U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a bipartisan meeting on cancer legislation at the White House Oval Office in Washington on March 3, 2021.
Alex Brandon | Swimming pool | Reuters
President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Sunday to help ensure that all Americans have the right to vote by increasing access to voter registration services and information.
Biden also called on Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act, which was signed into law in 1965 after a violent protest in Selma, Alabama, that left some participants injured.
The late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., Who was one of the activists leading the march, suffered a fractured skull. Lewis died last year.
Biden’s executive order coincides with 56th anniversary of that protest, known as Bloody Sunday.
“Today, on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, I sign an executive order to make it easier for eligible voters to register to vote and improve access to voting,” Biden said in prepared statements.
“All eligible voters should be able to vote and count that vote. If you have the best ideas, you have nothing to hide. Let people vote.”
Biden’s executive order is an “initial step,” according to the White House. The president plans to work with Congress to reinstate the Voting Rights Act, which eliminated discriminatory practices such as requiring literacy tests to vote.
“I also demand that Congress fully reinstate the Voting Rights Act, named in honor of John Lewis,” Biden said.
In 2013, the Supreme Court invalidated a central plan of the act that required 9 states with a history of discrimination, mostly in the south, to receive federal approval to change their electoral laws.
Representative John Lewis in Selma, Alabama, February 14, 2015.
Bill Clark | CQ Roll Call | Getty Images
Biden also plans to work with lawmakers to pass the House Act passed last week, which includes additional reforms to make the vote “fair and accessible.”
“This is important legislation that is urgently needed to protect the right to vote, the integrity of our elections, and to repair and strengthen our democracy,” Biden said.
Biden’s executive order aims to take the first steps to make polls more accessible to black and other minority voters, including Native Americans and people with disabilities.
It also calls for initiatives to improve voting access for federal employees, active-duty military and other voters abroad and Americans in federal prison.
The executive order orders federal agencies to increase voter access to registration and information about online elections, as well as through more regular distribution of voting by mail and voter registration applications.
The executive order also requires federal agencies to better coordinate with state governments in voter registration, as well as updating the Vote.gov website.