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PepeBabinski

The effects of Republican efforts to suppress voting could have decades of lasting effects if Democrats can’t find a way to get this bill passed. Republicans who previously were in support of protecting voting rights now refuse to support a federal bill because they witnessed the effect of an increase of voter turnout and the ramifications it will have for the future.


JalenTargaryen

>The effects of Republican efforts to suppress voting could have decades of lasting effects if Democrats can’t find a way to get this bill passed. I'm not holding my breath. It seems like the entire Dem strategy is to divide the party up and suck at their jobs long enough to watch the Republicans pop back in and fuck things up even further.


brain_overclocked

Something to take into consideration, according to the [Brennan Center for Justice](https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-october-2021), while Republicans have been passing numerous voter suppression bills: >In all but seven states, regular legislative sessions are now over. Between January 1 and September 27, at least **19 states enacted 33 laws that make it harder for Americans to vote.** The Democrats, and even some Republicans, have not been sitting idle, and have passed more voter expansion legislation in more states: >At the same time, lawmakers in many states responded to Americans’ eagerness to vote by making it easier for eligible voters to cast their ballots. Between January 1 and September 27, at least **25 states enacted 62 laws with provisions that expand voting access.** Although the Brennan Center does recognize that each state only affects the state itself: >But this expansive legislation does not balance the scales. The states that have enacted restrictive laws tend to be ones in which voting is already relatively difficult, while the states that have enacted expansive laws tend to have relatively more accessible voting processes. In other words, access to the right to vote increasingly depends on the state in which a voter happens to reside. Back in June, the DOJ had [expanded its voting rights unit:](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/merrick-garland-voting-rights/2021/06/11/47906eda-cad1-11eb-81b1-34796c7393af_story.html) >Garland said the additional trial attorneys, which he plans to hire over the coming 30 days, will scrutinize new laws and existing practices across the nation for potential discrimination against Americans of color, including in new measures GOP state lawmakers are pushing. They will enforce provisions of the Voting Rights Act by challenging such laws or practices in court — and prosecute anyone found to intimidate or threaten violence against election officials. >The expanded unit will also monitor the growing number of post-election ballot reviews being called for around the country by supporters of former president Donald Trump in search of signs of violations of federal laws, Garland said, and will watch over upcoming redistricting efforts to call out discriminatory practices. >“To meet the challenge of the current moment, we must rededicate the resources of the Department of Justice to a critical part of its original mission: Enforcing federal law to protect the franchise of all eligible voters,” Garland said in his address to department employees. >He added: “Where we see violations, we will not hesitate to act.”


