Legislation

Nearly all of the most monumental and beneficial changes to political structures across the country have come at the behest of the people. From independent redistricting to anti-corruption measures, voters often take it upon themselves to fix a rigged political process. 

But what happens when the will of voters is stifled?

The ballot measure process has been critical to the success of nonpartisan reforms across the country. However, according to new research by RepresentUs, 11 states have proposed over 60 laws to make it harder for citizens to have a direct say in the way their state’s political process works.

Two years after the highly contested 2020 election, the controversy over the integrity of the process and the response to the election results is still on full display in our nation’s capital. A new proposed change to Electoral College law seeks to ease any concerns over the presidential elections process.

The Freedom to Vote Act, which would make a number of major changes to election law in the United States, is could come up for a vote soon. The bill includes a number of provisions, including a ban on partisan gerrymandering for congressional districts, new registration and early voting requirements for federal elections, and a federal voter ID provision.

California is now the largest state to permanently adopt universal mail-in ballot distribution. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the measure into law Monday. While it goes a long way to increase voter participation in the Golden State, public officials are still not doing everything they can to give all voters a level playing field in elections.

It’s January 2021, there’s a new president in D.C., a new Senate majority and a Democratic majority crowing about how voting rights is their top priority, even making the For the People Act their first bill (H.R. 1 in the House and S. 1 in the Senate).

Cut to nine months later.

Change can be challenging, particularly in the political arena. A deeply rooted history only adds to that challenge. The filibuster is an excellent case-in-point. It allows senators to prohibit a bill from being voted upon, unless three-fifths of the Senate vote to limit and then close the debate, referred to as invoking cloture. The filibuster has been both critiqued as obstructing democratic ideals and hailed as enhancing them. 

After more than a year of economic suffering that has left millions of Americans reeling from the devastating effects of unemployment, the end finally appears to be in sight. While the upward trends that we are experiencing are certainly promising, there is a misguided misconception that there are already enough quality jobs out there, and employees simply need to return to work.