USA: Dem senators and MLK's son urge voting rights reforms at DC rally

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Democratic senators and the oldest son of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr spoke in support of voting rights reforms at a rally in Washington, DC on Tuesday.
Speaking after Democrats introduced their latest version of an election reform bill intended to counter restrictions on voting imposed by many Republican state governments in the Senate, Senator Amy Klobuchar warned that the US was “faced with a coordinated effort across the country to limit the freedom to vote.”
The ‘Freedom To Vote Act’ was introduced after the earlier ‘For the People Act’ failed to pass in June when the conservative Democratic senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, refused to back it.
The proposed law includes provisions to ban partisan gerrymandering, expand and protect early voting, and make Election Day a national holiday, among others.

The new bill is however unlikely to ever leave the Senate as it would require 10 Republican votes to pass the filibuster threshold, or for all the Democrats to vote together to amend the filibuster rules; a step Manchin has unequivocally ruled out.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, Republican state lawmakers have introduced over 360 bills to restrict access to voting since Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election, many of which contain measures that disproportionately affect poor and minority voters who typically lean heavily Democratic.

SOT, Amy Klobuchar, US Senator: “When we are faced with a coordinated effort across the country to limit the freedom to vote we must stand up and do what is right. As my colleague, Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock has said some people don’t want some people to vote. “

SOT, Martin Luther King III, Civil rights activist and son of Martin Luther King Jr: “We travel all over the world talking about democracy and yet right at home we’re suppressing it, you know the statistics I don’t need to give you the numbers, but we certainly know that 18 states at least now have passed legislation, 30 pieces of legislation and over 400 have been presented. That is not what is a democracy that includes all? That is about reducing the opportunity for people to vote. We’re not going to stand for it.”

SOT, Chris Van Hollen, US Senator: “I’m gonna get every single Democratic senator on board for the freedom to vote act and we have to pass the John R Louis voting rights at the how we going to do that. This is no secret to all of you. We have to eliminate the filibuster the filibuster is an anti-democratic, small D, provision. The filibuster is nowhere to be found in the United States Constitution, the filibuster is an invention of the United States, Senate.”

SOT, Jana Morgan, Director of Declaration For American democracy: “The freedom to vote has been introduced as the next iteration of the for the people act. It’s a revised bill that they’ve been negotiating all summer and we’re very excited about it. It has many of the four pillars of the for the people act. So we’re going to end partisan gerrymandering, protect the freedom to vote and get big money out of politics and we’re here today to tell congress and to tell our leaders we need to finish the job we need to pass the freedom to vote and we need to protect American democracy.”

SOT, Jana Morgan, Director of Declaration For American democracy: “There are efforts being made to get ten Republicans on board. In order to overcome the Jim Crow filibuster and pass the freedom to vote act, we hope that republicans will come on board because the right to vote is sacrosanct in America. This us the bare minimum that can be expected from our elected officials to protect the right to vote so we hope that they will come on board if they do not then our officials need to be ready to overcome the Jim Crow filibuster and pass the for the people act”

#USA #VotingRights #MartinLutherKingIII #DC

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