Jennifer VenisWednesday 9 June 2021
Since high-profile Republicans warned that mail-in voting had to be limited for the party to ever win the presidency again, hundreds of restrictive bills have been introduced across state legislatures. But rights advocates are battling voter suppression and corporate America is being pulled into the fight.
Eight years ago, the United States Supreme Court made it easier for state legislatures to pass discriminatory voting laws. In the majority opinion for
Shelby County v Holder, Chief Justice Roberts argued that the provision of the Voting Rights Act requiring states with a history of entrenched racial discrimination to seek judicial or government approval for any voting reform was no longer needed.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WV, speaks to the press near the Senate subway following a vote in the Senate impeachment trial that acquitted President Donald Trump of all charges on February 5, 2020, in Washington, D.C. | Getty Images/Sarah Silbiger
One of the congressional Democratsâ legislative proposals, H.R. 1, has run into a significant roadblock as one of the most influential Democrats in the U.S. Senate has announced that he will vote against the legislation.
In an op-ed for The Charleston Gazette-Mail Sunday, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced that he would vote against the For the People Act, which Democrats bill as a necessary measure to protect the right to vote.
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), a key ally of Donald Trump, had a message on Sunday morning about what he thinks the former president should do now. Sen. Blunt's suggestion that