Voting Rights Archives

Schumer Sets Up Vote For Senate Rule Change To Pass Voting Rights Legislation

On Monday morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced in a letter to colleagues that the Senate will vote on changing the rules to pass voting rights legislation if Republicans block a vote to open debate by Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 17. The threat to nuke the filibuster comes at the beginning of a critical midterm election year for the Democratic Party, where control of both houses of Congress is at stake.

Decoding the Moves of Sen. Joe Manchin

Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from the very Republican state of West Virginia, may seem to be one of the last, if only, conservative-esque, centrist Democrats left in Congress. He seems to oppose many Democratic priorities, such as on abortion, increasing the minimum wage, and gun control, and always tries to act in a bipartisan way. Lately, he voiced his opposition to passing the For the People Act, a large, sweeping Democrat-backed voting rights reformed package also known as H.R. 1 or S. 1. However, despite this, he isn’t nearly as conservative or as Republican-friendly as he may first seem.

Texas Dems Defeat GOP Voter Suppression Bill For Now

In a stunning turn of events, members of the Democratic caucus of the Texas House of Representatives staged a dramatic walkout in a last-ditch effort to stop the Republican Party from passing one of the most severe voter suppression bills in the U.S. The walkout by all 67 Democrats in the state House meant that the Republican Party wouldn’t be able to form a 100-member quorum in the 150-member body, meaning that the bill was not able to be passed before the end of this legislative session, which ended on May 30.

Census Bureau Announces New Population Estimates

The U.S. Census Bureau finally released its long-awaited population estimates from the 2020 Census on Monday. According to the Census Bureau, as of 2020, the U.S. population was estimated to be 331,449,281, an increase of about 22.7 million or 7.4 percent from 2010, when the previous census was taken. The bureau has also announced which states will gain or lose seats in the House (and thus the Electoral College), so let’s take a deeper dive.

Voting Rights and How America’s Pastime Got Pulled Into Politics

Major companies have come out in criticism of Georgia’s new voter-suppression law that makes it harder to vote, especially in the urban areas. As companies headquartered in Georgia like Coca-Cola and Delta slammed the law for being “based on a lie” and President Joe Biden calling the law “Jim Crow on steroids,” Major League Baseball has chosen to move this season’s All-Star Game out of Atlanta, resulting in Republicans, who have rallied against “cancel culture,” calling on people to boycott MLB.

Georgia GOP Passes Sweeping Voter Suppression Bill

Georgia Republicans, who currently hold a majority in that state’s legislature and the governorship (despite Democrats winning statewide on the presidential level and having both U.S. Senate seats), passed a disgraceful bill Thursday which would substantially restrict voting rights and make it far more difficult for people to vote, especially to those living in cities and for communities of color (both groups which vote overwhelmingly Democratic).

House Passes Landmark Sweeping Voting Rights Bill

The Democratic-controlled House passed the For the People Act of 2021 on Wednesday, also known as H.R. 1. This is a major, sweeping election reform bill that will expand voting rights, limit gerrymandering, change campaign finance laws to reduce the influence of financial lobbying, create a public financing option for congressional campaigns and create new ethics rules for officeholders. Unfortunately, it faces an uphill battle in the Senate.

SCOTUS Rejects Texas Suit Trying to Nullify Election

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a lawsuit led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton which sought to nullify the election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, effectively trying to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters and overturn the results of a fair, free election which found no evidence of voter fraud. The rejection effectively puts a rest to the shameless attempt by the Trump wing of the GOP to subvert the election.

Texas GOP Lawsuit To Invalidate Millions of Votes Is Ludicrous

On December 8, 2020, the Republican Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court alleging that Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Michigan violated federal law by changing election law prior to the election, claiming that voter fraud would be “undetectable.” The lawsuit is basically asking the Supreme Court to disenfranchise millions of voters in battleground states and overturn the results of a fair, free election with no evidence of voter fraud.

SCOTUS Denies Pennsylvania GOP to Overturn Certification

In just one sentence, “[t]he application for injunctive relief presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied,” the Supreme Court of the United States on Tuesday denied Pennsylvania Republicans’ request to overturn the results of the presidential election in Pennsylvania, where President-Elect Joe Biden won by 1.2 percent.

