Bauer writes: "Congress should consider a targeted federal law to slow the march of restrictive state laws."
The police arresting members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Selma, Alabama, in 1963. (photo: Danny Lyon/Magnum)
19 March 21
Congress should consider a targeted federal law to slow the march of restrictive state laws.
epublican-dominated state legislatures around the country have responded to the cynical calls from Donald Trump for “election reform” with an array of proposals to restrict voting rights. They include limiting early-voting opportunities, constraining access to vote-by-mail and imposing more voter identification and other requirements to protect against what Mr. Trump falsely claimed to be “a level of dishonesty” that “is not to be believed.”
In Washington, congressional Democrats have rallied around H.R. 1, which has already passed in the House and would establish specific voting rules that states would be required to follow for federal elections, empowered by Congress’s clear constitutional authority to “make or alter” state regulations governing the “Times, Places and manner” of holding such elections.
But as this legislation is pending, the Republican state legislative movement to burden the exercise of voting rights proceeds apace. Iowa has already done so, Georgia is poised to act shortly, and others may follow suit.
