Voting rights debate: Watch these statements as IDPs make it harder to vote

Here’s what you need to know about the rights battle that is currently taking place.

Florida, Arizona and Georgia were all battlefield states in 2020 and hosted the U.S. Senate Games in 2022. Republican legislative majorities and GOP governors are moving to make it harder to vote in these states.

Texas does not have a Senate race in 2022, but does have a race for governor in 2022. Republicans currently control all state government levers there.

There are proposals to make it harder to vote in other key states – Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – with Senate elections of 2022, but divided government in those places will make restrictions harder to enforce.

There is no Senate race in Michigan and there is also divided government there. (See an explanation of state government control here.)

What exactly is the cornerstone of suffrage and access we are talking about?

It varies from state to state.

In Georgiaa bill approaching the governor’s desk would repeal the excuse of absence without apology. It will also reduce the vote on Sunday, which looks to target black churches. Absent votes and votes by mail were decisive in the state, which tipped Biden by the smallest margin.

In Arizona, one bill would repeal the permanent list of early votes by the state, allowing voters to automatically cast a vote for absentees. The proposed changes are in the state, where Republicans have lost both Senate seats over the past few years, but retain the state government. The list is indeed long – see it here.

In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing for a proposal to reduce the sending of ballot papers to voters and reduce access to the ballot papers.

Many states are considering changing signature verification to requiring voters to include a copy of their driver’s license or other paperwork with consent.

Others are considering proposals to remove a voter registration if they do not vote over four consecutive years.

In Texas, there are more than a dozen proposed bills and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said it was necessary because Harris County, a Democratic stronghold, made changes at the local level to increase the turnout during the pandemic.

“We need to pass laws to prevent election officials from jeopardizing the election process,” Abbott said, somehow arguing that more people voting would jeopardize the process.

Can these changes change the outcome of future elections if accepted?

Absolutely. In 2020, at the national level, President Joe Biden received many millions more votes than former President Donald Trump, and he definitely won the Electoral College. But he won several states by slim margins. Changes that slightly affect the turnout in Georgia, Arizona, plus any other state, could be crucial in 2024.

Why are Republicans now making changes instead of before the 2020 election?

Four things:

The pandemic hit. States have made changes at the last minute to facilitate rules on how and when people can vote due to public health concerns.
The turnout has risen. Because of those changes or because voters wanted to reject or protect Trump (or both), the turnout went through the roof and Trump lost.
Trump alleged voter fraud. Although there is no evidence that widespread fraud has taken place, his repeated allegations have made the integrity of the voting system the highest IDP priority.
Republicans retained control of state governments. Trump’s state-level allies have moved quickly to address the voter fraud he claims did not take place.

Why should not everyone just vote at the same time and in the same way?

Election day is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. (This has been the case for a long time.) But the US is a country of 50 states and more than 330 million people of varying degrees of education and involvement. There is something to be said for flexibility. Many people work odd hours. They work several works. And the Constitution puts states in control of their election, though Congress can regulate it.

The problem is to make sure that everyone has the same access to the polls, while also maintaining the necessary security. A complication is that people in cramped urban areas usually wait hours when there are normal voting hours. Early voting and postal voting are alternatives to remove the obstacle.

Can’t everyone over the age of 18 in the US vote? How can states restrict access?

Yes! It took a long time to say from white landowners who voted during the first presidential election to the 24th amendment, introduced in 1964, which says:

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote in a by-election or other election of President or Vice-President for voters for President or Vice-President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, may not be exercised by the United States or any other denied or abbreviated. State due to failure to pay any tax or other taxes. “

It eliminated the tax returns and, combined with the Voting Rights Act, ended many of the tricks of the Jim Crow era that kept many black Americans from voting.

But not everyone over the age of 18 can vote – non-residents and criminals, in most places, although there are efforts to put an end to criminals again. They can vote especially in Florida after the voters there approved a vote in 2018.

States have the power to govern their own elections, but Congress has the power to place rules on it. And the courts often get involved.

Almost every state requires some form of voter registration and many need an identity card to vote, and there are many different versions of absentee ballots and the hours during which people in different states can vote early or on election day.

What is the history of rules about who can vote in US elections?

The voter registration is relatively unique to the US and has a long history of racism. It started in New England in the 1800s, was a major element of Jim Crow in the South, and then saw a huge increase in the early 1900s when states tried to make it harder for immigrants and Jewish and Black Americans to to vote.

What are other countries doing?

Instead of setting up barriers to voting, some countries, such as Australia, need it. People who do not vote get a small fine.

According to the Pew analysis, most countries in the world automatically register voters or require voters to register.

The government makes people pay taxes, why can’t they just register to vote?

The US is slowly moving towards easy and in some countries automatic registration, but the rules still differ according to the state. In the 1990s, Congress under President Bill Clinton approved a reform that linked voter registration to the DMV. Most now have some form of online registration. Many states allow voter registration on the same day, but in others there are deadlines. North Dakota has no voter registration at all.

Is there an effort in Congress to change things on a national level?

Yes. House Democrats have passed a comprehensive bill that includes a number of vote reforms, including automatic national voter registration. Currently, 18 states and Washington, DC, have automatic registration. The expansion nationwide could require 50 million Americans, according to the Brennan Center.

The bill will do much more, including an end to partisan gerrymandering, in which parties draw congressional lines to protect their incumbents and set a period of two weeks before the early vote and more.

But it would take a majority – 60 votes – to overcome a promised GOP filibuster in the Senate. Democrats have suggested that Senate rules be changed specifically for this bill, but it is not clear that all Democrats will support the rule change.

Would universal voting by mail or general voter registration automatically help Democrats?

Clearly, Democrats are trying to make it easier for people to vote, and Republicans are generally trying to make it harder. It tells you a lot about the political calculus here. But it is also true that in 2020, Republicans did not lose every Senate race or any legislative state when the turnout was through the roof.

A 538 analysis suggests that expanding access does not necessarily help one party or another. But most of this comes before Trump has spewed the fantasies of election fraud and questioned by mail for the entire 2020 election, which put Republicans out of practice – even though he himself called for an absent vote in Florida again this year.

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