"For the past two months I have been having discreet conversations with members of Congress. I'm tired of being silent" in the face of Republican blockage of two bills providing for reforms to the electoral process, Biden denounced from Georgia, a state he called the "cradle" of the battle for civil rights.
"To protect democracy, I support changing Senate rules in whatever way they need to be changed to prevent a minority of senators from blocking action on voting rights," the US president stressed.
Biden stressed that the effort to pass this legislation is "a battle for the soul of America," adding that the rule under which 60 votes out of 100 in the Senate are needed to pass a bill, known as a filibuster, has made the body "a shadow of its former self."
Calling it "a watershed moment" for the US, 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 on those who favored restricting access to the ballot. And it will be even less forgiving of those who advocate undermining elections," Biden stressed yesterday. "So I ask every elected official in America: how do you want to be remembered?" he added."
Here are the key points of the two bills Biden wants the Senate to adopt.
Holiday, food distribution
[BR][BR]Declaring an Election Day holiday, expanding absentee voting, giving voters the right to register to vote on Election Day ... the bill, called the Freedom to Vote Act, which Democrats are backing, aims to make it easier for Americans to vote.
Under the bill, voters would be able to show a number of different official documents to be identified, a measure that Republicans criticize as facilitating fraud. At the same time, the bill repeals some restrictions imposed in Republican states after Donald Trump's defeat in the 2020 presidential election.
One of those restrictions was adopted in Georgia and bans the distribution of drinks and food to voters waiting in line to vote. But in the November 2020 election, many voters in that state had to wait more than 10 hours in line.
Non-governmental organizations assert that the bill adopted in Georgia in March particularly targets African-Americans, who often live in neighborhoods where there are fewer polling places and voted primarily for Biden in the last election.
Preventing discrimination
To ensure that minorities' right to vote is protected, Democrats want to combine the first bill with another, named after John Lewis, a congressman and civil rights activist who died in 2020.
The second bill prohibits the passage of any measure that has the effect of restricting access to the ballot for any minority group, even if it does not do so in a clear manner.
The two bills have already been ratified by the House and will be voted on next week in the Senate, as House Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has pledged.
But in the Senate, Democrats and Republicans each have 50 seats, and thus the necessary number to ratify the bills is not being filled unless there is some radical reform of the rules of the body.
So far no Republican plans to vote for the first bill, while only Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski has come out in favor of the second.
Source: APM
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