After a defeat on Wednesday, Democrats in the U.S. Senate say they'll keep trying to pass voting-rights legislation, and one Wisconsin group wants any new proposals to exclude a provision in the bill which did not pass.

Barbara Beckert, director of the Milwaukee office of Disability Rights Wisconsin, said the package considered by the Senate this week included a paper-ballot mandate. She pointed out it concerned many voters with disabilities, because the ability to cast a paper ballot, privately and independently, is not an option for some.

"We think it's important to have a carve-out for voters covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), so they would not be required to vote by paper ballot," Beckert explained.

Beckert noted current law does not include such a mandate, and some folks with disabilities already use accessible voting machines or vote absentee without generating a paper ballot.

Last year, a coalition of 20 disability-rights groups voiced their opposition to the mandate, arguing it would disenfranchise voters with disabilities and stifle innovation to develop voting systems better suited to their needs.

Beckert added voting-rights legislation is important to ensure fair access for Wisconsinites. Her group thinks future efforts should include provisions for screen-reader-accessible and ADA-compliant absentee ballots.

"And that would allow equitable access to absentee voting for voters who are blind, or have other disabilities, where they do not have the ability to physically mark the ballot and need assistive technology," Beckert emphasized.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, at least 19 states passed laws restricting voting access in 2021. Some similar bills in Wisconsin were vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

During this week's Senate debate, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., criticized her counterpart, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., for encouraging Wisconsin's Legislature to take control of the state's elections. Baldwin, quoting reporting from the New York Times, alleged Johnson had said the process was legally permissible.

"'An extraordinary legal argument debunked by a 1932 Supreme Court decision and a 1964 ruling from the Wisconsin Supreme Court,' end quote from the New York Times," Baldwin said.

In a statement, Johnson argued Democrats, in attempting to bypass the filibuster to get the voting-rights legislation passed, were mounting a federal takeover of elections, calling the move a "naked power grab."

Some New York House lawmakers supported a bill harmful to nonprofits. H.R. 9495 faced staunch opposition since it would have given the Treasury Secretary unilateral power to revoke tax exemptions for nonprofits considered "terrorist supporting organizations." The bill stems from a disinformation campaign saying Democrats support terrorists and would have jeopardized nonprofits providing aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

Beth Miller, political director with Jewish Voice for Peace Action, said this foreshadows Donald Trump's second term.

"It's very clear that the far-right MAGA Republicans are planning to take every step they can to dismantle our fundamental freedoms including our right to free speech, our right to protest, and attacking the nonprofit civil-society sector and social justice movements and progressive movements," she said.

This isn't the first time a bill like this was voted on in the House. H.R. 6408 passed the chamber earlier this year with staunch bipartisan support. But, it failed in the Senate. With H.R. 9495, 52 Democrats joined all Republicans in the chamber to vote in favor of it. Miller said with a GOP trifecta in Washington next year, lawmakers must watch out for double-edged legislation that could have harmless language and destructive consequences.

One reason so many Democrats support the bill is the other provision of it which gives tax breaks to Americans wrongfully imprisoned abroad or held hostage by terror groups. Miller noted that it's a perfectly sensible thing to pass on its own.

"However, if Republicans actually wanted to push that through, they could have pushed that through separately as a standalone bill and gotten total bipartisan support for it," she continued. "However, they tried to attach it to this other bill because what they really wanted to get through was the piece of this legislation that was all about giving the Trump executive branch more authority."

She added bills like this will be common and noted that Democrats are often too willing to sell out the Palestinian rights movement for the sake of bipartisanship.

Maryland voters swung toward Donald Trump for president by nearly seven points compared to 2020, making the margins in down-ballot races a little too close for comfort for some Democrats.

The final results are still unofficial but they indicate Republicans had their best showing since 2014 in Maryland's rural 6th Congressional District. It still was not enough, however, as Democrat April McClain Delaney defeated Republican Neil Parrott, a former member of the Maryland House of Delegates.

James Gimpel, professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland-College Park, said Trump's stronger performance in blue states contributed to the close 6th District results.

"With Trump stimulating the turnout of the more rural counties, that's going to make that seat more competitive and more Republican," Gimpel explained. "Trump's performance, I think, has boosted the Republican prospects in some of these competitive races all around the country, Maryland included."

McClain Delaney won by nearly five points but the election was the closest win for a Democrat in the district since the "Republican wave" of 2014. The 6th District spans the Maryland panhandle and part of Montgomery County.

The Maryland U.S. Senate race also remained close, but Prince Georges County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat, defeated former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. Alsobrooks won by nearly 10 points. Gimpel pointed out Hogan's criticisms of Trump during his terms as governor may have alienated some supporters.

"He had sort of won the enmity of Donald Trump and presumably, many of Donald Trump's supporters," Gimpel observed. "You have to wonder if maybe he would have done better if he would have gone a little easier on Trump the last four or six years or so."

Hogan did win the governorship in 2018 by a wide margin as a Trump critic. That year, Democrats swept gubernatorial and U.S. House races across the country.


get more stories like this via email

This weekend, a new coalition called "We Are California" is holding meetings up and down the state, preparing to resist what it sees as anticipated attacks from the incoming Trump administration.

Hundreds of nonprofits have joined the coalition, whose mission is to promote inclusion, community and democratic norms.

Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, explained the purpose of the coalition.

"What are we bracing for? Exactly what Donald Trump said he was going to do: mass deportations, family separation, worksite raids," Salas explained. "These are all things that he has done in the past. But what we're expecting and what we're bracing for is a scale of attack on our community that is unprecedented."

The coalition hopes by banding together, its members can fight any erosion of civil rights for LGBTQ+ people, immigrants and others. The gatherings this weekend will take place online and in person in the Bay Area, Fresno, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego.

Salas pointed out California has also put limits on how new immigration detention centers can be built.

"We can also model what it means to resist, but what it means to defy," Salas emphasized. "Because I think last time, we resisted. This time around, it's really about putting in place everything that interrupts this agenda."

In 2017, lawmakers passed the California Values Act, which said no state or local resources can be used to assist federal immigration enforcement and declares schools, hospitals and courthouses as safe spaces. And the California Trust Act said jails should not hold people with low-level nonviolent offenses past their initial detention period solely to give the feds time to initiate deportation proceedings.


get more stories like this via email