Thread by @JoyceWhiteVance

If you’re eligible to vote it should be easy to vote. As GOP-led state legislatures consider pass bills to restrict your rights, ⁦@amyklobuchar⁩ takes up the For the People Act in a Senate hearing today. Listen in & tell your Senators to vote yes. rules.senate.gov/hearings/s1-th…

* consider & pass, but you knew that 😎

Senator Blount decries the FTP Act as a federal takeover of our elections & says we shouldn’t meddle with a system that has worked so well.

Blount: This committee has a long respect for the rights of the minority party. I hope that tradition will be restored.

.@SenSchumer highlights state measures that ban early voting on Sundays & says there’s no reason for it other than it’s the day Black churches host souls to the polls voter drives. “Why are you so afraid of democracy?” he asks.

Mitch McConnell is now equating how Dems reacted to Trump’s 2016 election with the refusal by GOP electeds to accept his 2020 loss & the insurrection that followed. He does this with seriousness & a straight face, as though he thinks people will believe he’s telling the truth.

Former Attorney General @EricHolder says there are powerful people who want to retain power & will break the rules of our democracy to do it. He says the For the People Act creates a level playing field in voting, ending practices like use of dark money & gerrymandering.

WV’s GOP Secy of State complains about the cost of measures that make it safe & easy to vote. Seems to me that if we’re going to devote fed’l funds to anything, they should go to our most basic right.

This hearing demonstrates as well as anything that we continue to live in 2 separate Americas. State GOP officials are appealing to the need for restrictive voting laws because of fraud, without acknowledging the absence of any evidence of fraud influencing election outcomes.

Brennan Center head @mawaldman testifies the bill is based on data & tested plans and will make elections more secure while protecting voter rights. He cites to an opinion by the Chief Justice calling it an appropriate exercise of Congressional authority.

.@SenSchumer's comments are well worth listening to & sharing

https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1374741485388767232?s=20

Ted Cruz says the bill will “register every one of these illegal aliens” - he says there are “millions of them” & says that’s the Democrat’s intent. John Lewis is frowning down. This is just shrill theater, unhinged from the realities of who votes & whose votes are suppressed.

Mississippi Sen Hyde-Smith objects to Sunday voting because it violates her religious beliefs. Does that mean the country can't vote on Saturday because of Jewish beliefs? Or at times like Friday afternoon that conflict with Muslim prayer? She needs to read the 1st Amendment.

Republicans during this hearing on voting laws repeatedly object to ballot harvesting, as if it's organ harvesting? In reality, it's a measure that permits folks far from post offices, like some Native Americans, to let others drop off their ballots. @TQPurdon, can you weigh in?