Tuesday, June 21, 2022 | 2 a.m.
The arguments opposing the Freedom to Vote Act reflect confused priorities.
Opponents complain that this law would take away states’ power to administer their own elections. However, numerous states passed laws making it harder to vote in 2021 that will have a critical and disproportionate impact on minorities, despite studies showing an inconsequential number of voter fraud cases. This calls into question whether numerous states are good-faith actors in running their own elections.
Opponents also cite polls showing popular opinion to be against the bill. Yet allowing public opinion to rule the day enabled slavery to exist for centuries while disregarding the rights of slaves, and enabled Jim Crow to persist for a century after the Civil War while disregarding the rights of citizens of color.
Moreover, opponents of safeguarding voting rights grumble about making it illegal to harass election officials while these officials get death threats. They additionally protest the criminalizing of election disinformation while candidates for positions responsible for election administration promote the “big lie” about the 2020 presidential election.
The most critically important principle to advance with respect to voting is protecting the constitutionally enshrined right to vote. In turn, voting reforms should make voting easier, not harder.
The Freedom to Vote Act intends to safeguard that right by requiring states to offer early voting, mail-in voting, and automatic, same-day and online voter registration, by expanding the range of acceptable IDs, and by restricting error-prone voter roll purges.
Congress must pass this law before November.
