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Vice President Kamala Harris announced a series of initiatives on Tuesday designed to assist Individuals take part within the November elections.
The occasion created an attention-grabbing split-screen on TV, as a lot of the nationwide press protection was targeted on the Michigan major. On one display screen, journalists had been seemingly obsessive about tales about Michigan voters threatening to withhold their help from the Biden-Harris ticket this fall. On the opposite display screen, the Biden administration was specializing in cease individuals who need to make it tougher to vote.
You may depend me among the many individuals who suppose the latter is much extra worrisome than the previous. And but, it looks like tales of voter suppression and voter intimidation efforts appear to get quick shrift from most shops lately. It’s as if many within the mainstream press are taking with no consideration the truth that Republicans, lots of whom backed a violent, deeply racist coup try in 2021, then began rolling back voting rights and waging legal fights to restrict voter access, at the same time as violent threats against election workers have turn into increasingly more frequent.
Harris’ announcement was encouraging as a result of it acknowledged a disaster many individuals maintain ignoring.
So Harris’ announcement on Tuesday, at an occasion the place she was flanked by voting rights activists, was encouraging to me largely as a result of it acknowledged a disaster many individuals maintain ignoring.
She introduced 4 initiatives:
- One which calls on the Division of Well being and Human Companies to e-mail data on voter registration to everybody who enrolls within the Inexpensive Care Act. The Division of the Inside will put up this data on the entrances to nationwide parks, as effectively.
- One that enables college students to earn cash by way of the federal work-study program for registering folks to vote or working as nonpartisan ballot employees.
- One which vows to guard election employees by way of a Justice Division division referred to as the “Election Threats Task Force.” The division was launched in 2021 to answer threats against election workers, just like the one made by a Michigan man who pleaded guilty this week.
- One which urges the Justice Division to double down on its struggle towards voter suppression legal guidelines nationwide.
Harris additionally introduced three “national days of action” centered on voting. One will happen on Juneteenth, one on the anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act, and one other will happen on Nationwide Voter Registration Day, which is Sept. 17.
I see these bulletins as essential for 2 causes. First, election officers like Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes have been sounding the alarm on the necessity for Justice to take a firmer method to coping with threats towards election employees. In January, Fontes said Legal professional Common Merrick Garland was “imperiling our democracy” by being “far too cautious” in investigating and prosecuting threats. Harris' urgency on the subject may spur the DOJ to behave extra decisively. And it might additionally remind the general public concerning the varied methods right-wingers try to position their thumbs on the size on this yr's ever-important elections.
