United States: Senate examines crucial question of access to the vote

Published on : 06/22/2021 – 23:08

The US Senate tackles, Tuesday, June 22, the right to vote and the different modes of access to the ballot box, a subject that deeply divides Republicans and Democrats.

The procedural vote for this electoral reform project, initiated by the Democrats, is expected around 5.30 p.m. (9.30 p.m. GMT), and its outcome is already known. The narrow Democratic majority and the opposition of Republicans in effect guarantee the failure of this vote, which is supposed to simply allow the opening of debates on the substance of the reform.

Republicans and Democrats agree on the need to change the electoral system, but in opposite ways. The former seek to restrict voting under the pretext of making it safer, the latter to broaden it.

A bill that attacks the initiatives of the Republican States

Joe Biden has made it a priority, saying he wants to counter the “absolutely unprecedented” attacks on the right to vote of minorities, carried out according to him by the Republicans. Since the start of the year, some fifteen Republican-led states have in fact enacted electoral laws aimed, they say, at preventing alleged electoral fraud, referring to the 2020 presidential election.

A speech inherited from Donald Trump, who still has not explicitly recognized the victory of Joe Biden, five months after leaving the White House. “The 2020 presidential election was rigged!” He wrote on Tuesday.

“Democracy is in danger here in America,” hammered the White House in a statement on Tuesday. Sign of the importance that the Biden administration attaches to this initiative, it is its vice-president Kamala Harris who chaired Tuesday afternoon the meeting leading to the vote.

Extended registration on the lists, advance voting guaranteed …

The gigantic electoral reform proposed by the Democrats (“For the People Act”) provides in particular to widen the possibilities of registering on the electoral rolls and to oblige the States to allow advance polls.

Only one Democratic senator, Conservative Joe Manchin, opposed certain points. After several days of negotiations, Democrats announced on Tuesday afternoon an agreement around his proposals, which include automatic registration on the electoral rolls on demand for a driver’s license, or on election day itself.

This text also includes a point that is more difficult to convey to his party: the obligation for voters to present proof of identity when they vote. A measure denounced by some as discriminatory in this country where identity cards are not compulsory.

With AFP