Coons and Carper, see that the Freedom to Vote Act passes | Opinion – The News Journal

Charlotte King and Clara S. Licata| Special to the USA TODAY Network

What is the big deal about expanding voter rights? You wouldnt think that legislation making it easier for people to vote would be a problem. Shouldnt every state want its citizens to have a polling place nearby with convenient hours, or the option to vote by mail? The Freedom to Vote Act would guarantee that and more, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the Freedom to Vote Act is a solution in need of a problem.

Is it?According to the Brennan Center for Justice, 19 states have enacted 33 laws limiting, not expanding, voting rights.This is the actual problem. This state legislation reduces the number and hours of in person polling places, limits or eliminates the option to vote by mail or severely limits the number and locations of boxes to return vote by mail ballots, transfers election responsibility from neutral, non-partisan state, county or local officials, to partisan appointees, institutes severe criminal penalties for innocuous election mistakes by local officials, and cements partisan gerrymandering.

These states claim this type of legislation is necessary to prevent fraud.

Federal election infrastructure officials, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council, and the National Secretaries of State issued a joint statement on Nov. 12, 2020 describing the 2020 election as one of the most secure in our countrys history.Despite claims of fraud, more than 60 state and federal judges have found there was no such evidence.The Department of Justice, and FBI cybersecurity teams in place during the last administration found no evidence of fraud. he third Maricopa County Arizona election audit performed by Cyber Ninjas not only found no evidence of fraud, but that President Joe Biden won in that county by more votes than previously counted.

More: No barrier not even the filibuster must stop our obligation to our democracy | Tom Carper

In light of this evidence, isnt the repressive voting legislation being enacted across the country the solution in search of a problem?

Yet, the Freedom to Vote Act was filibustered in the Senate, just like the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. The Freedom to Vote Act contains compromises negotiated by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, that were claimed to have enough support to override a filibuster. When the Act came before the Senate, all Democrats voted in favor of it and all Republicans voted against it. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer changed his vote to a no, a procedural move that will allow the Act to be reconsidered. The 10 votes Manchin claimed to have to override the filibuster never materialized.

The Freedom to Vote Act is the national solution to the problem of the repressive voter legislation being enacted across the country.It will ensure that states do not have to fight this battle individually again and again.

You wouldnt think it should be such a problem to pass a law making it easier for everyone to vote.But it is and the filibuster is the reason.

The filibuster is a relic of the Jim Crow era.According to the Brennan Center, It was used in the 19th century by pro-slavery senators toprotect the interestsof Southern white landowners who depended on slave labor.Filibusters blocked measures such as anti-lynching bills proposed in1922and1935; the Civil Rights Act of 1957; and legislation that would have prohibited poll taxes and outlawed discrimination in employment, housing, and voting.

It is now being used to block expansive voting legislation that would increase access to the polls for black people and people of color, who demographically are now becoming the majority population in this country. But it also will limit white voters access to the polls. As Heather McGee has noted in The Sum of Us, so often practices intended to discriminate against black people and people of color hurt everyone. To make her point she included the words of a white American she interviewed who said, I believe if you dont have your fundamental right of voting, what do you have? You dont have nothin.

During the past four years, our citizens have worked very hard to elect representatives that will expand voting and civil rights, health care and social welfare programs, womens rights and reproductive justice, and programs to protect the environment.Our citizens have canvassed, marched, rallied, sent postcards, letters, emails, and texts, and made phone calls.In 2020, representatives were elected to both houses of the legislative branch and to the executive branch who support these programs.But we still cant get them through Congress because of the filibuster.

If we cant at a minimum ensure voting rights for our citizens, many folks, especially the crucial young voters, are going to be disillusioned.They are going to think, if I have worked this hard and succeeded in winning a majority in the executive and legislative branches, and we couldnt get it done, why bother?The filibuster is only a Senate rule. It is not in the Constitution and it is not a statute.Senate rules can be changed and changing this rule only requires a majority vote, not a vote of 60.The rule must be changed so that Schumer can bring the Act back to the Senate for another vote.

The Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice urges Sen. Tom Carper and Sen. Chris Coons to do everything in their power to ensure that the Freedom to Vote Act passes in the Senate. If that means changing the filibuster, then that is what must be done.

If we lose the right to vote, we lose everything. The future of our country is at stake.

Charlotte King is chair and founder of theSouthern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice

Clara S. Licata is co-chair of theSouthern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice's Legislative-Advocacy Committee.

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Coons and Carper, see that the Freedom to Vote Act passes | Opinion - The News Journal