Category Archives: US voting rights

Success for progressives in Texas while Trump ally suffers major blow

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Attorney general Ken Paxton heads to nomination runoff against Jeb Bush’s son while progressive Jessica Cisneros celebrates runoff

Progressive Democrats notched victories in two of Texas’s congressional primary races on Tuesday while Ken Paxton, one of the most prominent Republicans in the state and Donald Trump ally, suffered a major blow.

In the most closely watched congressional primary, Jessica Cisneros, a progressive Democrat, forced a runoff against Henry Cuellar, a nine-term congressman who is one of the most conservative Democrats in the US House. (Texas races go to a runoff if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote.)

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Judge allows Georgia to use allegedly discriminatory electoral maps in 2022

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Civil rights groups say the district maps, which were signed into law last year, dilute the voting power of communities of color

A federal judge has ruled that new congressional and state legislative maps in Georgia, which allegedly discriminate against voters of color, can be used for this year’s election cycle.

In a ruling late on Monday, US district judge Steve Jones said there was not enough time to make changes before the primary.

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Judge orders new trial for US woman sentenced to six years for trying to register to vote

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Pamela Moses, who has been in prison since December but is being released on Friday, says she had no idea she was inelegible

A Memphis judge ordered a new trial for Pamela Moses, a woman who was sentenced to six years in prison for trying to register to vote.

The case attracted national attention in recent weeks, following a Guardian report, because of the severity of the sentence. Moses said she had no idea she was ineligible.

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Indigenous nations sue North Dakota over ‘sickening’ gerrymandering

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The suit charges that diluting Indigenous power violates their voting rights and will handicap tribe members who run for office

Days before a new legislative map for North Dakota was set to be introduced in the state house, leaders of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and Spirit Lake Nation sent a letter to the governor and other state lawmakers urging them to rethink the proposal.

“All citizens deserve to have their voices heard and to be treated fairly and equally under the law,” they wrote, arguing that the proposed map was illegal, diluting the strength of their communities’ voice.

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Mitch McConnell under fire after saying African Americans vote as much as ‘Americans’ – video

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Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell has been criticised after saying that Black Americans vote 'in just as high a percentage as Americans'. The comment came after Senate Democrats failed to pass voting rights protections in the run-up to this November's midterm elections that will determine control of Congress in 2023. 

A reporter asked McConnell if he had a message for voters of color who were concerned that, without the John R Lewis Voting Rights Act, they were not going to be able to vote in the midterm. 'Well, the concern is misplaced because, if you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans,' McConnell said

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Bernie Sanders open to supporting primary challenges against Sinema and Manchin – live

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Over on Capitol Hill, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell lamented the “sad spectacle” of Democrats trying to change the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation.

McConnell accused majority leader Chuck Schumer of launching a “direct assault on the core identity of the Senate” by attempting to amend the filibuster, which Republicans have repeatedly used to block Democrats’ voting rights bills.

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‘Do not celebrate. Legislate’: Martin Luther King family on voting rights – video

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The family of Martin Luther King Jr has called for the passage of a law to protect voters from racial discrimination, while the vice-president, Kamala Harris, said the right to vote in the US was 'under assault'. As part of the annual MLK Day peace walk, the King family and more than 100 national and local civil rights groups strode across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge urging the Democrats to pass the bill in the US Senate

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MLK’s family and activists honor civil rights leader with voting rights march

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Martin Luther King III said ‘stakes could not be higher to protect and expand’ his father’s legacy of activism and racial justice

The family of Martin Luther King Jr and other civil rights activists in America are honoring the late civil rights leader on Monday by pushing for expanded federal voting rights legislation despite political opposition from Republicans.

Martin Luther King III, King’s eldest son, his wife, Arndrea Waters King, and their daughter, Yolanda Renee King, will lead a march on Monday morning across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Washington DC.

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US ‘concerned’ Russia preparing for an invasion in Ukraine – live

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The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing with reporters, and she opened her remarks with an important announcement about Joe Biden’s schedule.

The president will hold a formal press conference next Wednesday at 4pm, as he marks one year in office.

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Kyrsten Sinema blocks filibuster reform as Biden continues ‘fight’ for voting rights – video

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US president Joe Biden said he was not sure if his administration could push voting rights legislation through Congress, but he would continue fighting to change the law. ‘I don't know if we can get it done,' he said to reporters. ‘But I know one thing, as long as I have a breath in me … I am going to be fighting to change the way these legislatures are moving.' Earlier, Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema reaffirmed she would not support any change to the filibuster rules, effectively killing her party’s hope of passing the most sweeping voting rights protections in a generation.

