In the present day, President Biden is touring to Selma, Alabama to commemorate the 58th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday. In 1965, John Lewis and different civil rights leaders led peaceable protestors demanding voting rights in a march throughout the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the place they had been brutally overwhelmed by state troopers. The Nation’s response to Bloody Sunday helped produce the lengthy overdue landmark Voting Rights Act, which put in place key protections towards racial discrimination in voting and sought to offer equal entry to the poll for each American.
Since their first days in workplace, President Biden and Vice President Harris have prioritized strengthening our democracy and defending the sacred proper to vote in free, truthful, and safe elections. Unconscionably, state legislatures throughout the nation have enacted and proceed to introduce legal guidelines that make it more durable to vote and undermine the desire of the individuals. Congress should restore the protections of the Voting Rights Act and take further steps to make sure entry to the poll field by passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Development Act and the Freedom to Vote Act—it’s the one means we are able to absolutely safe the correct to vote in each state.
In December 2022, President Biden signed into legislation the Electoral Depend Reform Act, which establishes clear tips for our system of certifying and counting electoral votes for President and Vice President, to protect the desire of the individuals and to guard towards the kind of makes an attempt to overturn our elections that led to the January 6 rebellion. Congress should apply the identical braveness and conviction that it took to safe these reforms to passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Development Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. President Biden helps eliminating the filibuster to forestall a minority of Senators from blocking motion on voting rights—in the case of defending majority rule in America, the bulk ought to rule in the US Senate.
Within the meantime, the Biden-Harris Administration stays dedicated to utilizing each device at its disposal to guard the correct to vote. On March 7, 2021, the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, President Biden signed an government order directing an all-of-government effort to advertise entry to voting. As beforehand outlined, companies proceed leveraging their sources to offer Individuals with entry to voter registration companies and nonpartisan details about elections:
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers (USCIS). The power to vote is each a proper and a duty that comes with U.S. citizenship. The Division of Homeland Safety’s USCIS strives to make sure all newly naturalized residents perceive this privilege and have the chance to register to vote following their naturalization ceremony. To enhance and strengthen these efforts, USCIS will concern up to date coverage steerage to its 88 area workplaces to standardize and elevate up finest practices for voter registration companies, together with offering a transparent roadmap for efficiently companion with state and native election administration officers and nonpartisan organizations to offer voter registration functions to all new Individuals. In Fiscal Yr 2022, USCIS administered the Oath of Allegiance for 967,400 new Individuals, throughout greater than 20,000 naturalization ceremonies. Voter registration data and extra sources for newly naturalized Individuals can be found on the USCIS web site for New U.S. Residents.
- Division of Training. By the top of March, the Division of Training will use StudentAid.gov to assist join debtors to voter registration companies by linking to vote.gov. StudentAid.gov is the Division’s major buyer web site about postsecondary schooling. With greater than 355 million visits in 2022, StudentAid.gov offers vital data and instruments for college kids, households, and debtors as they put together and plan for faculty, apply for and obtain federal scholar support, and repay scholar loans. Constructing off steerage issued in April 2022, the Division continues to encourage schools and profession faculties to make good-faith efforts to register college students to vote.
- Division of Agriculture. The Division of Agriculture (USDA) will improve efforts to advertise entry to voting by encouraging all USDA company area workplaces to make nonpartisan details about voter registration accessible in customer support areas, which exist throughout the nation in 1000’s of rural, suburban, and concrete communities.
- Indian Well being Service. The Indian Well being Service (IHS) will promote entry to voting in Indian Nation by piloting high-quality voter registration companies to sufferers throughout 5 IHS amenities by the top 2023.
- Basic Providers Administration. Vote.gov is now accessible in twelve languages, with extra translations coming on-line quickly, and GSA will proceed working to reinforce the web site to make it simpler for Individuals to register to vote and acquire nonpartisan details about voting.
- Division of Treasury. Along with supporting the third-party Volunteer Earnings Tax Help (VITA) companions in providing voter registration companies to people who search tax help, Treasury is now offering details about voter registration within the directions for IRS Kind 1040 and in unsolicited mail items delivered to roughly 900,000 Individuals who obtain Social Safety Advantages, Railroad Pension advantages, and federal retirement advantages.
- Division of the Inside. In 1993, Congress handed the Nationwide Voter Registration Act, which approved states to request that federal companies present voter registration companies. For almost 30 years, no federal company was designated as a voter registration company. Final 12 months, the Division of the Inside grew to become the primary company to be designated as voter registration company when two Bureau of Indian Training-operated post-secondary establishments—Haskell Indian Nations College in Kansas and the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in New Mexico—fashioned partnerships with state election authorities to offer the chance to register to vote. Moreover, as a result of federal public lands are one of the vital widespread contact factors between the federal authorities and the American individuals, the Division will discover choices to increase entry to voter registration on public lands throughout the nation.
- Division of Justice. Selling voting entry and schooling is a crucial a part of making ready people who’re exiting the legal justice system for a profitable return to society, as a result of encouraging full citizenship helps make them stakeholders within the communities to which they return. The Division has developed a program to coach people about their voting rights, particular to every state and territory. The Division can also be selling entry to voting for individuals who stay eligible to vote whereas in federal custody, together with by putting in procedures to facilitate voter registration and voting.
- Division of Protection. The Federal Voting Help Program, which works to make sure Service members and abroad residents have entry to voting, will make the Federal Publish Card Utility (FPCA) for voter registration or poll request and the Federal Write-in Absentee Poll (FWAB) accessible in seven languages. Moreover, in February 2023, the Division started the Efficient Absentee Techniques for Elections (EASE) grant program to offer state and native election workplaces with funding to extend the share of ballots efficiently returned by Uniformed and Abroad Residents Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) voters, scale back the failure charges for UOCAVA voters, and set up and preserve a pipeline of concepts, strategies, and finest practices of election officers and the companies they supply for UOCAVA voters.
- Division of State. Journey.state.gov now displays up-to-date data on absentee voting and registration for U.S. residents overseas. This coming 12 months, the Division will promote Vote.gov within the ready rooms of its 26 public passport companies.
###
