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Protestants in Miami: "Protect our vote"
Photo: CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH / EPA
Tens of thousands of people demonstrated on Saturday in Washington, Miami, Houston, Atlanta and other US cities against the controversial electoral reforms in some Republican-ruled states.
During a march from the White House to the Capitol, the participants carried posters with slogans such as "Voting rights for all" and "Your vote counts".
You see the reforms as the intention to make voting more difficult for members of minorities.
The organizers of the protests criticize the reforms as "racist, anti-democratic laws designed to suppress voters" and demand that Congress stop them through federal law.
The date for the demonstration was chosen deliberately: on August 28, 1963, the March on Washington took place, during which Martin Luther King gave his famous speech "I have a dream" in front of more than 250,000 people, in which he gave African-Americans equal civil rights demanded.
Ex-President Donald Trump's Republicans have either decided to tighten the electoral law or are planning reforms in a number of states they control.
Among other things, they restrict postal votes and tighten the requirement for identification when voting.
The conservatives justify this with the alleged susceptibility to fraud in the elections - an echo of Trump's often refuted accusations of fraud with a view to the presidential election on November 3rd.
The Democrats accuse the Republicans, on the other hand, of trying to make voting more difficult for minorities such as African Americans.
These usually vote mostly for Democrats.
Since January, at least 18 states have passed a total of 30 new restrictive electoral laws.
Dozens more are currently being discussed, according to the non-profit policy institute Brennan Center for Justice.
The Democrats want to stop this through federal law.
However, their reform is unlikely to pass through the second chamber, the Senate.
Here they would need the votes of at least ten Republican senators.
sbo / afp