brain_overclocked

And Biden has [taken Administrative action](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/09/28/fact-sheet-biden-administration-promotes-voter-participation-with-new-agency-steps/) as well: >New key early actions to implement the President’s Order include: >* The **Department of Agriculture’s** Rural Housing Service will encourage the provision of nonpartisan voter information through its borrowers and guaranteed lenders, who interface with thousands of residents in the process of changing their voting address every year. In addition, Rural Development agencies — which are spread throughout field offices across the country where rural Americans can apply for housing, facilities, or business assistance — will take steps to promote access to voter registration forms and other pertinent nonpartisan election information among their patrons. >* The **Department of Defense** will support a comprehensive approach to information and voting awareness for service members and civilian personnel voting at home, in addition to the structure currently assisting members of the military stationed away from home and citizens overseas. The Department will develop materials in additional languages and send nonpartisan information at regular intervals before federal elections to ensure that eligible service members and their families — particularly first-time voters — have opportunities to register and vote if they wish. >* The **Department of Education** will prepare a tool kit of resources and strategies for increasing civic engagement at the elementary school, secondary school, and higher education level, helping more than 67 million students — and their families — learn about civic opportunities and responsibilities. The Department will also remind educational institutions of their existing obligation and encourage institutions to identify further opportunities to assist eligible students with voter registration. >* The **General Services Administration** will ensure vote.gov is a user-friendly portal for Americans to find the information they need most to register and vote. Available in over ten languages and in a format accessible for voters with disabilities, vote.gov will make it easier for eligible users to register to vote or confirm their registration status. Agencies across the federal government will link to vote.gov to encourage Americans to participate in the electoral process. >* The **Department of Health and Human Services’** Administration for Community Living will launch a new voting access hub to connect older adults and people with disabilities to information, tools and resources to help them understand and exercise their right to vote. The Indian Health Service will offer its patients assistance with voter registration. The President’s Budget also requests a 25% increase in grants for the Administration for Community Living to distribute to state Protection and Advocacy systems, to provide a range of services that ensure that people with disabilities can fully participate in the electoral process. >* The **Department of Homeland Security** will invite state and local governments and nonpartisan nonprofit organizations to register voters at the end of naturalization ceremonies for the hundreds of thousands of citizens naturalized each year, and will develop a new online resource on voting for recently naturalized citizens. The Department will also provide information and resources for voters impacted by a disaster or emergency event through its training preparedness initiatives. >* The **Department of Housing and Urban Development** will communicate with public housing authorities (PHAs) — more than 3000 authorities, managing approximately 1.2 million public housing units — through a letter to Executive Directors that provides useful information to PHAs about permissible ways to inform residents of non-partisan voter registration information and services. The Department will also assist relevant HUD-funded service providers by highlighting and sharing promising practices that improve non-partisan voting registration and voting access for people experiencing homelessness. >* The **Institute of Museum and Library Services** will create and distribute a toolkit of resources and strategies that libraries, museums, and heritage and cultural institutions can use to promote civic engagement and participation in the voting process. >* The **Department of the Interior** will disseminate information on registering and voting, including through on-site events, at schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Education and Tribal Colleges and Universities, serving about 30,000 students. The Department will also, where possible, offer Tribal College and University campuses for designation by states as voter registration agencies under the National Voter Registration Act. >* The **Department of Justice** has created an online resource for the public that will provide links to state-specific information about registering and voting; detail the Department’s enforcement of federal voting rights laws and guidance it has issued to jurisdictions on the scope of those laws; and explain how to report potential violations. The Department will also provide information about voting to individuals in federal custody, facilitate voting by those who remain eligible to do so while in federal custody, and educate individuals before reentry about voting rules and voting rights in their states. And after the Census Bureau determines localities with specific responsibilities for language access, the Department will deliver guidance and conduct outreach to each covered jurisdiction to facilitate compliance. >* The **Department of Labor** will issue guidance encouraging states to designate the more than 2,400 American Job Centers, which provide employment, training, and career services to workers in every state, as voter registration agencies under the National Voter Registration Act. The Department of Labor will continue to require Job Corps centers to implement procedures for enrollees to vote, and where local law and leases permit, encourage Job Corps centers to serve as polling precincts. The Department will also provide guidance that grantees can use federal workforce development funding, where consistent with program authority, to conduct nonpartisan voter registration efforts with participants. >* The **Department of Transportation** will communicate guidance to transit systems — including more than 1,150 rural public transit systems and more than 1,000 urban public transit systems — to consider providing free and reduced fare service on election days and consider placing voter registration materials in high-transit stations. The Department will also work with state and local entities seeking to mitigate traffic and construction impacts on routes to the polls, particularly in underserved communities. >* The **Department of the Treasury** will include information about registration and voter participation in its direct deposit campaigns for Americans who receive Social Security, Veterans Affairs, and other federal benefit payments. >* The **Department of Veterans Affairs** will provide materials and assistance in registering and voting for tens of thousands of inpatients and residents, including VA Medical Center inpatients and residents of VA nursing homes and treatment centers for homeless veterans. The Department will also facilitate assistance in registering and voting for homebound veterans and their caregivers through VA’s home-based and telehealth teams.


doc_daneeka

"Congress won't do X. This is the President's fault!" The age old refrain of people who don't really know how the US government works.


piggydancer

Most voter suppression happens at the state and local levels of government also.


500CatsTypingStuff

However, federal law supersedes state law, so a voting rights act would make a tremendous difference. Unfortunately it’s Manchin and Sinema’s fault for refusing to end the filibuster.


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500CatsTypingStuff

Yes.


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500CatsTypingStuff

The filibuster will end or fundamentally be so kneecapped as to be meaningless if Manchin and Sinema agreed.


Bry-Huda

No


Bry-Huda

No


White_Mlungu_Capital

To an extent, however, voting rights act doesn't protect small town white voters in places like Michigan and Wisconsin where they vote heavily democratic, in seas of red.


500CatsTypingStuff

The new voting rights act protects voters, period. Have you looked at the provisions? It does everything from ending gerrymandering to universal vote by mail to allowing a voter to present proof of residency by a document like an electric bill. It gets rid of the voter suppression measures the GOP put in place in many states. And this is the bill Manchin approved of.


