Energized electorate can overcome attempts to limit voting

In an impassioned speech in Philadelphia on protecting voting rights, President Biden pointedly noted that federal legislation is “a national imperative” but not the only way to overcome attempts to curtail voting.

Seventeen states – South Carolina not among them – have enacted 28 new laws, effectively making it more difficult to vote. Georgia has new limits on ballot access, which Republican officials maintain are necessary to prevent mistakes and fraud.

Biden described new, restrictive laws as “un-American” and “un-democratic” as he declared protecting voting rights an urgent “test of our time.” Biden called out former President Donald Trump for his big lie about the 2020 presidential election, and Republicans who fail to speak the truth about the shameful distortion of the facts.

BLOCKED IN SENATE

The political reality in Washington – a 50-50 Democratic-Republican Senate ‑ is that voting rights legislation cannot pass the Senate unless filibuster rules are changed. Senate Republicans are blocking two measures, For the People Act and the John Lewis` Voting Rights Advancement Act. The latter would shore up the Voting Rights Act (1963) which has been weakened by Supreme Court decisions.

Changing Senate rules – the filibuster is not a constitutional provision – is tricky because any rule change benefiting Democrats (the majority party because of Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote as presiding officer) would work in favor of Republicans when they are the majority. At least two Democratic senators are reluctant to modify the filibuster.

President Biden, a senator for decades before he was vice president, did not so much as mention the filibuster in his speech and he was criticized by some voting rights legislation proponents. One television commentator talked about Biden and Harris controlling Washington, as if Democrats had a 60-senator majority.

INFORMATION CAMPAIGN

Mobilizing voters, an important part of all competitive elections, is one of the tools successful campaigns will use in 2020. Biden said “he would launch a nationwide campaign to arm voters with information on rule changes and restrictions ahead of the 2022 midterm elections,” The Associated Press reported.

Other than Iowa, Indiana and Kentucky, the states enacting voting changes are southern (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas) or western (Arizona, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Oklahoma, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming).

Republican-controlled legislatures in other states, including both Carolinas, evidently recognized that limiting ballot access can impact Republican votes as well as Democratic. Voter turnout will be more important than usual in some 2022 Republican primary races.

U.S. Tom Rice of Myrtle Beach likely will face challenges for nomination as the GOP factions (proTrump, all-out-Trump) continue a power struggle. (The Horry County Republican Party voted last week to censure state GOP chairman Drew McKissick.)

Area state representatives and Horry County Council members could have primary opponents in June 2022 by challengers who feel the incumbents are not sufficiently Trumpian. No state senate seats are up in 2022. Nomination in the Republican primary is tantamount to election; that would change only if viable Democratic or Independent candidates run.

S.C. GOVERNOR

Republican Gov. Henry McMaster has an announced Democratic opponent in former one-term Congressman Joe Cunningham – and two potential but not announced Republican opponents, Greenville businessman John Warren and S.C. Senate majority leader Shane Massey of Edgefield.

Cunningham has an announced Democratic primary opponent, state Sen. Mia McLeod of Richland.

The governor has a comfortable lead in fundraising, and conventional wisdom – not as reliable as it once was – says he’ll be the GOP candidate, even should Warren or Massey seek the nomination.

Voting in free and fair elections is more important than ever. Historic voting patterns suggest a fall-off in 2022 voting from the big numbers of 2020. Those patterns can be overcome by grassroots efforts to interest potential voters, to encourage and help them to register, and most importantly, to motivate them to vote.