President Biden signs voting rights order

A new executive order signed by President Joe Biden instructs federal agencies to take a series of steps to promote access to the vote.

The move comes as Republicans in many states are pushing for stricter voting requirements, while Democrats say the move is tantamount to oppressing voters.

“Electoral officials in 43 states have already introduced more than 250 bills to make it harder for Americans to vote. We can not allow them to succeed, ‘said Biden, who signed the order on the 56th anniversary of’ Bloody Sunday ‘, the 1965 incident in which about 600 civil rights activists were maliciously beaten by state troops as they tried to vote for suffrage in Selma, Alabama.

Advertisement

Biden’s order contains several modest stipulations. It orders federal agencies to expand access to voter registration and election information, urges heads of agencies to come up with plans to give federal employees time to vote as non-partisan voters or to volunteer, and print a review of the government’s Vote.gov website.

Congress Democrats are trying to bolster support for House Resolution 1, which touches on virtually every aspect of the election process. It was approved Wednesday on an almost party line vote, 220-210.

The suffrage bill contains provisions to restrict the partisan processing of congressional districts, remove barriers to voting, and provide transparency to a murky campaign funding system that enables wealthy donors to regulate political affairs anonymously.

It is designed to stifle what Republican government legislators like those in Florida and Georgia are doing.

Advertisement

Duval County GOP chairman Dean Black said changes need to be made to improve electoral security in Florida.

“Because we have a lot of voters who do not trust the electoral system, and we need to put in place a system that can show the country what works,” Black said.

State Senator Annette Taddeo, D-Miami, said the Republican movements at the state level are blatantly biased and intended to keep voters out of the ballot box.

“It’s all political. It has nothing to do with problem solving. “It’s clearly about the re-election of Ron DeSantis because Democrats made people vote in large, large numbers,” Taddeo said.

Republicans of Georgia have already made more progress with election reform. House Bill 531, which passed the lower legislative chamber by a vote of 97-72, would add the requirements for the absentee ballots and restrict the ballots.

Advertisement

Some civil rights groups are urging Atlanta-based companies such as Coca-Cola and Delta to take part in the fight against the legislation.

Copyright 2021 by WJXT News4Jax – All rights reserved. / Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

.Source