With Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona still refusing to end the filibuster and pass two election reform bills, Democratic politicians are claiming Republicans will prevent fair midterm elections in November.<\/p>\n

The two bills, the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, would nationalize elections by stopping states and locales from setting limits on absentee ballots, banning ballot harvesting, and changing polling locations without federal approval, as well as other changes. Democrats say that these changes are needed to stop local Republicans from being involved in voter suppression and throwing out validly cast ballots.<\/p>\n

President Joe Biden said opponents of the bills were the heirs of segregationists, and laws requiring voter ID and banning line-warming as \u201cJim Crow 2.0.\u201d He also said that individuals who support the stricter ID standards \u201cplan to subvert the election.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHistory has never been kind to those who\u2019ve sided with voter suppression over voters\u2019 rights, and it will be even less kind for those who side with election subversion,\u201d Biden said. \u201cDo you want to be on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace? The side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? The side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina defended Biden\u2019s remarks saying that Biden\u2019s critics lack the personal experience necessary to understand his comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Jim Crow 2.0. That was one of the strongest points of the president\u2019s speech that I agree with. So, this whole notion, when you walk around and no one has ever discriminated against you because of your skin color or you have never had to worry about having your vote counted, you can have those kinds of statements,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

During her Martin Luther King Jr. Day address, Vice President Kamala Harris said that opponents of the legislation wish \u201cto interfere with our elections, to get the outcomes they want and to discredit those they do not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that Republicans want to \u201crig the game and rig the count,\u201d so a compromise position such as reforming the Electoral Count Act would be unacceptable to his caucus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to rig the game and then say, \u2018count the rigged game accurately,\u2019 what good is that?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

The top Democrat’s claims come as polls and analysts indicate that Republicans will potentially take back the House and Senate by wide margins in the November midterms.<\/p>\n

Republicans need to gain only five House seats and one Senate seat to win back both chambers, while the president\u2019s party has on average lost 26 seats in the midterm elections conducted since the end of World War II. The only midterm elections that the president\u2019s party did not lose seats were in 1998, as Republicans impeached former President Bill Clinton, and 2002, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona still refusing to end the filibuster and pass two election reform bills, Democratic politicians are claiming Republicans will prevent fair midterm elections in November. The two bills, the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, would nationalize …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\n