Joseph Biden, the president, made a speech on Sunday in Selma, Alabama, in an effort to garner support for his accusations that election integrity measures violate “voting rights.” Due to the president’s history of racially divisive statements and the absence of substantive civil rights gains during his tenure as a member of the Obama White House administration, these claims have been refuted.
A really democratic premise is that American individuals are free to use their right to vote without being subjected to any kind of prejudice based on their color, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or religious views.
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The tragic “Bloody Sunday” event, in which peaceful protesters were brutally beaten while marching for civil rights, commemorated its 58th anniversary this past Sunday. Notwithstanding the progress achieved since that pivotal day, Joe Biden emphasized the ongoing voting suppression tactics used by Jim Crow legislation passed under Southern Democrats, such as literacy tests and poll fees, to show how far we still have to go.
“As I come here in commemoration, not for show, Selma is a reckoning,” Biden bloviated. “The right to vote, the right to vote, to have your vote counted is the threshold of democracy and liberty. With it, anything’s possible without it. Without that, right nothing is possible.”
“And this fundamental right remains under assault,” he lied. “We must remain vigilant. In January, I signed the Electoral Count Reform Act to protect the will of the people and the peaceful transfer of power. But we know that we must get the votes in Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.”
“I made it clear I will not let a filibuster obstruct the sacred right to vote, the right of any other right to vote from there,” he continued. “And that’s why we follow the world, as you all have, the words of Dr. King, he said, give us the ballot. We’ll place judges on the bench who will do justly, led by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and more black women appointed to the federal appellate court than every other president in history has done. We’re about to do that.”
Many studies on election integrity legislation have shown that they have little impact on voter registration or participation. Using picture identification does not reduce the likelihood of voting in African-American and Hispanic communities, according to a major analysis from the Heritage Foundation published in 2007. These populations’ voters were still likely to cast ballots regardless of the legislation in place. The National Bureau of Economic Research found that generally, the effect of ID requirements between 2008 and 2016 was negligible. “no negative effect on registration or turnout, overall or for any specific group defined by race, gender, age or party affiliation.”
Georgia election skeptic Stacey Abrams received a harsh reprimand from a federal judge in October 2022 for failing to support her accusations of voting suppression with sufficient proof in court. Jonathan Turley, a constitutional lawyer, offered insightful analysis of the decision.
“Remember the law that President Biden called ‘Jim Crow on steroids’? An Obama appointed judge just upheld the law in a challenge brought by a Stacey Abrams affiliated group after finding no constitutional violations,” Turley wrote.
“Judge Jones found that, while ‘the burden on voters is relatively low . . . plaintiffs have not provided direct evidence of a voter who was unable to vote, experienced longer wait times, was confused about voter registration status’,” Turley added.
Due to a decline in confidence in voting integrity measures like absentee ballots and voter ID legislation, America’s elections are under unprecedented strain. This puts our democratic ideals in doubt and comes at a crucial time for the country.
