The United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) dealt several blows to the voting rights law last week.
In a mostly conservative 6-3 ruling, SCOTT maintained two Arizona restrictions.
The first prohibits anyone other than close family members or carers from collecting ballots.
The second Requires election officials to reject votes from people registering in bogus counties, even if they are registered voters in their state.
One of the few dissenting voices, Justice Elena Kagan said:
“The tragic thing here is that the Court of Justice has once again – in order to weaken it – rewritten a statute that stands as a monument to America’s greatness and protects against its most vile impulses. It is tragic that the court damaged a law that is supposed to bring about the ‘end of discrimination in voting’. “
That goes beyond Arizona.
At a time when Republican legislatures across the country are passing dozens of draconian voter suppression laws ahead of next year’s mid-term elections, the SCOTUS decision will wreak havoc on all future coast-to-coast elections.
The court’s conservative majority also opposed California law requiring charities to privately disclose their top donors to the attorney general, a move that will undoubtedly expand the corruption that is already playing “dark money” in political campaigns.
People for the American Way and past president of NAACP, Ben Jealous, recently announced in an interview with Democracy Now !:
“You are kidnapping our democracy from above to help these Republican governors who have tried to kidnap you from below.”
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat from Rhode Island, tweeted:
The court that built Dark Money just made Dark Money a home in our constitution. A dark, dark day for democracy. https://t.co/X1wGZgjcqL
– Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) July 1, 2021
Record turnout in the Last year’s election left Republicans in a tailspin.
You don’t want democracy.
They want oligarchy.
But they don’t know Americans outside of the extremely rich.
To maintain the hegemony of their wealthy donors, they work tirelessly to prevent voters from performing their civic duty whom they represent.
And it’s not a secret.
Republicans wave theirs Voter suppression flag on our faces since Paul Weyrich, the founder of the Heritage Foundation and “founding father of the conservative movement,” announced this in 1980 in a speech to a religious right group in Dallas.
The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center (BISC) is tracking 125 notes 28 states urge to change the voting processes.
Republican lawmakers have introduced Hundreds of bills restrict voting, Criminalize peaceful protest, revoke authority Regional courts and local electoral committees and Discard votes this is not for you.
March, Georgia government Brian Kemp signed an election control law abolition by local and district electoral committees to issue new requirements for voter ID cards, limit postal voting options, reject entire ballot papers mistakenly incorrectly delivered to wrong districts, allow conservative activists to challenge, even criminalize, voters’ eligibility to vote Distribute pizza and water Voters waiting in line for their turn to cast their votes
Then came Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis following his example.
Other restrictive bills have been signed Iowa, Arkansas, and Utah.
Arizona republican State senators are behind you tell of Ballot for the 2020 presidential election because the entire party they serve doubled about the dangerous lie of Donald Trump’s “rigged election” leading to the Uprising in the Capitol on Jan. 6.
They even resorted to it Hunt for bamboo fiber Thousands of ballot papers were sent out from China as evidence.
As the New York Times added:
“[Ballots are] Microscope and ultraviolet light examinations were obtained, apparently to dispel unsubstantiated claims that fraudulent ballots contained watermarks that were visible under ultraviolet light.
“Untrained citizens are trying to find traces of bamboo on last year’s ballot papers, apparently trying to prove a conspiracy theory that the elections were spoiled by fake votes from Asia.”
All of this is happening as laws to prevent this languish in the Senate.
Reintroduced in January of this year, HR1 passed 220-210 on March 3rd with no Republican support and only one Democrat against it.
It is now sitting as S.1 in the 50/50 Senate and is waiting for certainty filibuster.
HR1 / S.1 partially strives for:
For a full breakdown of the comprehensive terms and conditions, please see Here.
The Senate must adopt page 1.
But, as Vox reports, there are several obstacles.
The first is none other than that filibuster, a racist anachronism invented to appease a once voracious South.
The second problem is the number of Center Democrats – WV Sen. Joe Manchin and Ariz. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema among them – perfectly fine with the current Senate rules, standstill and everything.
As Vox
“The third problem is that, even if the Democrats somehow got the votes to abolish the filibuster in motion, Manchin is inclined to oppose any efforts by the party line to revise the vote in the country. If Manchin sticks to it, the For the People Act is essentially dead. “
Procopius adds:
“The party has almost unanimous public opinion on the bill, with all but one Democrats in the House voting in favor and every Democrat in the Senate except Manchin helping to fund it. But some members of the Congressional Black Caucus are not enthusiastic about it (fearing that their redistribution reforms would water down mostly black districts), and moderate senators also have doubts. “
So what is to be done?
All 50 Democratic Senators – including Joe Manchin – must not only support the law, but also a Senate Senate Change rules To advance S.1 with a simple majority and bypass a filibuster.
Majority leader Chuck Schumer (NY) has the power to put pressure on Manchin.
President Biden too, of course.
We should contact our senators at 202-224-3121 and share our concerns with them.
They work for us after all.
Ted Millar is a writer and teacher. His work has been featured in countless literary magazines including Better Than Starbucks, Caesura, Circle Show, Cactus Heart, and Third Wednesday. He’s also contributing to The Left Place Blog on Substack, Liberal Nation Rising, and Medium.
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