Many states are closing loopholes in their election laws after the 2020 election cycle. Democrats are now trying to use HR 1, a voting “rights” bill to federally take over the election system.
During a ten minute rant before the Senate Rules and Administration Committee on the “For the People Act,” Schumer attacked state legislators that are shoring up their laws so they can’t be exploited again.
Schumer said Republican state legislatures trying to fix their election laws, like in Georgia are “infuriating.”
“Some of these voter suppression laws in Georgia and other Republican states smack of Jim Crow rearing its ugly head once again. It is 160 years since the 13, 14, and 15th amendments abolished slavery, and Jim Crow stills seems to be with us,” Schumer said.
Schumer then began to reading aloud a piece from the Washington Post. The same newspaper that had to issue a major correction after improperly quoted President Donald Trump, the same quotes Democrats used to impeach him the second time.
According to the Washington Post, these laws could strain every available method of voting for tens of millions of Americans, the most sweeping contradiction of ballot access in the United States since the end of Reconstruction. If one political party believes that when you lose an election the answer isn’t to win more votes but rather to try and prevent the other side from voting, we have an existential threat to democracy on our hands. If we don’t stop these vicious and often racist actions, third-world autocracy … will be on its way. That is why the country so badly needs S 1, a bill that would combat all of these voter suppression efforts. A bill that would make it easier, not harder, to vote by automatically registering American voters when they get a driver’s license. By guaranteeing at least 15 continuous days of early voting. A bill that would limit dark money and corruption in our politics and much more.
“Just leave it to the states to discriminate against African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, younger Americans in college. It is shameful our Republican colleagues are proposing these ideas in 2020,” Schumer said.
Below is a portion of his 10 minute rant.
This is the first committee meeting I attended as Majority Leader
There is a nationwide effort by GOP-led state legislatures to limit the right of American citizens to vote—especially Americans of color
It smacks of Jim Crow
The #ForThePeople Act is a priority in this Congress pic.twitter.com/bTVOa1kyRk
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 24, 2021
