Sen. King pushes filibuster reforms to protect voting rights, electoral process

[TexasTowelie]

WASHINGTON — Sen. Angus King is worried about the state of American democracy.

“We are in a moment when democracy is in danger, when autocracy is on the march around the world,” King said in a recent telephone interview from the Capitol as he negotiated with his colleagues to protect voting rights and the impartiality of elections. “Our system is an anomaly in human history – the norm is authoritarians, kings and pharaohs and we are seeing (democracy) backsliding into authoritarianism before our eyes.

“The idea that it can’t happen here – that’s just not so, and that’s just what’s worrying me,” King added. “We have a lot of people who are just not committed to the idea of democracy.”

At issue is a bill – currently called the Freedom to Vote Act – that would set nationwide standards for mail-in and early voting; make Election Day a national holiday; extend financial reporting requirements for certain organizations; create a standard for states that require identification to vote; restore voting rights to felons on their release; require that voting machines have paper trails and protect local elections officials from being removed for partisan reasons. (Almost all of these measures are already in place in Maine and so would have little effect here.)

King said the protections the bill would provide for American democracy are so critical he is ready to support something he’s long opposed: reforming the filibuster so the measure can’t be blocked by the Republican minority in the U.S. Senate.

Read more: https://www.pressherald.com/2021/12/26/king-pushes-filibuster-reforms-to-protect-voting-rights-electoral-process/

[OnDoutside]

1. Angus King is a good and decent person.

[calimary]

2. Good, but is he persuasive enough?

[OnDoutside]

4. I think there's a better chance of getting the holdouts on board when you have a thoughtful Senator

like King speaking out, than when there's megaphone diplomacy from the other end of the Democratic Party.

[questionseverything]

6. Exactly who are you dissing?

And to what purpose?

[Alexander Of Assyria]

3. Don't like he title of the bill.

Election Integrity Freedom and Security Act

Rhetorically cuts off the fascists at the pass on their fig-leaf of using security as a sword to make voting as difficult as possible.

See it’s right there in the bill? Why won’t ALL Rs now vote for easier voting, with security, now??

That part always get missed by mass media propaganda, how an entire party is actively opposed to making voting easier…the mass media apparently cant figure that out at all.

Long voting lines are NOT a sign of voter enthusiasm, it is a sign of voter suppression.

National Minimum Standards for Voters…begin with..no one should stand in line more than 15 minutes, anywhere. How the fk does hat happen with such regularity, everywhere?

800 billion a year for the military to protect the vote, but the voter is met with hostility at every Republican controlled voting booth…no money to spare, you see?……and wtf is with every state, save a few, with partisan political control of election boards? It’s all so fked up now in large part because democrats started to join in on the fun of gerrymandering and political election boards and commissions….instead of fighting the rot before it set in everywhere.

Now ofc the national mass media has gone full fascist coverup…no doubt democracy struggles to live if this or similar federal law is not passed.

Notice how the negative media coverage is only on one or two D souls,…. and not the 50 on the other side of the aisle always opposed to all that is sensible?

Why do those 50 always get a pass, I ask the Majors? Too much like work?

[KS Toronado]

5. A nationwide standard for mail-in ballots

would eliminate long voting lines and make it harder for Rs to win elections.