House Majority Whip James Clyburn echoed President Joe Biden in expressing fear that future elections could be illegitimate if voting reform legislation favored by the Democrats is not passed.
The South Carolina Democrat told CNN‘s Kasie Hunt during an interview Thursday that he is “absolutely concerned” about what will happen in the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections. Clyburn, who is black, talked about what has changed since the civil rights movement.
“Let me remind the audience that in 1965, at the time of the advent of the Voting Rights Act, only 3% of African Americans in Alabama were registered to vote,” Clyburn continued. “We come in with the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and look what we have now. Nine years ago, the Supreme Court took direct aim at that act in Shelby v. Holder and got rid of preclearance.”
Under Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, “certain areas of the country” that were more prone to having “racial discrimination” were provided a formula in which they needed preclearance from the government before changing election laws, according to the Justice Department website. The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 vote June 25, 2013, that using the formula found in Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional.
This AM, @WhipClyburn told @kasie on CNN that he was similarly concerned.
CNN: “You concerned that without these voting rights bills the election results won’t be legitimate?”
Clyburn: “I’m absolutely concerned about that.”pic.twitter.com/rhtXFNjnr2
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) January 20, 2022
Democrats have been largely opposed to the election reforms passed in GOP-led states over the past year, including limits on mail-in voting and tougher voter ID requirements, that Republicans argue strengthen election security.
Democrats often argue that the restrictions will lead to disenfranchisement, especially among minority voters who, in some communities, face long lines to cast a vote, and have pushed for the bills in Congress to address these concerns by increasing federal oversight of elections.
Biden raised concerns about the legitimacy of the 2022 midterm elections during a press conference Wednesday.
“Oh, yeah, I think it could easily be illegitimate,” Biden said, stumbling through his response.
The president then went on a tangent speculating about what would have happened after the 2020 election if then-Vice President Mike Pence submitted to pressure by Trump and his allies to try and block electoral votes on the day of the Capitol riot.
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When the reporter, RealClearPolitics’s Philip Wegmann, formerly of the Washington Examiner, told Biden he meant solely the 2022 election, the president did not back down from his assertion that there could be problems with the midterm elections. Biden turned his focus to the bid by Democrats in the Senate to pass a pair of partisan election overhaul measures that were defeated later that night when a united front of Republicans and two Democrats opposed making changes to filibuster rules.
“The prospect of being an illegitimate is in direct proportion to us being able to get these reforms passed, but I don’t think … you’re going to see the Democratic Party give up on coming back,” Biden said.
