We will get something, Mr. Tester predicted. According to Republicans, Democrats are only interested in federalizing what has traditionally been a state and local role in overseeing elections, not levelling the playing field for all candidates equally. According to the Justice Department, if state voting restrictions are deemed to be discriminatory, they should be challenged.
Voter ID requirements would be less restrictive under the Freedom to Vote Act, which would set minimum standards for early and mail-in voting, make Election Day a national holiday, and allow requirements that voters produce identification. After two Supreme Court decisions, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act seeks to restore some of the landmark Voting Rights Act’s weakened provisions.
Senators in the South have used the filibuster to thwart civil rights legislation for decades. The Kings call it a “Jim Crow relic” that has been used to deny minorities’ rights throughout history. After Yolanda Renee King, their 13-year-old daughter, helped secure the passage of the Voting Rights Act, they noted that they still had to work to protect voting rights for future generations, represented by Yolanda Renee King.
That every generation has to work for its freedom, King said, recalling what he had learned from his mother. To say that “freedom does not last” is an understatement.
A number of prominent organisations, including Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Demos, the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), Voto Latino, Sierra Club, Faith in Public Life, Bend the Arc and the African American Christian Clergy Coalition, are involved in organising and participating in the marches.
Assuming Congress finds a way to pass the legislation before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which appears highly unlikely, the Kings said they would gladly cancel the demonstrations.
‘If it happens,’ Mrs. King promised, “we will have a glorious celebration on January 17th,”