William Barr Breaks With Election Fraud Claims

President Trump’s fantastical election fraud claims received yet another credibility blow Tuesday. Attorney General William Barr, a staunch supporter of the President, admitted Tuesday that the Department of Justice (DOJ), which he heads, found no instances of significant voter fraud. This comes as the Trump campaign has faced defeat after defeat in court over vain and longshot attempts to overturn the results of a legitimate, fair election. Republican governors and secretaries of states, including in Arizona and Georgia, have all certified their results for President-Elect Joe Biden.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Dismisses Another GOP Lawsuit

On Saturday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed yet another Republican-led lawsuit trying to invalidate all votes cast by mail in the state. All seven judges in the court unanimously voted to throw out the lawsuit brought by Rep. Mike Kelly and other top-level Republicans. With this lawsuit loss, the Trump campaign has lost 39 election-related lawsuits. The President, despite losing the election, has so far refused to concede, despite already approving the transition process to a Biden administration.

‘Rigged Election’ Claims Raise Concerns From Georgia GOP

The Georgia U.S. Senate runoff elections will decide control of the United States Senate of the 117th Congress. Currently, the GOP sits at 50 seats in the Senate, while the Democrats are at 48. To win a majority, Democrats must win both seats in the upcoming runoff elections. It isn’t a stretch to say that this runoff will be a very, very important election. Yet, President Trump’s comments about the 2020 election being “rigged” is causing concern for many Republicans, especially the Georgia GOP.

Trump Makes Last-Ditch Effort To Overturn Election

There is no doubt about it: President-Elect Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election fair and square. Yet, make no mistake: President Donald Trump continues to deny the election results, refusing to concede the election. He has filed lawsuit after lawsuit to try and get courts to throw out hundreds of thousands of legally cast ballots and tried to attempt to change the results of the election so much that it may amount to a coup.

Trump & GOP Threatening to Undermine Election Legitimacy

Donald Trump and the Republican Party are trying to undermine election legitimacy and the integrity of the election, particularly in key battleground states. His words and actions indicate a total disregard of current election systems, which have worked well for decades, as well as a blatant disregard of American democracy.

President Trump is Sabotaging the US Postal Service

As discussed in a previous post, the U.S. Postal Service plays a hugely important role in the United States’ economy and was crucial to the founding of a nation. However, President Trump has been politicizing the Postal Service, cutting funding from it at its most crucial time, and trying to make the service worse, all ahead of the 2020 elections.

Trump’s War Against Mail-In Voting

President Trump and his reelection campaign have been getting increasingly vocal against mail-in voting, and many Republicans alike are vehemently opposed to it. In today’s post, let’s find out more about Donald Trump’s war against mail-in ballots and take a look at why he might be so against them.

Racism Uncovered (Part 5): The Civil Rights Movement, Part II

Part 5: Civil Rights Movement, Part II

In this series, Racism in America, I aim to discuss the history of the United States with a focus on the topic of racism, both systemic and individual racism. Through this series, I hope to play a part in fighting the issue of racism that still persists in our society today. This series was inspired by the Black Lives Matter protest movement.

Last time in this series, we discussed the Civil Rights Movement up until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Today, we will look at all the events of the Civil Rights Movement after the act was passed, and discuss some implications of how the movement reshaped the issue of race in the United States.

Racism Uncovered (Part 4): The Civil Rights Movement, Part I

Part 4: Civil Rights Movement, Part I

Continuing on from the previous post in this series, today we will be taking a closer look at the Civil Rights Movement. The movement was a fight by Black Americans to gain equal treatment under the law and desegregate the country. Having endured segregation and harsh Jim Crow laws for many years, an uprising occurred during the 1950s and ’60s, beginning a fight for equality and eventually ending in victory.

Continue reading “Racism Uncovered (Part 4): The Civil Rights Movement, Part I”

Racism Uncovered (Part 3): Reconstruction and the Jim Crow Laws Era

Part 3: Reconstruction

In the previous post in this series, we talked about the Civil War and also briefly Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. However, despite efforts to reintegrate former slaves (and Black people) back into society after abolition via the aforementioned amendments, it was way easier said than done.

Why the Electoral College Should Be Abolished

I was recently inspired by an old video from CGP Grey talking about the Electoral College, and so I thought I might make a post about it. Today, I will be discussing the reasons why I believe the Electoral College should be abolished and replaced.

A Better Voting Method: Ranked-Choice Voting

Ranked-choice voting (also known as instant-runoff voting) is a common alternative to plurality first-past-the-post voting, where the candidate who gets the most votes win, regardless of win percentage. This system of election is used to elect the members of Congress in Maine, to elect the Australian House of Representatives, the Presidents of Ireland and India, and in many local elections (New York City will start using this voting method for local offices starting 2021). The Academy Awards are also chosen with this form of voting.