The Democratic majority in the US Senate announced Tuesday, November 2 that it would present a bill facilitating access to the vote for minorities, threatened according to it in several conservative states, despite opposition from Republicans which makes its adoption impossible.
This text, named after the icon of civil rights and democratic parliamentarian who died in 2020, John Lewis, aims to cancel measures, often very technical, adopted this year by at least 19 states to limit access to the ballot boxes for minorities. , especially African Americans who vote majority Democrats, according to the think tank Brennan Center for Justice.
Read alsoUnited States: green light for restrictive electoral laws in Arizona
Adopted in August by the House of Representatives, the text will be presented on Wednesday in the Senate where the Democrats have a fragile majority, but it has no chance of being approved by the necessary majority of 60 elected officials. The Republican opposition should therefore, for the third time, refuse to allow the text to be debated.
"We cannot force a debate if at least ten Republicans do not join us and vote to let the Senate do its job on this very important and vital issue,"
said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer in the 'hemicycle.
Obligation to have an address to register on the electoral rolls, ban on giving food or drink to voters queuing in front of a polling station, ban on voting on accessible sites without leaving your car: here are some of them provisions of the 30 or so restrictive electoral laws adopted across the country.
This process has accelerated in Republican states against the backdrop of unproven accusations of massive electoral fraud hammered out by Donald Trump since the November 2020 presidential election.
Read also United States: Republicans seek to limit the exercise of the right to vote
"The countdown is on in the Senate to stop these attacks,"
warned Chuck Schumer. The conduct of elections is managed locally in the United States and Republicans consider that Congress is overstepping its powers in deciding how the elections are to be conducted. Requiring photo identification to vote is common sense, they argue.
Only the Republican Senator from Alaska, Lisa Murkowski, announced his support for the text, saying that
“all Americans deserve an equal chance to participate in our electoral system”
.
It has been recognized by the National Congress of Native Americans (NCAI), the largest Native American organization.
“Native Americans and Alaskan tribes face many of the biggest barriers to voting,”
NCAI's Mark Macarro said in a statement.