Thousands of people are demonstrating in the United States capital and in several cities across the country to call for voting rights amid a spate of state-level laws that would impose voting restrictions.
Organizers of the March On For Voting Rights rally held on the anniversary of the historic 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. march in Washington say efforts to restrict access to voting are disproportionately affecting people of color.
In Washington, DC, protesters with “Black Lives Matter” flags and signs calling for federal legislation marched from McPherson Square to the final meeting point on the National Mall, where King made his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech 58 years ago held.
More marches were planned in Phoenix, Miami, Atlanta, and dozens of other US cities.
“We will make history on Saturday by lifting the torch for justice that my father and so many others carried,” said Martin Luther King III, the son of the civil rights leader, who was one of several speakers at the Washington demonstration , DC, was.
“I just feel like we’ve kind of gone backwards,” said Rikkea Harris, a 25-year-old college student who traveled from Colorado with her father, Rickey Harris, to attend the rally, told AFP.
Americans should “do their part to crush all of these electoral suppression laws they are enacting across the country,” added her 65-year-old father.
The marches take place on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic 1963 March on Washington [Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters]
“Attempt to suppress”
US President Joe Biden has spoken out against the recent push in Republican-controlled states to pass laws in July that would restrict electoral access, calling it “an attempt to suppress and undermine the right to vote and fair and free elections.”
Texas and Georgia are among several states that have introduced or passed such laws in the past few months, leading to widespread criticism.
The laws range from requiring a fixed address for registration to banning drive-through voting, which was popular in some states last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
But at the federal level, Biden has promised to defend access to voting.
The Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives passed law Tuesday that would restore parts of historic electoral law that challenged state electoral laws. The Voting Rights Act also required states with a history of voter discrimination obtain federal pre-approval before changing laws.
But the Republicans in the Senate have promised to block the voting rights legislation. The Democrats don’t have enough votes in this Chamber of Congress to break a filibuster rule that requires some GOP support for it to pass.
Covering the Washington, DC rally, Rob Reynolds of Al Jazeera said Senate Republicans said they would use the filibuster to defeat the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which was passed in the House of Representatives this week.
Reynolds said many protesters said on Saturday that if the filibuster would be used to block this law – named after longtime US Congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis, who passed away last year – “then it’s time to do that too.” Abolish filibusters ”.
A protester yells on Jan. [Tom Brenner/Reuters]
“I think this gave us a sense of urgency,” Reverend Al Sharpton told the Associated Press earlier this week about the litigation.
“The Senate is the battlefield now,” Sharpton said. “And the timing clearly couldn’t be better. Everything that matters to us – whether health care, whether student loans, whether educational equality, whether economic relief – none of that can happen if we get fewer votes. “
The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, which tracks voting restrictions in the United States, says that between January 1 and July 14 of this year, at least 18 states passed 30 laws restricting access to voting.
“This wave of electoral restrictions – the most aggressive we have seen in more than a decade of prosecuting state electoral law – is largely motivated by false and often racist allegations of electoral fraud,” its website says.
For months before the last US presidential election and weeks after Biden’s victory, ex-President Donald Trump made false claims that the vote was clouded by widespread voter fraud. These claims have been picked up by many Trump supporters, including some Republican lawmakers.
On their website, the organizers of March On For Voting Rights say that restrictive government electoral measures, including a ban on postal voting and post boxes and shortened early voting days and hours, “suppress voting methods that enrich our democracy and lead to high voter turnouts” .
“Racist, anti-democratic voter suppression laws amount to manipulating the game. But in America, elections are not a game – and life depends on their results, ”they say.
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