Biden to sign executive order expanding access to voting

Biden to sign executive order expanding access to voting

by
The change comes just three days after the House of Representatives approved HR1, a comprehensive electoral and ethics package that aims to guarantee voting rights, with provisions that expand early and postal voting, restoring voting rights to ex- criminals and facilitating electoral registration for eligible Americans.

Sunday’s order directs the heads of all federal agencies to submit proposals to their respective agencies to promote electoral registration and participation in 200 days, while assisting states in electoral registration under the National Electoral Registration Law. In addition, the order would instruct the General Services Administration to modernize the federal government’s Vote.gov portal.

“The president’s commitment to democracy includes making it easier and equitable for all eligible Americans to exercise their fundamental right to vote,” a government official told reporters on Saturday, adding that Sunday’s executive order would “leverage federal government resources to expand citizens. opportunities to register to vote and to get to know and participate in the electoral process. “

Biden is expected to announce the order during virtual comments at the Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast, an annual event that celebrates “Bloody Sunday”, where African-American protesters demanding the right to vote were brutally beaten by police as they crossed the Edmund bridge Pettus in Selma, Alabama.

House approves comprehensive electoral bill that would thwart Republican Party efforts to restrict voter access

“For federal agencies, many of them have footprints across the country, with offices where people, outside the context of a pandemic, can come in and look for specific services,” the official told reporters on Saturday. We want to make sure that we can maximize the use of this type of walk-in service and make it a place where people can also register to vote – the goal is to make registration to vote and access to vote as easy as possible. “

The executive order also expands voter access and registration efforts to communities often overlooked in reach, including the disabled, the military serving abroad and prisoners.

Still, much of the government’s hope for voter protection lies in legislation like HR1. In February, state lawmakers in 43 states had submitted more than 250 bills with restrictive voting clauses, according to a count by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.
Republican lawmakers across the country seek to remove governors and officials from emergency electoral powers

The official acknowledged on Saturday that in many cases the president has no authority to overturn such provisions at the state level, recognizing that laws such as the recently passed by the Republican Party-controlled Georgia State House, which limits early voting, would require an act Congress.

“The president has no executive authority to prevent a state from taking such action,” they said. “That would require Congressional action – so this executive order uses all the authority that the president has to take the necessary steps to make voter registration and voter access easy and straightforward for people, and it also uses the public’s aggressive pulpit. president to send a message to all states and all voters about the importance of democracy ”.

.Source