Washington, D.C. — Ronald Brownstein of The Atlantic reported today on a new study from the Brennan Center for Justice finding that unless Democrats eliminate the filibuster to pass a new Voting Rights Act and H.R. 1, severe gerrymandering could silence millions of voters, especially in the South, and give Republicans a structural advantage in the House for the next decade. Fix Our Senate recently joined 62 groups in a letter calling on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to abolish the filibuster and prevent Minority Leader Mitch McConnell from blocking legislation on voting rights, democracy reform, and more.
Eli Zupnick, spokesman for Fix Our Senate, commented: “President Obama called the filibuster a ‘Jim Crow relic’ and this study highlights exactly why. Senator McConnell knows a diverse and expanding electorate is bad for his agenda, and he is going to use every tool at his disposal to block bills that protect voting rights, expand access to the polls, and end partisan gerrymandering. The stakes couldn’t be higher and Democrats must move quickly to eliminate the filibuster and take these critically-needed steps to unrig the system and fix our democracy.”
Below are a few excerpts from the piece:
- "The magnitude and speed of the GOP efforts since their 2020 losses to impose new state-level voter-suppression laws, even as they gear up for aggressive gerrymanders, has exceeded even the most alarmist predictions from Democrats and voting-rights advocates. If nothing else, the sudden and sweeping Republican efforts to tilt the rules of the game should leave Democrats with no illusions about the fate they can expect if they allow the filibuster to block new federal standards for redistricting, election reform, and voting rights.”
- "The report...comes as Democrats prepare to advance two bills to guarantee voting rights and reshape the rules regarding federal elections: a new Voting Rights Act and the omnibus legislation called H.R. 1...But both are virtually certain to be blocked in the Senate by a Republican filibuster—unless Democrats change the upper chamber’s rules to allow them to pass with a simple-majority vote.”
- "The gerrymandering report bookends other analyses, by the Brennan Center and others, documenting how state-level Republicans have introduced some 165 proposals in 33 states this year that would make voting more difficult. These include imposing new voter-identification laws, rolling back access to mail balloting and early-voting periods, and adding new hurdles to the voter-registration process.”
- "...diverse communities face elevated risk that GOP legislatures will attempt to maximize seats for white Republicans. They could do this either by concentrating minority voters into a few districts or dispersing them too widely to have much influence—what’s known as ‘packing and cracking.’ ‘To win back the House,’ he told me, ‘Republicans have to target communities of color.’”
