Who Is More Interested In Rigging Elections, Senator McConnell?
What a close look at the Senate’s leading obstructionist shows about the voting rights debate
According to Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the leader of the Senate Republican minority, the two bills that Democrats are now pushing to address voting rights are a “bald-faced attempt by liberals to rig our electoral systems in their own favor.” That’s what he wrote in an oped in USA Today two days ago.
Let’s see what’s actually in the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, the legislation in question.
First, the Freedom to Vote Act, which was introduced by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) last September with Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) as one of its original co-sponsors. It is now backed by all 50 Democratic senators.
The bill requires all 50 states to offer early voting for at least two weeks before Election Day and to ensure that polling places are within walking distance of public transport, rural voters and college campuses. It also creates a national standard enabling voting by mail, eliminating onerous rules like requiring that mail ballots be notarized. It also makes clear that any mail ballot post-marked by Election Day that arrives within 7 days would need to be…