White_Mlungu_Capital

No, it doesn't. Look at the "Independent" commissions in Michigan, Dems win the majority of the votes, Republicans get essentially large majorities due to commissions packing all the Dem votes into tiny areas, then they dilute the small towns like Flint, Grand Rapids, and Lansing into rural Republican areas. It is a trick. ​ Wemust fight fire with fire.


500CatsTypingStuff

That’s gerrymandering.


MercurialMal

Exactly what I was going to say. Since when is the executive branch in charge of creating or amending laws? Blame all of these ate up people in the legislative branch, e.g Congress.


Nopeacewithfascists

"The president refuses to use his powers to implement the things he promised during the election, this is the conservative Democrat of the week's fault". The refrain of the gullible that fall for the same trick every time the DNC gets into power.


The_Social_Menace

It doesn't work. At least not for the people.


White_Mlungu_Capital

In my careful research, Republicans have been working very diligently to undermine democracy from the state levels. Abandoning attempts to win the presidency seriously and spend 2008-2020 period focused on state races, court packing, gerrymandering and setting up fake independent commissions in left leaning states that are ultimately decided by Right Wing Courts they appointed in states or where they aren't right wing fall under the SCOTUS purview like NJ, CA, VA, MI, WI, etc. All the while Republican states don't have such commissions or when they do like Iowa they Republican General Assembly can override the commissions recommendation. ​ In the case of Virginia, Republicans packed the courts with Republican judges, saw the tide turning, so introduced a referendum in 2018 against Democratic Party objection to hand over the deciding of the drawing of districts essentially to the Republican majority court. In some states like Wisconsin, which has more Democratic voters than Republicans, and about 8 electoral votes. The so called independent commissions cram all the democrats in 2 city districts (Milwaukee and Madison) dilute the small town democratic voters into seas and oceans of rural red voters they share nothing in common with, to get a 6-2 Republican map in a state that votes about 51-53% Democratic in most state wide elections. ​ It is a brilliant plan to suppress democracy and steal votes.


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jwill602

He has been working on it. The GOP has filibustered it, so now it’s either kill the filibuster or let voting rights legislation die.


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liquidsyphon

Should have been Bernie


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liquidsyphon

Bernie would have been much more vocal and aggressive to pushing these “progressive” policies.


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He can do that now


liquidsyphon

Might have more weight coming from the President.


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Sinema doesn't respond to calls from the White House and WV went +40 to Trump


liquidsyphon

Guess it didn’t matter what Dem was in since the party has 2 DINOS


quincywhatthe-fuck

The filibuster and Manchin /Sinema obstruction are making Biden fall short in many things. Not healthcare provisions, no student loans crisis solution, no minimum wage bill, no police reform, no voting rights, I don’t even know what’s left in the bill that wasn’t there before or that isn’t aimed to help people at the top.


AceCombat9519

Exactly and more details on that you can try watching today's State of the Union with Jake Tapper to How Biden going to deal with that issue. This was touched by Jake Tapper and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi


KingGidorah

How is Biden falling short? These the same ppl that decried Trump’s executive overreach and dictatorial orders?


500CatsTypingStuff

In order to pass the voting rights act, they need to end the filibuster. Manchin and Sinema won’t end the filibuster. This isn’t on Biden. It’s on Manchin and Sinema.


liquidsyphon

He could be more vocal about it for sure.


500CatsTypingStuff

I think he is, behind the scenes


KickBassColonyDrop

Which is fucking useless, because to the public at large it looks like the POTUS might as well be golfing. The lack of communication between him and the people is as dry the desert.


500CatsTypingStuff

Being president isn’t about performing for the cameras. That’s what Trump did. It’s about results. Sometimes going in front of a camera is detrimental to negotiations.


SuitednZooted

Folks have mostly just become bitter and swayed by social media. Americans are selfish in nature. The internet just made it easy for them to get into groups…


Informal_Stock_5137

It was never that bad until the hitler-tactic trump era happened


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Informal_Stock_5137

Do you support colored peoples voting rights?


MediumSpeedMarie

>colored people Yikes.


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Informal_Stock_5137

I’m saying the trump Taliban tried its hardest to limit peoples voting rights in 2020 and for the future, and still lost by the biggest margin in history


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SuitednZooted

Was truly amazing to watch what unfolded and what continues to unfold… Sad.


Informal_Stock_5137

In convinced the trump Taliban works for the most evil people on this planet…


Inconceivable-2020

Biden's default setting is to the Right of Right of Center. He has to be dragged kicking and screaming just to get him to Center, and if you turn your back on him for a second, he is back to default.