Biden supports in Atlanta changing the Senate rules to promote a reform on the right to vote

By Lauren Egan -

ATLANTA - President Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver a speech Tuesday on the urgency of electoral reform to protect the Republican opposition's attempts to restrict suffrage at the state level.

Congressional Democrats are increasingly prioritizing the protection of the ballot box, and activists are frustrated by the stagnation of this legislation.

Biden will frame the upcoming Senate votes on two major ballot bills - the Voting Freedom Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act - as "a turning point in this nation," according to an excerpt from his comments shared by the White House.

[The House of Representatives passes a law that will protect the right to vote]

“Will we choose democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice?

I know my position.

I will not give in.

I will not be intimidated, ”the president will say.

"I will defend your right to vote and our democracy against all foreign and national enemies."

So the question is: where will the institution of the United States Senate be located?

Biden has been under pressure to more aggressively address the right to vote after a wave of 33 restrictive voting laws, fueled by former President Donald Trump's false claims about the 2020 election results, which were passed last year by more than a dozen state legislatures controlled by the Republican Party.

His speech also comes amid the anxiety of activists who want the White House to play a leadership role in achieving electoral reform.

Biden will deliver his speech at the Atlanta University Center Consortium, the oldest and largest association of historically black colleges and universities.

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He will also lay a wreath in the crypt of Martin Luther King Jr. before visiting the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King used to preach and where Senator Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia, is now pastor.

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Vice President Kamala Harris, who leads the Administration's voting rights efforts, will join Biden in Atlanta.

The trip comes less than a week before a crucial deadline at the Capitol. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, has given Republicans until January 17 - Martin Luther King Jr.Day - to drop their opposition to voting rights legislation, or face a vote on changing the legislative filibuster rule, which states that many of the main rules must be passed with a majority of 

, allowing the minority party to block them.

Biden, who for months after taking office expressed reluctance to modify filibustering, said in an interview with ABC News last month that he would support making an exception "if the only thing that stands between the passage of legislation on the right to vote and non-approval is filibustering ”.

President Joe Biden walks into the Oval Office of the White House after getting off Marine One, Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, in Washington. Patrick Semansky / AP

A White House official noted that in Tuesday's speech Biden will argue that Senate rules have been twisted to allow attacks on the right to vote.

The president, who spent decades serving as a senator before serving as vice president in the Barack Obama administration, will argue in favor of "changing the Senate rules to ensure that this basic right can function again and is restored and defended," he explained. the White House official.

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However, some activists argue that Biden's rhetoric has not translated into a strategy to get the voting rights legislation passed.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Arizona, have said they oppose tampering with filibustering.

Without your votes, Democrats could not change the Senate rules.

A Georgia coalition of influential voting rights groups issued a statement last week warning Biden not to visit the state unless he was prepared to offer a concrete plan to pass voting rights legislation.

“I'm looking for marching orders.

I'm looking for a plan, ”said Nsé Ufot, executive director of the New Georgia Project and its affiliate, the New Georgia Project Action Fund, one of the organizations that issued the statement.

. "

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NAACP President Derrick Johnson recalled that "there has to be action."

“What we want is more the result than the words.

We look for the work that follows the speech, "said Johnson.

Tuesday's remarks will be Biden's second major speech on the right to vote, following a July speech in Philadelphia.

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"The President will advocate vigorously for the protection of the most fundamental American right: the right to vote and have your voice counted in free, fair and secure elections that are not clouded by partisan manipulation," the press secretary explained Monday. of the White House, Jen Psaki, in anticipating Biden's speech.

Some activists have expressed frustration with Biden for not making the right to vote a legislative priority early in his presidency, when he focused more on infrastructure and on his 'Rebuild Better' program, which has yet to be approved by the Senate due to Manchin's opposition.

At least 19 states passed laws making voting difficult last year, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

More restrictive voting laws were enacted nationwide in 2021 than in any other year since the center began monitoring electoral law a decade ago.

In the spring, the Republican-controlled Georgia state legislature passed a law limiting the time voters have to request vote-by-mail, instituting stricter identification requirements, significantly reducing the number of vote-by-mail mailboxes. and prohibits offering food or water to voters waiting in line.

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Biden won Georgia in the 2020 election by less than one percentage point, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to prevail in the state since 1992. Georgia also handed control of the Senate to Democrats with the election of Warnock and Jon Ossoff in January 2021.