory behavior when it comes to voting.”

The debate underscored the deep partisan polarization that has taken hold on issues related to voting and elections in recent years. In 2006, the last time the Voting Rights Act was updated, the measure passed overwhelmingly in the House, where large majorities of both parties supported it, unanimously passed the Senate, and was signed into law by a Republican president, George W. Bush.

On Friday, just one Republican, Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, voted “yes.”

In the Shelby case, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote that Congress remained free to try to impose federal oversight on states where voting rights were at risk, but must do so based on contemporary data. The measure passed on Friday was an attempt to do just that.

Specifically, it would update the parameters used to determine which states and territories need to seek approval for electoral procedures, requiring public notice for voting changes and expanding access for Native American and Alaska Native voters.

But it is unlikely to come to a vote in the Senate, where Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, has refused to take up most legislation championed by House Democrats.


2018 and 2020 can be used as illustrations as to why the bill is needed more than ever before. And Stacy Abrams can become the Voting Tsar when Biden takes office in January, 2021.