After weeks of Texas Democrats trying to prevent a vote on an election integrity bill for being “racist,” it was unsuccessful, with the bill passing in the Senate. They had fled to Washington D.C and abandoned their duties as elected officials to throw publicized temper tantrums. But most of them came back to the Texas Senate and passed a slightly revised version of the Senate bill.
Democrats are hitting back with round 2 including Rev. Al Sharpton. He hit the stage this past weekend during a voting rights rally to tell President Biden that supporters of the filibuster are “stabbing” the Black community in the back. Sharpton has been pushing filibuster reform in order to pass the ‘John Lewis Voting Rights Act.’ He said it is the only way to counter state voting reform laws that target Black and Brown communities. While the John Lewis Voting Rights Act passed in the House 212-212, it has slim chances of surviving the Senate filibuster.
Sharpton argued that if Manchin and the others can “carve around the filibuster to confirm Supreme Court judges for President Trump” then they can carve around the filibuster to bring voter rights to President Biden.
“President Biden met with some of the civil rights leaders and we reminded him…You said the night you won that Black America had your back and that you were going to have Black America’s back. Well, Mr. President, they’re stabbing us in the back. In 49 states, they’ve got their knives out stabbing us in the back,” Sharpton said.
Republicans, however, have argued that these increased regulations are not racist as they apply to everyone and are meant to secure voting elections.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw explained some sections of the bill in a Twitter thread and how they led to election protection. The provisions include voter ID verification for mail-in ballots in line with in-person voting, banning paid ballot harvesting, setting uniform voting times to reduce confusion while expanding hours on the weekend, allowing poll watchers to observe election workers for transparency, and verifying the authenticity of mail-in ballots.
The bill would require those assisting voters with filling out their ballots to also fill out an identification form as well as an end on the “temporary, emergency measures” like drive-thru voting and the 24-hour early voting.
No part of this bill targets skin color or “suppresses” voters of a specific race, but Democrats have continued to push the misinformation that it does. They even tried to claim that Republicans were lying about what the bill was actually about, despite GOP members citing from actual documents.
And now, Sharpton, along with many other voting rights activists, has repeatedly called on Manchin to weaken or abolish the filibuster itself. Manchin, however, has shared in an April op-ed that he “under no circumstance” will vote to weaken or eliminate the filibuster.
Democrats have continued to push for voting laws that get the election results they want. Even if it means trying to take away the rights of the state.
