美国国家公共电台 NPR Ahead Of 2020 Election, Voting Rights Becomes A Key Issue For Democrats

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Democrats 1 are getting clearer on their priorities for 2020. And one of them is voting rights. Here's NPR's Miles Parks.

MILES PARKS, BYLINE 2: Stacey Abrams took the stage in Atlanta on Tuesday night for the Democratic response to President Trump 3's State of the Union. She gave a sort of party policy greatest hits - health care, climate change. Then she went somewhere it looks like Democrats are planning to go a lot the next two years - voting.

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STACEY ABRAMS: Voter suppression is real - from making it harder to register and stay on the rolls to moving and closing polling places to rejecting lawful 4 ballots 6. We can no longer ignore these threats to democracy.

PARKS: The 2018 midterms featured accusations 7 of suppression in places where high-profile Democrats lost - in Georgia with Abrams and in Texas with Beto O'Rourke. President Trump also presents a clear foil. He's continued to call for measures that would make voting harder, like strict photo ID laws, without providing evidence for his claims about widespread, in-person voter fraud. All this has prompted Democrats to focus more on voting. Here's Senator Kamala Harris at her presidential campaign launch event last month.

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KAMALA HARRIS: We will secure our elections and our critical infrastructure 8 to protect our democracy.

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PARKS: What's unclear is whether any of this will actually mean concrete changes before the 2020 election. House Democrats released their marquee bill last month that has dozens of proposals aimed at strengthening American democracy. More than 50 pages were devoted 9 to voting issues alone, things like requiring paper ballots and online voter registration 10, even making Election Day a federal holiday. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made it clear on the Senate floor that the bill is going nowhere.

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MITCH MCCONNELL: What it really seems to be is a package of urgent measures to rewrite the rules of American politics for the exclusive benefit of the Democratic Party.

PARKS: There is a chance that more modest tweaks could become law this year, however. At a meeting with state election officials last weekend, Senate staffers said lawmakers would soon reintroduce the bipartisan Secure Elections Act. That bill would improve communications between federal agencies and the state officials who run elections. But it probably won't include any money for new equipment.

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JIM CONDOS: Timing 12 is really of the importance.

PARKS: That's Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos, who notes presidential primaries are just 12 months away.

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CONDOS: If you're going to get money to the states, we really need it this year.

PARKS: At the meeting, a number of state officials said it was frustrating 13 to hear Democrats talking about voting as a national problem just months after a midterm election with the highest voter turnout in 50 years. John Merrill is the Republican secretary of state of Alabama. He's expecting Democrats to use his state as an example on the campaign trail.

JOHN MERRILL: They'll come to our state. And they'll talk about voter suppression and how we're preventing folks from participating. And they're entitled their own opinion but not their own facts. When we've broken every record in the history of the state for voter participation 14 in the last four elections that we've had, there's nothing you can say except Roll Tide.

PARKS: While the state has increased its vote totals over the past decade, Alabama's voter turnout rate still ranks among the lowest in the country. And overall, the U.S. trails most developed countries in terms of the percentage of adults who vote. It's a political cliche 15 at this point to say higher turnout does favor Democrats. That's because the voters with historically low turnout rates, like nonwhite voters, tend to vote Democratic.

But while it's generally in their political favor to argue for easier access to the ballot 5 box, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla says it's also an expression of the country's values.

ALEX PADILLA: We're all in agreement that our democracy is strongest when we have the highest levels of participation possible. It should not be a partisan 11 issue. But unfortunately, it has become one.

PARKS: And judging by the past few weeks, it will continue to be one, at least through 2020. Miles Parks, NPR News, Washington.

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