Biden signs voting order
Plan unveiled during civil rights ceremony
WASHINGTON — A new executive order from President Joe Biden directs federal agencies to take a series of steps to promote voting access, a move that comes as congressional Democrats press for a sweeping voting and elections bill to counter efforts to restrict voting access.
His plan was announced during a recorded address on the 56th commemoration of “Bloody Sunday,” the 1965 incident in which some 600 civil rights activists were viciously beaten by state troopers as they marched for voting rights in Selma, Ala.
“Every eligible voter should be able to vote and have it counted,” Mr. Biden said in his remarks to Sunday’s Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast. “If you have the best ideas, you have nothing to hide. Let the people vote.”
Mr. Biden’s order includes several modest provisions. It directs federal agencies to expand access to voter registration and election information; calls on the heads of agencies to come up with plans to give federal employees time off to vote or volunteer as nonpartisan poll workers; and pushes an
overhaul of the government’s Vote.gov website.
Some states have programs to automatically register eligible Americans to vote, unless they opt out. Under the Trump administration, some federal agencies refused to share the data that would allow states to automatically register voters this way. Mr. Biden’s executive order instructs federal agencies to relax that policy.
The order also aims to expand access to voting among active-duty members of the military and to all eligible federally incarcerated people.
And it establishes a steering group on Native American voting rights tasked with producing recommendations by next year on expanding voter outreach and turnout among Native American communities.
Democrats are attempting to solidify support for House Resolution 1, which touches on virtually every aspect of the electoral process. It was approved Wednesday on a near party-line vote, 220-210.
The voting rights bill includes provisions to restrict partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts, strike down hurdles to voting, and bring transparency to a campaign finance system that allows wealthy donors to anonymously bankroll political causes.
Democrats say the bill will help stifle voter suppression attempts, helping to ensure every American can exercise their right to vote, while Republicans have sought to cast the bill as unwanted federal interference in states’ authority to conduct their own elections.
The bill’s fate is far from certain in the closely divided Senate. Conservative groups have undertaken a $5 million campaign to persuade moderate Senate Democrats to oppose rule changes needed to pass the measure.
Dozens of GOP- controlled state legislatures, meanwhile, are considering sweeping new laws to restrict voting options ahead of the 2022 midterms.
With his executive order, Mr. Biden is looking to turn the spotlight on the issue and is using the somber commemoration of Bloody Sunday to make the case that much is at stake.
Bloody Sunday proved to be a turning point in the civil rights movement that led to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Similarly, Mr. Biden is hoping the Jan. 6 sacking of the U.S. Capitol will prove to be a clarion call for Congress to take action to improve voter protections.
“In 2020, with our very democracy on the line — even in the midst of a pandemic — more Americans voted than ever before,” Mr. Biden said. “Yet instead of celebrating this powerful demonstration of voting, we saw an unprecedented insurrection on our Capitol ... a never-before-seen effort to ignore, undermine and undo the will of the people.”
Mr. Biden’s remarks also paid tribute to late civil rights giants the Rev. C.T. Vivian, the Rev. Joseph Lowery and Rep. John Lewis.