March 28, 2024

Biden Promotes Suffrage Improvements |  Offline America |  DW

Biden Promotes Suffrage Improvements | Offline America | DW

The US President urged that “every eligible voter must be able to vote.” Joe Biden signed an order directing several federal agencies to advocate for expansion and facilitation of voting. His executive order directs federal agencies to submit plans within 200 days that outline steps to expand voter registration and distribute electoral information to voters.

Biden also promoted the new election law, which was passed by the House of Representatives on Wednesday. The “badly needed” law will “repair and consolidate democracy.” Biden also warned of the ongoing efforts by parliaments in several US states to undermine the election law.

In the United States, the right to vote is mostly a matter of the states. In principle, every US citizen who has reached the age of 18 is eligible to vote. Since the United States does not have a reporting system, registration is required to vote in an election.

The registration and the associated identification proof are organized differently in each country. Time and time again, there is criticism of appropriate restrictive regulations to make it more difficult for some population groups to exercise their right to vote.

HR1 Election Law

The Democrats had submitted a bill to the House of Representatives in the middle of the week, through which they want to break the electoral system they have observed. The most important point of the HR1 Electoral Law is that US citizens should automatically register for future elections. Only those who definitely do not want to vote should become activists.

However, the plans do not win much approval from Republicans. They are pursuing a strategy of fewer polling stations in those districts where many members of minorities live, establishing tactical constituencies, stricter identification requirements, and even greater obstacles to voter registration. Without these regulations, electoral fraud is the Republican slogan. So far it is uncertain whether the Senate will approve the Democrats bill.

Biden remembers Bloody Sunday

The President chose a symbolic date for the campaign to improve the electoral law, the 56th anniversary of the protest recorded in US history as “Bloody Sunday”. In 1965, black activists were severely beaten on a bridge while walking to Salma, in southern Alabama. They included a civil rights activist and later Democratic congressman John Lewis. “Let us remember all of our predecessors as a bridge to our history so that we don’t forget their pain,” Biden said in a pre-recorded video message. They are also a “bridge to our future so that we never lose hope.”

Pictures of the protest crackdown in Salma marked a turning point in the United States. A few months later, Congress passed a law guaranteeing all African Americans the right to vote and removing barriers to voting.

qu / fab (dpa, rtr, ap)