There’s no national voter ID requirement in the new Senate bill, but there’s a dangerous gateway to legitimizing existing voter ID laws in states.
Why is Manchin using Trumpian language in the “Freedom to Vote Act” to suggest voter ID is OK in order to “restore confidence,” which feeds the lie? Voter ID needs to be taken out.
We fought NC’s voter ID requirement in court and proved it was discriminatory to people of color, women, and the poor, both in intent and in impact. And it was unnecessary, because we already had signature attestation.
Federal law should protect against voter ID requirements and should never repeat the Trumpian lie that they are needed to “restore voter confidence.” This is an amendment that’s needed during floor debate.
Another note: When extremists talk about guns, they don’t say “the freedom to own guns;” they say “the right.” What we are fighting for is to protect the right to vote, not the freedom.

These are not small matters in regards to the language of the bill.
If adjusted, as my brother @MarcEElias says, this bill does include many of the protections we need—and it outlaws retrogression in all cases, which will protect against future voter suppression tactics.

democracydocket.com/news/my-though…
We give thanks for the advocacy of poor & low-wealth people from WV & elsewhere who’ve gone to jail & protested in Manchin’s home & in DC since June 16 to say that we must have voting rights protections. We must lift their leadership, along w/ the moral clarity of Sen. Warnock.
But we are a long way from this being meaningful and not just a process that gives Manchin the pretense of supporting voting rights. It’s time to end the filibuster and pass a full law and fully restore Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (pre-clearance).
Manchin must say he will do this now!

We shouldn't have all of this back-and-forth and having to fight like this just to ensure and protect the right to vote, but we will fight!

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More from @RevDrBarber

14 Sep
.@Sen_JoeManchin, There is no such thing as a "moderate" constitutional position. You didn’t swear to uphold the Constitution "moderately." And you aren’t moderate when it comes to taking corporate money. You are extreme and lavish.
And you aren’t "conservative," b/c you’re not trying to conserve voting rights, conserve the environment, etc. You’re quite liberal when it comes to tax cuts for corporations, when it comes to lying, when it comes to hurting the poor & low-wealth people in your state & nation.
Moderate/conservative Democrats simply means you say you are a Democrat in the primary and support the DNC platform to get elected, and once you are in office, you tell the corporations & greedy rich, "I’m for sale!"
Read 6 tweets
13 Sep
If the revised voting rights bill is truly strong, truly what John Lewis would've wanted, truly what’s needed and not something Manchin has watered down & compromised away to please the US Chamber of Commerce and Republican extremists, then the full movement might support it. ...
But if it's not, those of us in movements that are free to speak the truth, along with seasoned civil rights leaders, voting rights lawyers, and religious leaders will expose it. The attacks in this moment are too real for us to just keep going through the motions.
When the details of the bill are read, we will find out if it was compromised down to weakness. There can be no moderate position on voting rights and equal protection under the law!
Read 6 tweets
13 Sep
We know Manchin cares about corporations and the greedy rich more than the people. 84% of the COVID plan he voted for with no questions about its price tag went to corporations. But why is he so cautious now, considering the people so in need in his own state?
Is Manchin just the frontman for other corporate Dems who are convinced that only by being Republican-lite can they get elected? None of them who ran in 2020 said they would work against the DNC platform.
Black people, brown people, native people, women, poor and low-wealth people put them in office, and none of them in their primaries said, "If you elect me, I’ll block policies that would help you."
Read 7 tweets
11 Sep
Today, September 11, 2021, marks 3,000 days since June 25, 2013, the day when the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by removing preclearance in the landmark case Shelby County v Holder.
The late Ruth Bader Ginsburg famously wrote in her dissent of that decision, “[T]hrowing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”
Congress has had 3,000 days now to fix this and restore voting rights protections to millions of Americans, but it has yet to do anything. They don’t even seem to have any sense of urgency about doing it. The infrastructure of our democracy is crumbling and in need of repair!
Read 4 tweets
10 Sep
.@WhipClyburn, We love you as a brother in the faith, but on this you are just wrong. The Build Back Better plan's $3.5 trillion can’t be a ceiling, not if you're really concerned about poor & low-wealth communities.

thehill.com/homenews/house…
We in the movement also disagree with those who block universal healthcare and want to leave qualified immunity in the George Floyd Bill. According to @EconomicPolicy you should be fighting for more! $3.5 trillion is already a compromise.

epi.org/blog/moral-pol…
I’m sure the 44% of South Carolinians who are poor or low-income—2.1 million residents, including 53% of children (578,000), 47% of women (1.2 million), 61% of POC (1 million), 36% of White people (1.1 million), & over 1 million who make less than $15/hr—disagree w/ you as well.
Read 4 tweets
10 Sep
WATCH: On Stolen Land | Rally & March to Save Moses Cemetery w/ the Maryland #PoorPeoplesCampaign pscp.tv/w/dAoZ1HR3LTI0…
TAKE ACTION: Sign the #SaveMosesCemetery petition online now: bit.ly/MosesAfricanCe…
"Let us together repair the damage and trauma of our community. Let us find a way to get in the way. ... We have the power! ... The people always win!" -Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo #BeRepairers
Read 13 tweets

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