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Biden urges Senate to eliminate filibuster in voting rights pitch: ‘I’m tired of being quiet’ – as it happened

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The Republican who memorably resisted Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his election defeat in Georgia has said he will run for re-election on a platform of “integrity and truth”, against an opponent who as a churchman “should know better” than to advance the former president’s lies.

Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, became a household name after he turned down Trump’s demand that he “find 11,780 votes” in order to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the southern state. It was the first victory by a Democrat in a presidential race in Georgia since 1992.

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Democrats look to renew push for voting rights protections bill – live

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Joe Biden spoke today to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, as the country continues to suffer through a bloody civil war that has attracted international condemnation for alleged war crimes.

“President Biden commended Prime Minister Abiy on the recent release of several political prisoners, and the two leaders discussed ways to accelerate dialogue toward a negotiated ceasefire, the urgency of improving humanitarian access across Ethiopia, and the need to address the human rights concerns of all affected Ethiopians, including concerns about detentions of Ethiopians under the state of emergency,” the White House said in a readout of the call.

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Trump acolytes vie for key election oversight posts in US midterms

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Swing state races for governor and secretary of state are the most consequential midterm contests

When Americans go to the polls in the 2022 midterms, the most important elections won’t be for office in Washington. The most high-stakes races will be statewide contests, in some cases for long overlooked offices, that have profound consequences for the future of free and fair elections in America.

The races for governor and secretary of state, the chief election official in many places, will determine which officials have control over setting election rules and the post-election certification process.

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Republicans are shamelessly working to subvert democracy. Are Democrats paying attention?

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Voting rights activists say the country has not fully awakened to the threat

A dry run. A dress rehearsal. A practice coup. As the first anniversary of the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol approaches, there is no shortage of warnings about the danger of a repeat by Republicans.

But even as Donald Trump loyalists lay siege to democracy with voting restrictions and attempts to take over the running of elections, there are fears that Democrats in Washington have not fully woken up to the threat.

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‘We need him to deliver’: Biden faces wrath of disappointed supporters

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The US president hopes to be a transformational figure like FDR but inaction on voting rights, the climate crisis and social policy has fuelled frustration

When Joe Biden huddled with a group of historians in March, the conversation revolved around thinking big like one of his predecessors, Franklin Roosevelt, architect of the New Deal. Biden, it seemed, wanted to join him in the first rank of transformational US presidents.

Six months later, a very different gathering took place this week outside the White House gates. Five young climate activists, holding signs and sitting on folding chairs, began an indefinite hunger strike. It was a visceral expression of disgust at what they see as Biden’s willingness to think small and break his promises.

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Biden visits home town of Scranton to pitch huge investment agenda – as it happened

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Climate activists have gathered on Capitol Hill to demand that Democrats’ reconciliation package effectively address the climate crisis.

One protester with Greenpeace carried cutouts of Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and moderate Democratic senator Joe Manchin, portraying Schumer as Manchin’s puppet.

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‘They don’t include Native voices’: tribes fight to ensure their votes count

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As the Native American population grows to the largest in modern history, groups say it’s vital that they organize to make sure they’re not left out of the redistricting process

In a small unadorned conference room in the North Dakota state capitol, Collette Brown, a representative for the Spirit Lake Nation, stood up on 26 August to testify on behalf of the 7,559 members of her federally recognized tribe.

Speaking to a largely white, male Republican committee of lawmakers, she explained what Native American communities stand to lose with redistricting if the legislature decides to draw legislative boundaries that split Native American communities or create areas that have at-large representation, instead of single-member districts.

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Texas legislature gives final approval to sweeping voting restrictions bill

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Bill, nearly identical to a measure that passed last week, gives poll watchers more power and prohibits 24-hour and drive-thru voting

The Texas legislature gave its final approval on Tuesday to a new bill that would impose substantial new restrictions on voting access in the state.

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Republican election audits have led to voting system breaches, experts say

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MyPillow chief gave out election software at South Dakota event derived from Republican challenges in Colorado and Michigan

Republican efforts to question Donald Trump’s defeat in 2020 have led to voting system breaches experts say pose a risk to future elections.

Copies of Dominion Voting Systems softwares used for designing ballots, configuring voting machines and tallying results were distributed at an event this month in South Dakota organized by the MyPillow chief executive, Mike Lindell, a Trump ally who has made unsubstantiated claims about last year’s election.

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US House passes voting rights bill, restoring critical provision of landmark law

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Bill that requires places with history of discrimination to be under federal supervision passes 219-212 – but could fail in the Senate

The US House of Representatives has passed an update to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, restoring a critical provision of the landmark civil rights law that requires places with a history of voting discrimination to be under federal supervision.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act passed 219-212 on a party-line vote.

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