Strong, symbolic weight and great political risk: US President Joe Biden pledged on Tuesday to amend the Senate if necessary to protect American access to the vote, a right that is threatened in many conservative states.
“I have had discreet talks with members of Congress for the past two months. “I’m tired of being silent in the face of Republican blocking of two electoral reform bills,” said Biden of Georgia, a state he described as a “cradle” of the civil rights struggle.
“In order to protect democracy, I support a change in the rules of the Senate, in whatever way they need to be changed, in order to prevent a minority of senators from blocking action in favor of the right to vote,” he said.
Biden called the bill a “battle for the soul of America,” and added that the bill, which requires 60 votes out of 100 in the Senate, also known as a filibuster. make the body “a shadow of its former self”.
Speaking of “a turning point” for the United States, the 79-year-old Democrat assured that “every member of the Senate will be judged by history.”
“One thing every senator, every American should remember: History has never been lenient with those who voted in favor of restricting access to the vote. “And it will be even less lenient with those who are in favor of undermining the election,” Biden said yesterday. “So I ask every elected official in America: how do you want to be remembered?” He added.
The following are the key points of the two bills that Biden wants to pass in the Senate.
Holidays, food distribution
The election day holiday, the extension of the ballot paper, the right of voters to vote on election day; the Democratic-backed Freedom to Vote Act is intended to make it easier for Americans to vote.
Under the bill, voters will be able to display a number of different official documents for identification, a move critics of the Republicans say facilitates fraud. At the same time, the bill cancels some restrictions imposed on republican states after the defeat of Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
One of these restrictions was passed in Georgia and prohibits the distribution of drinks and food to voters waiting in line to vote. But in the November 2020 election, many voters in this state had to wait in line for more than 10 hours.
NGOs say the bill passed in Georgia in March is particularly targeted at African-Americans, who often live in neighborhoods with fewer polling stations and voted over Biden in the last election.
Prevention of discrimination
To ensure that minority suffrage is protected, Democrats want to combine the first bill with another, named after John Lewis, an MP and civil rights activist who died in 2020.
The second bill prohibits the adoption of any measure that has the effect of restricting access to voting for any minority group, even if this is not done in a clear manner.
The two bills have already been ratified by the House of Representatives and will be put to a vote in the Senate next week, as promised by the leader of the Democrats in the House Chuck Sumer.
But in the Senate, Democrats and Republicans have 50 seats each and therefore do not have the required number to pass bills unless there is a radical overhaul of the House.
So far, no Republican intends to vote in favor of the first bill, while only Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has voted in favor of the second.
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