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Voting access and the future of American election reform

A voter casts his ballot in Georgia's 6th Congressional District special election at a polling site in Sandy Springs, Ga., Tuesday, June 20, 2017. (David Goldman/AP)
A voter casts his ballot in Georgia's 6th Congressional District special election at a polling site in Sandy Springs, Ga., Tuesday, June 20, 2017. (David Goldman/AP)

When President Biden marked the January 6th attack on the Capitol by reflecting on the future of this nation.

“We must decide what kind of nation are we going to be,” the president said. “Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm? Are we going to be a nation where we allow partisan election officials to overturn the legally expressed will of the people?”

Since 2020, a handful of states have passed laws that restrict voting access.

Democrats are pushing for federal election reform – even if it means throwing out the filibuster. But some Republicans aren’t playing.

Today, On Point: The future of election reform.

Guests

Rep. Katherine Clark, congresswoman for the 5th District of Massachusetts. Assistant Speaker of the 117th Congress. (@RepKClark)

John Fortier, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Author and editor of “After the People Vote: A Guide to the Electoral College.” (@johncfortier1)

Sophia Lin Lakin, deputy director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. (@sophlin229)

Also Featured

Vernetta Keith Nuriddin, former Fulton County, Georgia Board of Registration and Elections Member, from 2016-2021.

Bill Gates, chairman of the Board of Supervisors in Maricopa County, Arizona from 2017-2025. (@billgatesaz)

From The Reading List

Newsweek: “Opinion: The Way to Combat the Horror of January 6 Is to Abolish the Filibuster” — “In 1787, upon exiting the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was approached by a group of people who asked him what kind of government the delegates had created. His answer: ‘A republic, if you can keep it.'”

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

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