He’s trying to get ahead of a sweeping effort by Republicans state lawmakers across the country to INCREASE voter suppression laws to restrict voting after Donald Trump lost to Biden….
Doing this on this day has a historical significance…..
“Today, on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, I am signing an executive order to make it easier for eligible voters to register to vote and improve access to voting,” Biden said Sunday in a videotaped address to the Martin and Coretta Scott King Unity Breakfast. “Every eligible voter should be able to vote and have that vote counted. If you have the best ideas, you have nothing to hide. Let the people vote.”…
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The order directs federal agencies to develop a strategic plan for promoting voter registration and participation, including potentially applying to be a state-designated voter registration agency and providing recommendations on leave for federal employees to vote or to serve as poll workers….
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The order also aims to expand access to voting among active-duty members of the military as well as to all eligible federally incarcerated people….
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Biden’s move comes days after the House passed expansive legislationto create uniform national voting standards, overhaul campaign finance laws and outlaw partisan redistricting. The measure, H.R. 1, largely mirrors a bill passed by the chamber two years ago. But it has faced fierce Republican attacks that threaten to stop it cold in the Senate.
The bill’s voting provisions would guarantee no-excuse mail voting and at least 15 days of early voting for federal elections; require states to use their government records to automatically register citizens to vote; restore voting rights to felons who have completed their prison sentences; and mandate the use of paper ballots….
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In his remarks Sunday, Biden noted that in 2020, even with the obstacles presented by the coronavirus pandemic, “more Americans voted than ever before.”
But he also warned that the country is witnessing a “never-before-seen effort to ignore, undermine and undo the will of the people.” He cited both the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob as well as the 250 bills introduced by lawmakers in 43 states this legislative session aimed at making it more difficult to vote….
Harry Enten: “Numerous Republican state legislatures are trying to pass new voter restriction legislation (e.g. limiting absentee and early voting). Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress are trying to pass laws that expand access to the ballot box.”
“The moves from both camps come after an election with record turnout in which there were multiple false charges of fraud by prominent Republicans like former President Donald Trump.”
“But we should be clear: high turnout had little to do with why Trump ended up being a one-term president. Trump lost because he was an unusually unpopular president, and he likely would have been defeated if turnout looked like it did in 2016.”