The Voting Rights Act
In the ongoing war against Republican voter suppression, the Democrats are trying to pass the Freedom To Vote Act (introduced as hr1). If passed the bill would expand voting rights, change campaign finance laws, and ban partisan gerrymandering. It would also create new ethics rules for federal office holders. The bill has received unanimous support from Republicans and Democrats, after all, free and fair elections are the cornerstone of a democracy.
Just kidding, The Republicans are fighting it with everything they have. After it was introduced in 2019 by House of Representative member John Sabarnas, the bill was blocked by the Republican-controlled Senate under the dark lord Mitch McConnell. In 2021 the bill passed on a vote along party lines; 220 to 210 in the House and 51-50 with Kamala Harris being the deciding vote in the Senate. This time it was blocked by Republicans using the filibuster. Again most Democrats have supported abolishing the filibuster, but for imitation Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
If passed the Freedom to Vote Act would:
-Offer Same-day registration for federal elections and allow voters to make changes at the polls
-Require states to hold early voting for at least 2 weeks and establish automatic voter registration for eligible citizens who provide information to State agencies. individuals would automatically be registered to vote unless they opt-out
-It would expand opportunities to vote by mail and make Election Day a federal holiday
-It would require states to offer online voter registration and establish a system to applicants to be electronically completed submitted and received by election officials, and allow registered voters to electronically update their registration
- it would establish criminal penalties for persons who “corruptly hinder, interfere with, or prevent another person from registering to vote” and for voter deception or intimidation (the bill would specifically prohibit knowing and Intentional communication of false and misleading information including about the time, place, or manner of elections, public endorsements, and the rules governing voter eligibility and voter registration, made with the intent of preventing eligible voters from casting ballots”)
- It would authorize 16-17 year olds to pre-register to vote before turning 18
- It would eliminate voter caging ( challenging the registration status of Voters and their legal right to vote) , restrict voter roll purchase by limiting states’ ability to remove registered voters from the roles.
- It would include Provisions for people with disabilities and strengthen the uniforms and overseas citizens' absolute voting act.
The bill would also make huge strides in campaign finance reform including:
- voluntary public financing for campaigns matching small day donations at a 6 to 1 ratio. The money would come from funds by collecting a fee assessed on criminal and civil funds and penalties of settlements for banks and corporations that commit Corporate malfeasance.
-It would include campaign reform Provisions from the Disclosure Act
-It would impose stricter limitations on foreign lobbying, requiring Super PACs and other “dark money” organizations to disclose their donors
-The bill would require presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns
-would set new disclosure rules for campaign contributions as well as limits
- it would also grant statehood to Washington DC
- It would require states to use independent commissions to draw congressional district lines. each commission would have 15 members five democrats, five republicans, and five independents to ensure equality.
The Freedom to Vote Act is pretty much split on party lines with the Democrats supporting three and fair elections and the Republicans dismissing it with baseless conspiracy theories including the 2020 “stolen election theory” proposed by Donald Trump and believed by his cult. Unfortunately, the Democrats would need 60 Senators as well as control of the house and the presidency to get the bill passed over a filibuster. The Republican Party has relied on voter suppression because they cannot win the popular vote. (Since 2000 they have only won the popular vote, in 2004).
Republican officials and conservative think tanks (which is an oxymoron) as well as right-wing newspapers such as the National Review claimed that it will hurt election integrity. They just don't have any actual proof. Senator Mike Lee said HR1 was “as if written in Hell by the Devil Himself”, but they haven't offered any proof of that either. What's even worse is that Democrats like Joe Manchin wrote “I believe that partisan voting legislature will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy and for that reason, I will vote against the “For The People Act” in a Charleston Gazette Mail editorial.
The Republican party wants to create apathy in the red States among Democrat voters. They hope the more difficult they can make voting the more people will give up. The strategy has so far backfired. For example, Georgia Democrat black voters stood in line for hours and hours and almost got Stacey Abrams (who would have been the first black governor) elected in Georgia. They were successful in getting black Senator Raphael Warnock collected as well as Democrat Jon Ossaf elected and also turning Georgia into a “blue” state for Biden.
H.R.1 Is one of the most important pieces of legislation that isn't talked about nearly enough. it would pretty much be the end for Trump and today's do-nothing Republican party that doesn't even listen to their own voters. Voter suppression in all its forms is the number one threat to our struggling democracy. It's more important than the race of the actor that wins the Oscar, which pronouns we use, and whether or not Caitlin Clark is getting an unfair amount of publicity. In other words, the stupid shit that some liberals worry about while Donald Trump is trying to become America's first emperor.