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National Norms

You’re going to start hearing some specious arguments against the voting rights bills that are coming before the Senate. Be advised:

The U.S. Senate will vote on the Freedom to Vote Act this week & on the John Lewis Act soon. An argument being used against them is that Congress shouldn’t pass voting standards. That’s a false argument contradicted by the U.S. Constitution & our political history.

The Constitution establishes it. Here’s Act 1, Section 4 “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.”..

States are laboratories of democracy. Congress then acts to establish national norms. Examples: constitutional amendments establishing suffrage eligibility across all states: 15th Amendment for men of all races, 19th amendment for women, 26th amendment for 18-year-old plus the 14th “equal protection” amendment establishing penalties for denial of suffrage & the 24th amendment prohibiting states from having poll taxes. Congress regularly passes statutes on voting as well….

Examples include: (1) the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and extensions in 1982 and 2006; (2) having the federal Election Day be the 1st Tuesday after the 1st Monday of November; and (3) the NVRA “motor voter”) law on voter registration…

Congress has regularly regulated congressional redistricting and a 1967 law today mandates single-member districts (which the Fair Representation Act would replace with a better requirement for proportional ranked choice voting in all states with more than 1 seat)…

Bottom-line: As our Constitution’s framers anticipated, there are times when federal voting norms are right for all American voters. Let’s debate these proposed federal bills on their merits, not on false arguments designed to avoid accountability.

Originally tweeted by Rob Richie (@Rob_Richie) on October 17, 2021.

It seems to me that “the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.” is pretty clear.

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