Category Archives: Voter Suppression and “Get Out the Vote”

President Biden on Protecting the Right to Vote

President Biden has publicly expressed the importance of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act throughout his speech at the Atlanta University Center Consortium in January. He highlights that with this law, discriminatory practices such as changing voting methods to suppress votes will not be allowed.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/01/11/remarks-by-president-biden-on-protecting-the-right-to-vote/

John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act failed

“The year-long Democratic push for federal voting rights legislation died in the Senate on Wednesday night, after Republicans blocked an elections bill for the fifth time in six months and Democrats failed to unite their caucus behind a plan to rewrite the Senate’s rules and pass it anyway.”

Senators Manchin (D-WV) and Sinema (D-AZ) both supported the Voting Rights legislation but not enough to shift the Senate rules to remove the filibuster and lower the vote threshold to 50.

John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021

The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021 was a more recent attempt to restore voters rights. This bill woud mean that all states would have to recieve approval from the Department of Justice or a Federal Court in order to make changes to voting practices which may then affect voting rights.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4

 

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sltrib.com%2Fopinion%2Fcommentary%2F2021%2F06%2F10%2Fcharles-m-blow-voter%2F&psig=AOvVaw3jdmpoTaR7cfpCEkegjXms&ust=1651691759512000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAwQjRxqFwoTCPimtbeFxPcCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmarcusharrisfoundation.org%2Fblog%2Ff%2Fvoter-id-laws-the-state-sponsored-suppression-continues&psig=AOvVaw3jdmpoTaR7cfpCEkegjXms&ust=1651691759512000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAwQjRxqFwoTCPimtbeFxPcCFQAAAAAdAAAAABA4

 

Bowdoin’s “Get Out the Vote”

Bowdoin had its own program led by Marie (Mary) Nzeyimana ’22 and Wilder Short ’22 who managed twenty paid student workers.  Bowdoin received a $15,000 grant from the organization Ask Every Student. Ask Every Student is a “national joint initiative that facilitates collaboration between campus leaders and nonprofit partners to help campuses ask every student to participate in the democratic process and achieve full student voter registration.”

 

https://www.bowdoin.edu/news/2020/10/bowdoin-gets-out-the-vote-through-huge-community-effort.html

https://www.studentvoting.org/