After a string of election cycles plagued by voter suppression, Democrats are letting voters know how they’d fix the problem. House Democrats are passing H.R. 1, a massive government reform and clean elections bill. In the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has the ability to block any legislation from a vote and thinks allowing more people to vote is a dirty partisan act by Democrats, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer can’t get a vote, but he can tell us what he thinks are the most important ways to strengthen democracy through voting reform.
Speaking from the Senate floor on Thursday, Schumer named “Three things we could do right now to bolster voting rights: One, undo the damage of the Shelby County decision by restoring the formula for preclearance. Two, automatic voter registration. Three, D.C. statehood.”
A proposed bill would require states to get changes to voting laws precleared if the state had a certain number of voting-rights violations over 25 years, while some voting policies that tend to lead to discrimination would have to be precleared anywhere. Automatic voter registration has gained ground in the states, but as with so many things, Republicans won’t allow it at the federal level.
Schumer then turned his attention to Republican opposition to any voting rights reforms at all, saying “It’s a dark day for the Republican Party if their leader in the Senate has to argue against more Americans voting because it would hurt their party at the polls.” A dark day morally, maybe, but since Republicans are succeeding at voter suppression in so many places, for now it’s not hard to understand Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s habitual smugness.
The choice is clear, though: if you believe in small-d democracy, Democrats are on your side. If you believe in partisan power and restricting voting to people just like your financially stable white self, you might see a lot to like in the Republican Party.