According to former Obama/Biden Attorney General Eric Holder who cited data from the Brennan Center, 350 pieces of voter suppression legislation have been proposed across the country this year.
In a mid-day presser on April 9, 2021, the former Attorney General and head of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, joined by Arizona House Democratic Leader Reginald Bolding, Texas State Representative Jessica Gonzalez, and North Carolina Senate Democratic Leader Dan Blue condemned the Republican attempts to restrict Democracy and called for Congress to pass the For the People Act and John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act that would allow voters to select their politicians instead of vice versa.
Eric Holder makes the case that Democracy is under attack.
Calling this onslaught of voter suppression bills a “coordinated attack on the freedom to vote in the country” and a “real and urgent threat to our Democracy” brought on by reactionary Republicans from the Heritage Foundation, the former Attorney General said, “there is no justification for these bills.”
Furthermore, Holder stated “Republicans are using the big lie to push bills to restrict the access to vote. We have not seen anything like this since the Jim Crow Era. They are trying to return us to a pre-1965 Voting Rights America.”
Saying, “we are committed to the ideals of this country,” Holder called on grassroots support to urge state legislators to stop this attack on Democracy and for Congress to enact For the People Act and John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
When asked about the prospects of a Senate Filibuster and Democratic moderates like Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin not backing down on efforts to carve out a voting rights exception to the rules, the former Attorney General said:
“We want to live up to the idea of every American being able to vote. This fight is too important for a minority to hold up these acts. We need filibuster reform to protect Democracy and system of government and not an arcane system with a sorted negative racial history.”
He also believed that when the time comes to either voting on protecting Democracy or the filibuster, Senators Sinema and Manchin would pick Democracy.
House Democratic Leader Reginald Bolding Cites what is Happening in Arizona.
Democratic Leader Bolding echoed Holder by stating “we are seeing the largest attack on voting rights since the Jim Crow Era.”
He then specified two Senate bills that were designed to suppress the vote or make the process more difficult.
The first was SB1485 which would purge voters from the Permanent Early Voting List (PEVL) if they did not vote in the primary or general elections in 2018 and 2020.
The other was SB1713 which would require additional information on the early voting ballot.
Mr. Bolding also blasted Arizona Republicans for putting forth these measures in a piecemeal way in order to disguise their blatant attempts to “disenfranchise” the most vulnerable and communities of color, saying also that they should change their message to attract more voters instead of looking toward “conspiracy theories” to “cynically” justify “building more barriers to voting.”
The Arizona House Democratic Leader thanked business leaders like Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill and the other members of the Greater Phoenix Leadership who said these Republican attempts were “solutions to a problem that does not exist and … voter suppression.”
He called for other major sports organizations like the NFL, the NBA, and the NCAA to join Major League Baseball in condemning these attacks on Democracy.
Mr. Bolding closed by saying “voters should pick the politicians and not the other way around.”
The American and Arizonan Governing and Democratic Foundations based on Republican government principles are at risk from UnAmerican autocratic reactionary zealots who have fallen victum to the Big Lie espoused by calculating power-grabbing Machiavellians in the former Party of Lincoln and alternative reality providers and subscribers in the Trump Zone and Fox Island.
The people need to come out and tell their legislators that they will not tolerate any attempts to suppress the vote under the guise of election security when the last election had no major security problems.
This a battle for the Soul of America and its ideals.
Do not let the forces of autocracy win.
Fight to save Democracy by protesting to protect it, advocating for measures that will strengthen it, or voting at the ballot box by voting for public servants that will secure it.
Do not let the freedom to vote die.
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