CNN: How the Biden DOJ’s vows to protect voting rights have played out in practice
CNN: How the Biden DOJ’s vows to protect voting rights have played out in practice
The Justice Department – where among the ranks of leadership are Biden appointees with significant experience in voting rights – has taken several bold steps on voting issues, filing ambitious lawsuits and launching a task force to address threats against local election officials.
“The Justice Department has an obligation to guarantee a free and fair vote by everyone who’s qualified to vote and will not permit voters to be intimidated,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said last month.
But as voting gets under way in the first nationwide general election since former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election lies, the Justice Department has run into legal limitations constraining the federal government’s ability to act in the space and faces challenges in redirecting a large federal agency to fast-changing circumstances. …
Only 11% of the harassing contacts reported by election officials met the requirements for triggering a federal investigation, in part because an “overwhelming majority of the referrals made to the Task Force do not include a threat of unlawful violence,” according to Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite, Jr., head of the DOJ criminal division.
“Do I wish they could do more? Yes. Do I know that they are limited by their jurisdiction and their staying in the law? Yes,” said Sylvia Albert, the director of voting and elections at Common Cause, an organization that advocates on democracy issues. “It points to the need to update federal legislation to protect against new types of threats.” …
The department has been rolling out informational resources for voters as well, including a guide for ex-felons to navigate their voter eligibility according to their state’s laws.
Voter advocates doubted that such warnings of potential legal violations would sway the actions of election deniers who truly believe debunked theories about fraud. But they said they could be a useful tool for election officials who come under pressure from such activists.
“When somebody comes to them and says, ‘hey you need to give me access to this,’ this is guidance they can show that says, ‘I can’t. It’s against federal law,’” Albert said.