US Voting Rights Under Threat, The Filibuster; Biden, Dems Pushing Back After GOP's New Restrictions

[appalachiablue]

- President Joe Biden delivers remarks during a ceremony in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2022, in Washington, D.C.
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- 'Why are US voting rights under threat and how is the filibuster related?' The Guardian, Jan. 11, 2022. After Republicans rammed through new restrictions, Biden and Senate Democrats are pushing back. Here’s how the fight unfolded. *US politics – live coverage -

The fight over voting rights in the US has arrived at a hugely consequential juncture. After watching Republicans ram through state bills that impose new voting restrictions, Joe Biden and Democrats in the Senate are set to make their most aggressive effort yet to push back. Later this week, the Senate will vote on legislation that would amount to the most significant expansion of voting rights protections since the civil rights era.

Here’s a look at how the fight over voting rights has unfolded over the last year: Why are voting rights under threat? All of the data from the 2020 election points to it being one one of the most successful in American history. About two-thirds of eligible voters – 158 million people – cast a ballot, a record turnout. About a week after the election, a coalition of experts, including a top official in Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, described the election as “the most secure in American history”.

Nonetheless, Republican state lawmakers fueled an unprecedented surge of legislation to impose new restrictions on voting. In total, more than 440 bills that included measures to restrict voting access were introduced in 49 states in 2021, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Thirty-four of those bills became law in 19 states. Many of the measures impose restrictions on mail-in voting, which was used in unprecedented numbers in 2020 amid the Covid pandemic.

Republicans in Florida and Georgia, for example, limited or prohibited the use of mail-in ballot drop boxes, widely used in 2020 to ensure ballots made it back to election offices in time. Some states also imposed new identification requirements for voters both when they request and return a ballot, despite no evidence of widespread fraud. Lawmakers in Georgia passed measures that prohibit providing food or water to people standing in line to vote. Republicans have also taken up measures to exert control over who runs elections and counts. Election administration in the US has long been seen as a non-partisan job run by under-the-radar officials...

More, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/11/us-voting-rights-explainer-filibuster-republicans-democrats-senate
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'Senate Leaders To Speed Action on Voting Rights' despite filibuster threat from segregationists,' Daily Kos, 1/11/22
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/1/11/2074024/--Senate-Leaders-To-Speed-Action-on-Voting-Rights-despite-filibuster-threat-from-segregationists

'Biden Will Back Filibuster Changes After Pressure From Voting Rights Groups,' Truthout, Jan. 11, 2022,
https://truthout.org/articles/biden-will-back-filibuster-changes-after-pressure-from-voting-rights-groups/

[PSPS]

1. I think president manchin has already vetoed this whole thing, hasn't he?

[appalachiablue]

2. No effort, exposure on a huge issue, just give up, nah

Like many others here, and around the world I intend to fight to preserve democracy in every way possible.

Follow President Biden's inspiring, essential speech on now, he knows what it's about and what's at stake. Manchin and Sinema the obstructionists and other influential, anti democratic forces can't be allowed to take down this country.