Some civil rights groups that supported Democrats in Georgia during the 2020 election that elected Joe Biden decided to boycott the current president and his Vice President's speech in Atlanta last Tuesday 11th because they are disappointed with the lack of action on the right to vote, according to the Reuters news agency. Biden and Kamala Harris seek to draw attention to the need to guarantee voting rights in the United States and the need to change the Senate's “obstruction rule” in the face of new Republican-backed laws that, according to Democrats, suppress minority votes.

Senate Democrats sought four times to take the voting rights bill to the House last year, and were repeatedly blocked by Republicans, who resorted to the “obstruction rule”, which requires the support of 60 of the Senate's 100 senators. Legislative House.

The “Freedom to Vote Act” was introduced on September 14th 2021 and will fight not only the influence of money on politics, but also the practice of gerrymandering, which means redesigning constituencies with aimed at favoring a particular party, diluting the demographic weight of a community in districts designed specifically for this purpose. As we mentioned earlier “the law under discussion also seeks to eliminate undemocratic laws passed by legislatures in at least 17 states. In addition, this legislation would also establish nationwide voting standards to help neutralize state laws often aimed at harming historically underrepresented communities, including black communities, as well as low-income voters and people with disabilities. Some of these state laws facilitate fraud, as election officials and conspirators could sabotage legitimate election results. Therefore, the main objective of the new law would be to safeguard the fundamental elements of American democracy”.

According to a document by the Brennan Center for Justice, a non-partisan American institute for law and politics, “the Freedom to Vote Act is historic legislation to strengthen American democracy, promote racial justice and equity for all Americans, and thwart the assault on voting rights taking place in the states. In the wake of the 2020 election, an unprecedented wave of restrictive voting laws and election sabotage efforts are taking hold in the states, with more likely to come this year. We are also in the midst of another cycle of extreme partisan gerrymandering. Both these and other attacks on democracy have often primarily targeted communities of color. Congress has the legal and constitutional power to ward off these attacks by passing the Freedom to Vote Act, which would set national standards to protect the freedom to vote, counter election sabotage, end partisan redistricting, and fix our broken campaign finance system”.

According to a CNN’s publication, civilian groups that joined the boycott have already organized tours of the Southern States to mark the 60th anniversary of the historic “Freedom Riders” campaign. There are other groups, such as the New Georgia Project Action Fund, the Asian American Advocacy Fund and the GALEO Impact Fund Inc., New Georgia Project Action Fund, which represents Latinos, among many other groups and community leaders, “urged Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to remain in Washington on Tuesday if they don't have a clear plan to advance voting rights legislation”.

“But the decision by the coalition of voting groups to skip the speech underscores the risks to Biden and Democrats of failure on voting rights legislation as crucial midterm elections loom. Republicans in state legislatures around the country have tightened voting laws and installed loyalists to former President Donald Trump on election boards. Two major pieces of legislation that would aim to counteract these GOP measures are stalled in the Senate, unable to overcome the 60-vote filibuster rule needed to end debate on a bill, leading to growing frustration among activists”, still according to CNN.

The president has made several speeches about voting rights since taking office, but Senate Democrats still don't have a clear path to securing a new federal voting measure.

The publication also points out that “the President has previously stated he would back a rule change on the filibuster to pass voting rights bills, but he hasn't specified the parameters for the changes or laid out his reasoning in extensive detail”.

It is important to note that Martin Luther King III, his wife, Arndrea Waters King, and their daughter, Yolanda Renee King, have appealed not to cancel the week's celebrations around "Martin Luther King Day" (MLK) this year (an American annual federal holiday to celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., January 15th), if legislation on voting rights had not been passed.

“The Kings plan to mobilize activists on MLK weekend and march across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Washington, DC, on January 17th, as reported by CNN News.