UNITY MEANS VOTING FOR ALL: FEDERAL LEGISLATION
In a democracy built on the premise that all people are created equal and a commitment to one person, one vote, the electoral goals should be a guaranteed right to vote (which does not currently exist) and 100% voter participation. Work toward these goals would be a strong unifying force. Unfortunately, there are many Republicans who are working to restrict voting in ways that give them an electoral advantage. As my previous post documented,the good news is that at least 37 states are considering over 540 bills to expand or ease access to voting. This is almost three times as many such bills as had been introduced a year ago. The bad news is that 33 states are considering 165 bills that would restrict access to voting. This is almost five times as many such bills as were under consideration a year ago. [1]
There’s more good news at the federal level where there are two important pieces of legislation that will protect and support every citizen’s right to vote: [2]
· For the People Act (H.R. 1 in the House and S. 1 in the Senate) which addresses many issues related to making it easier to vote; promoting one person, one vote; controlling campaign spending; and enhancing ethical standards for public officials.
· John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act which focuses on eliminating racial discrimination in states’ electoral systems and addresses election oversight shortcomings that the Supreme Court created when it gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013.
The For the People Act was passed by the House in 2019 but ignored by Senate Republicans led by Senator McConnell (KY). It has been reintroduced in both the House and the Senate and would:
· Improve access to voting by:
o Streamlining voter registration
o Expanding early voting and taking other steps to reduce waiting times at the polls
o Expanding and simplifying voting by mail
o Restoring voting rights to people who have completed their sentence for a felony
· Promote one person, one vote, as well as voting integrity and security by:
o Ending gerrymandering of districts
o Regulating purges of voting rolls to prevent partisan voter suppression
o Providing $1 billion for upgrading the security of state voting systems, including requiring auditable paper ballots
o Increasing oversight of voting machine vendors
o Restructuring the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to strengthen its enforcement of election laws
· Increase disclosure of campaign spending by:
o Requiring all organizations engaged in political activity to disclose large donors
o Requiring disclosure of spending on on-line political ads
o Eliminating the funneling of campaign spending through multiple entities in order to prevent donor identification
· Enhance the value of small campaign donations and limit the influence of wealthy donors by:
o Creating a 6 to 1 match for small donations to candidates who opt into a system that matches small donations with public funds (Note: This is a critically important strategy that is working in New York City and elsewhere to enlarge and diversify the pool of candidates who run, engage and amplify the voices of regular people, and limit the influence of wealthy donors. [3])
o Raising the funds to match small donations through a surcharge on fines corporations pay for illegal activity and on tax cheating by the wealthy
o Dramatically lowering the maximum campaign contribution limit for candidates who opt into the matching system
· Enhance ethics laws governing public officials and strengthen their enforcement by:
o Requiring Presidents to disclose their tax returns
o Strengthening conflict of interest and financial divestment standards for public officials
o Slowing the revolving door between related private and public sector jobs
o Prohibiting Members of Congress from serving on corporate boards
o Strengthening the Office of Government Ethics and its enforcement powers
o Closing loopholes in the regulations governing lobbyists and foreign agents
o Creating a code of ethics for Supreme Court Justices
The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is designed to respond to the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act, fixing what the Court said made the law unconstitutional. The implementation of voting restrictions accelerated sharply immediately after the Supreme Court’s decision, with Republicans using them to target non-white and other voters who tend to vote for Democrats. The bill would also address other issues related to racial discrimination in voting systems. This bill was passed by the House in 2019 but was ignored by Senate Republicans led by Senator McConnell (KY). It has been reintroduced in both the House and the Senate and would:
· Establish new criteria for determining which states and political subdivisions must obtain preclearance before changing voting procedures. (Preclearance means receiving approval from the Department of Justice before making changes to voting procedures.)
o The new criteria focus on particular practices that have been problematic in the past because they restricted access to voting, often in a discriminatory way. These practices include onerous vote ID requirements and the changing of district boundaries, voting locations, early and mail-in voting opportunities, and voter registration list maintenance procedures.
o All jurisdictions (e.g., counties, cities, and towns) would be required to obtain preapproval for implementing more stringent requirements for documentation to vote (such as IDs) than those established by federal law for vote by-mail registration or than those present in state law.
· Require appropriate notification to the public of changes in voting procedures.
· Clarify the circumstances under which a court must immediately block changes to voting procedures that have been challenged.
· Establish standards and procedures for deploying federal election observers when problems with voting access are identified, particularly a serious threat of racial discrimination.
There is strong bipartisan support for the provisions of these bills that move toward guaranteeing the right to vote and making it easy to do so, as well as protecting the integrity of our elections. It is particularly noteworthy that this level of support exists despite all the Republican attacks on many of these aspects of our voting systems, especially voting by mail. For example: [4]
· 86% support working to prevent foreign interference; 7% are opposed.
· 84% want enhanced election security; 8% are opposed.
· 74% support non-partisan determination of electoral districts; 11% are opposed.
· 68% want 15 days of early voting; 19% are opposed.
· 60% support same day voter registration; 29% are opposed.
· 59% support automatic voter registration; 29% are opposed.
· 58% want to vote by mail; 35% are opposed.
I encourage you to contact your U.S. Representative and Senators and urge them to support efforts to make it easier to vote, to encourage every citizen to vote, to end racial and partisan discrimination in states’ election systems, and to enhance the integrity and security of our elections.
You can find contact information for your US Representative at http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/and for your US Senators athttp://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
[1] Brennan Center for Justice, 2/8/21, “Voting laws roundup 2021,” (https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-2021-0)
[2] Perez, M., & Lau, T., 1/28/21, “How to restore and strengthen the Voting Rights Act,” The Brennan Center for Justice (https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/how-to-restore-and-strengthen-voting-rights-act)
[3] Vandewalker, I., 2/4/21, “How to change incentives for both politicians and donors,” The Brennan Center for Justice (https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-change-incentives-both-politicians-and-donors)
[4] Cox Richardson, H., 2/25/21, “Letters from an American blog,” (https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-25-2021)