WASHINGTON (AP): A new executive order of President Joe Biden orders federal agencies to take a series of steps to promote access to the vote, an action that occurs as Democrats in Congress push for a vote bill and general election to counter efforts to restrict access to voting.
His plan was announced during a recorded address at the 56th commemoration of “Bloody Sunday,” the 1965 incident in which some 600 civil rights activists were brutally beaten by state soldiers as they tried to march for the right to vote in Selma, Alabama.
“All eligible voters should be able to vote and count,” Biden says in his prepared statements at Sunday’s Unity King Martin and Coretta breakfast. “If you have the best ideas, you have nothing to hide. Let people vote. “
Biden’s order includes several modest provisions. It orders federal agencies to expand access to voter registration and election information, calls on federal agency heads to submit plans to give federal employees free time to vote or volunteer as non-partisan poll workers, and prohibits a review of the government vote. gov website.
Democrats are trying to consolidate support for House Resolution 1, which affects virtually every aspect of the electoral process. It was passed Wednesday in a close-to-party vote, 220-210.
The Bill on Voting Rights includes provisions to restrict partisan conflicts in congressional districts, remove barriers to voting, and bring transparency to a murky campaign funding system that allows wealthy donors to anonymously fund political causes.
Democrats say the bill will help stifle attempts to suppress voters, while Republicans have presented the bill as unwanted federal interference in state authority to conduct its own elections.
The fate of the bill is far from certain in the tightly divided Senate. Conservative groups have launched a $ 5 million campaign to try to persuade moderate Senate Democrats to oppose the rule changes needed to pass the measure.
With his executive order, Biden tries to focus on the subject and uses the gloomy commemoration of Bloody Sunday to make it known that much is at stake.
Bloody Sunday proved to be a conscious and impactful turning point in the civil rights movement that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Similarly, Biden expects that on Tuesday, January 6, , the office of the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Donald Trump crowd proved to be a clear call to Congress to take steps to improve voter protections.
“In 2020, with our democracy underway, even in the midst of a pandemic, Americans voted more than ever before,” Biden says in his prepared comments. “However, instead of holding this powerful demonstration of voting, we saw an unprecedented insurrection in our Capitol and a brutal attack on our democracy on January 6. An unprecedented effort to ignore, undermine and undo the will of the people “.
Biden’s statements also pay tribute to the late civil rights giants Rev. CT Vivian, Rev. Joseph Lowery and Rep. John Lewis. They all played a critical role in the 1965 organizational efforts at Selma and they all died last year.