Voting Holiday A Gift For American Democracy, Steers Toward New VRA

Maryland Cong. John Sarbanes rallied Democrats in the Novemeber 2018 Elections Toward Sweeping Voting For A New Voting Rights Act. The 1965 Voting Rights Act was Effectively Gutted by the Supreme Court.

By Kevin C. Peterson

Making federal elections a national holiday wherein voters gain greater access to the voting process is ostensibly a civic no-brainer.

In the wake of recent restrictive laws reflected in retrictive by voter ID policies, cut backs to early voting and increasingly onerous registration hurdles, voting has become a decidedly difficult task. Legislative efforts at bringing easy voting to reality are being pushed in Washington DC these days as a broad attempt to ushering in a type of glasnost into our democracy.

The proposal for election change, called H.R. 1, has been introduced in the House of Representatives as the For The People Act, which is a cluster of campaign finance and ethics reforms aimed to reduce the impact of money in politics and extend electoral rights. Among other things, the bill also calls for national automatic voter registration, sameday voting, internet registration and checks against mail-in voting.

But recalcitrant Republicans are already blasting the proposal as a scam being employed by electorally avaricious democrats seeking power.

“Just what America needs, another paid holiday and a bunch of government workers being paid to go out and work … [on Democratic] campaigns,” said dismissive…