Tuesday, January 11, 2022

PBS NewsHour on voting rights

I last covered voting rights in Colbert and Klobuchar on the insurrection one year later, where Senator Amy Klobuchar stressed the importance of passing voting rights legislation. PBS NewsHour covered the topic last night, beginning with Democrats make push for voting rights legislation in Congress.

U.S. senators returned to work in Washington, D.C. Monday as Democrats launched their most concerted push yet on voting legislation. Lisa Desjardins joins Judy Woodruff to discuss voting rights, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, the Freedom to Vote Act and more.
It looks like the Republicans and Democrats in the Senate are at least trying to reach a deal involving the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, the Freedom to Vote Act, and another piece of election legislation, the Electoral Count Act. I'm with Chuck Schumer on this one; all of them need to be passed, not just the Electoral Count Act, the ambiguity of which ended up being exploited by The Former Guy as the basis of his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

PBS NewsHour continued the conversation in Tamara Keith and Lisa Lerer on the political stakes of voting rights.

NPR’s Tamara Keith and The New York Times Lisa Lerer join Judy Woodruff to discuss the latest political news, including why Democrats are pushing voting rights legislation now, how Republicans have shifted thinking on voting rights and the prospects of bridging political divides.
As I keep writing about awards shows, most recently for the Golden Globes, electorates matter. The conflict over voting rights includes the ability for laws to affect the composition of the electorate with inaction on the federal level allowing action on the state level to restrict the electorate, while passing these bills will allow for an expanded electorate. I'm in favor of the latter.

Also, I'm getting tired of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema being unwilling to change the filibuster rules for voting rights legislation. They may support the bills, but if they can't cut off debate, then the legislation won't pass. I wonder if they're trying to have their cake and eat it, too.

I'm sure I'll have more on voting rights as the story develops. Stay tuned.

No comments:

Post a Comment