As the state GOP legislatures have rolled through restrictive after restrictive voter rights bills, Democrats, both nationally as well as states advocates have touted the House passed For The People Act as some kind of a magic wand that can be waved to make everything better again. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Granted, the passage of the For The People act would be a wonderful tool to roll back the most pernicious restrictions passed by the GOP controlled state legislatures, such as mandating no excuse mail in voting, making election day a federal holiday, easing voter ID restrictions, and mandating automatic voter registration nationwide. But it won’t fix the deeper, more systemic problems being wrought by the GOP state legislatures.
Independent Maine Senator Angus King, who caucuses with the Democrats, encapsulated it perfectly in an interview with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace today. Under questioning about moving forward with national voting rights laws, King made the problem crystal clear.
Nicolle, the real problem with trying to pass a sweeping national voting rights is that you’re playing whack-a-mole with 50 different states. You can mandate a minimum of 15 days of early in person voting, including sundays, but that won’t stop them from closing polling places in minority neighborhoods to drive the waiting time to 5-6 hours, while white suburban polling places have 30 minutes or less waiting time.
That is the real problem. The Democrats can pass a national law that will mandate certain universal voting rights, but they can’t stop the local legislatures from doing things that the federal government can’t control to make voting more difficult for non GOP voters.
Look, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t pass the strongest version of the For The People Act that we can, anything that increases voter participation with the least obstruction is a victory, but the federal law is not going to be a magic wand that cures all of our ills. The only cure for that is to activate locally to flip state legislatures. Stacey Abrams is leading the way, it’s up to us to follow the path.
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Yeah – a good solid voting rights amendment isn’t going to happen. And the GQP will only vote for a bill if they can be convinced that it will benefit them immediately, because they’re currently not capable of understanding that they don’t run the country.
All the laws that attempt to take the power from the voter and give it to Republican legislators should be addressed as well as a requirement of a minimum number of polling sites based on population and a requirement that all polling places have the same ration of machines to the population they serve.
I’m not trying to be cold or callous but the folks subjected to these unreasonable voter suppression laws had better get their a*ses out and vote. If they do not remove these yahoos the ability to vote at all might just be taken away. It is not as if the S.C. will stand in the way; they’ve made it quite clear the voting rights act is toilet paper.
If you are talking about black voters, they are only 13% of the electorate. Total minority registered voters are one third of the electorate. Districts are gerrymandered to create safe seats for the very people pushing voter suppression laws. Even if 100% of minority voters actually voted, they still would not be able to remove these yahoos. What terrifies the (majority white) GOP is precisely the changing demographics of the electorate. https://www.pewresearch.org/2020/09/23/the-changing-racial-and-ethnic-composition-of-the-u-s-electorate/ Currently 53% of white voters lean Republican. 53% of of 67% (see link) equals about 36% of the total electorate that leans Republican. This is a national generalization. Because local percentages vary widely, the GOP NEEDS the Electoral College to continue to give the GOP the local advantage sometimes large enough to swing the election to the popular vote loser.
And all the states’ chumps are doing, is restricting voters who, “MIGHT NOT”, be inclined to vote Republican, based on race and ethics be damned …
Based on against-race voting, shouldn’t there be a way to squash these rules because they ARE obviously a RACIST strike against US voters?
Apparently, the GOP has identified themselves as stinking KKK/Nazi pigs, forming a controlling factor that intrudes on daily lives of ALL Citizens?
I don’t entirely disagree with Sen King. However, what For the People intends to accomplish is to open so many avenues for voter registration and voting that it’s more difficult to create “choke points.”
If all we pass is 15 days of early voting, then yes…some GOP state will open one office in the capitol at lunch time and call that their early voting requirements. But if we require early voting AND early mail voting, now voters have two routes of they experience hurdles, and it’s harder (but not impossible) to close them both off.
The choke points are where most of the suppression occurs. Opening five new freeways doesn’t solve traffic congestion, but it helps.