Politico Tag

Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott is insisting that his Secretary of State’s decision to audit the 2020 election results in several counties is not entirely due to former President Trump’s recent call to “get to the bottom of the 2020 election scam!” Facing questions after a much-criticized audit in Maricopa County, Arizona simply reaffirmed Biden’s victory there - and by an even greater margin than previous thought - Governor Abbott defended Texas’s decision to proceed with its own audits in broad civic terms: “Why

Democratic Leadership in the House of Representatives and the Senate are scrambling to pull off separate but related legislative gambits before new voting districts are drawn across the country, but many are doubtful that either chamber’s plans will come to fruition. In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi hopes to persuade her caucus to approve some version of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act in the next few weeks - a bill to restore federal preclearance powers on state voting laws, which might have

In a recently published op-ed in the Washington Post, current US Attorney General Merrick Garland has called on Congress to advance voting rights legislation. Many legal tools to enforce federal voting laws and protect against voter suppression were stripped from the Department of Justice, which Garland heads, following a 2013 Supreme Court decision known as Shelby County v. Holder. Under the current legal conditions, Garland has asserted that “the Justice Department has been left with costly, time-consuming tools that have many of the shortcomings

Senate Democrats are struggling to agree on a way forward for the ambitious voting rights package known as the For The People Act. While the bill has 49 co-sponsors, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) has yet to sign on, and the bill is not expected to receive any Republican support. Some progressives are hopeful that this bill will serve as a catalyst for the end of the filibuster, however both Senators Manchin and Sinema (D-AZ) have publicly opposed such a change to the Senate rules.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are encouraging the Democrats to redirect their energies from the "For the People" Act, a sweeping election reform bill, to the more narrowly focused John Lewis Voting Rights Act.  It is believed that the latter bill may have a better chance of winning support in the Senate.  Additionally, some argue that the more targeted bill is of greater urgency, as congressional districts are due to be redrawn this summer. The smaller bill would restore to the redistricting process