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What is being called most significant voting rights and democracy reform in half a century and where it stands today

Featured Photo by Charlotte Harrison on Unsplash

Written by Tanya Terry

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, if enacted, the For the People Act would be the most significant voting rights and democracy reform in more than half a century.

“In the ’60s, when we had the Voting Rights Act that basically brought in millions of new voters because it was almost impossible, especially for Blacks, to sign up to vote in the South,” said Michigan Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich (D).

“So, (since the Voting Rights Act changed that) it would be the most significant more recent voting rights act we’ve ever passed,” Ananich added.

The For the People Act has been the number one bill in terms of priority in both chambers, HR 1 (House Resolution 1) and SR 1 (Senate Resolution 1) at the federal level, according to Ananich. It has already passed in the House twice.

The Senate recently advanced S. 1, the For the People Act, introduced at the beginning of the year. A committee met for hours last week to consider amendments for the bill, which largely failed. The committee deadlocked 9-9 on whether to approve the massive bill.

Despite efforts by Sens. Manchin (D-WV) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to focus on reauthorizing the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he will bring the For the People Act to the floor of the upper chamber as soon as possible. To overcome a filibuster Manchin suggested the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. But, even the John Lewis Voting Rights Act is not a substitute for the For the People Act when looking at modern issues, according to Schumer.

Ananich is a strong supporter of the For the People Act.

“We’re now to a place where the citizens’ influence on our governmental structure, on our government, is less and less,” Ananich said, explaining why he thinks the bill is so important to pass.

He said it will give citizens more ability to participate in government.

The primary argument against the For the People Act is that the states primarily have the right to determine their voting laws.

According to Ananich, an argument is that corporations are people and their voice is their money.

There were well over 300 bills being introduced with restrictive provisions throughout the country by the end of March 2021, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

So, many citizens have argued that because of the coordinated effort at the state level to limit access to voting, something needs to be done federally to make sure basic rights are protected in regards to voting.

Ananich gave recent examples of how he said partisan gerrymandering has continued to distort races for the House and Senate.

“Up in this whole last decade when elections would happen and Democrats in most cases would get more total votes for House and Senate…We wouldn’t have a majority in either chamber because they had rigged the maps so much-gerrymandered the maps so much that-it was almost impossible to win. So, this would be one of the reforms-so they can let citizens pick the districts.”

In Michigan, in 2018, voters approved a ballot initiative to create an independent commission to draw the state’s congressional and legislative maps. This allows citizens to decide how districts are selected.

“They (through the For the People Act) would take that nationwide. No longer will politicians pick their voters. Voters would pick their politicians. They would put in common sense voting protections like early voting and absentee voting-especially helping specific populations like veterans, seniors (and) Native populations-(to) get more involved in the process. They would modernize the voter registration process.”

If a person moves from one city to another on the day of an election, that person could go to the clerk’s office, fill out the needed paperwork to show they moved and vote the same day through the For the People Act.

In addition, in many states currently when a citizen skips an election, they are deregistered. The For the People Act seeks to change this.

“People have a right to vote. They don’t have to vote. They can choose to sit out as many elections as they want and shouldn’t be kicked off the rolls.”

Also, we have a lot of outdated and unequal voting machines across the country. The For the People Act would help end these discrepancies.

“Now, the federal government shouldn’t mandate what kind of machine you use. But, they can help give resources to make sure that the people have access to the proper types of machines.”

Ananich said this is neither Democrat nor Republican.

“It just makes it easier for citizens to participate in the process.”

Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich (D–Flint) discusses Fint-related bills in the Government Operations committee on September 21, 2016.

The For the People Act would also ban “dark money.”

Groups of people would not be able to come together and give a million dollars and it go through a secret account. The public would know who is paying for an election.

“People have a right to know who’s paying for the ads, who’s paying for the television, who’s paying for a campaign.”

According to federal law, anything done in Michigan in line with what the federal government does is not affected.
Also, Michigan can go further in the state’s efforts to ban “dark money.” But, it will have to at least meet the standard of what the federal government passes.

The For the People Act establishes stricter conflict of interest rules for the White House and members of Congress. It aims to slow down the allowing of career lobbyists in Washington by stopping high level governments officials in the legislative and executive branches from working in the public sector one day, and the next day going to work for a company they just helped with a bill.

Ananich notes it’s already against the rules for members of Congress to vote on anything they have an interest in, but this would “make it stronger.”

“There’s a lot of lack of trust in government. The proposal would be this would help shine a light on government. People would have more information. Therefore, hopefully it helps build the trust back.”

Ananich said the For the People Act is necessary since there are loopholes in our system that allow for foreign governments and particularly foreign agents; individuals to secretly influence U.S. politics.

“Americans and only Americans have the right to determine who’s in power (and) what decisions we’re making. Foreign governments have a right to deal directly with our state department, or president to president-but they shouldn’t be secretly using loopholes to figure out ways to influence our process.”

The majority of the legislation requires 60 votes to advance on the Senate floor. Democrats only hold a 50-seat majority. All Senate Democrats except Senator Joe Manchin have supported the bill. So, support from 10 Republicans would still be needed to pass the For the People Act. If the push to eliminate the filibuster by some advocacy groups and progressives were to be successful, it would allow legislation to be approved by a simple majority. This may be needed because, unlike with the COVID relief package, this is not the type of bill that can be passed by reconciliation.

The For the People Act does not address the approximately half a dozen bills that give huge amounts of power to the Board of Canvassers both at the county and the state level. Members of this board can simply not accept an election.

“I don’t think they ever thought that would be something people would do.”

Still, Ananich said he feels the For the People Act “resets the table” to where the average person has as much power as a CEO or a corporation-at least in the voting booth.

“Following the markup in the Senate Rules & Administration Committee last week, the bill now lies with Majority Leader Schumer, who will be advancing the legislation to the Senate floor. As you can imagine with a bill of this importance and magnitude, our leadership in Washington is taking a measured approach with continued input from all ends of the political spectrum. The most important thing folks can do is help communicate to their friends and neighbors what’s at risk here. Republican politicians are continuing to perpetuate the Big Lie about the 2020 election, and they’re using those lies to justify putting up unnecessary hurdles between voters and the ballot box. We need the For the People Act to protect us from efforts like these that silence voters. We’re lucky to have Sens. Stabenow and Peters fighting for us by co-sponsoring this initiative, but it’s going to take an all-hands-on-deck effort to make sure every voter in every state has fair and equal access to the ballot box.”

For more information on the For the People Act, go to https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1.

Michigan Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich

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