Democrats eye voting rights bill as first priority in House majority
by Mychael Schnell and Mike Lillis - 10/19/24 6:00 AM ET
FREEPORT, N.Y. — A top House Democrat said this week that if the party wins the majority, its first priority in the next Congress will be election integrity — an issue that’s been front-and-center throughout a campaign in which former President Trump has floated baseless claims of voter fraud and laid the groundwork to challenge the results if he loses.
In a sit-down interview with The Hill on the campaign trail on Long Island, Rep. Katherine Clark (Mass.), the Democratic whip, laid out the contours of an ambitious legislative agenda if Democrats seize the gavel next year, including restoring legal protections for abortion access that were eliminated by the Supreme Court in 2022.
But she emphasized that all of the Democrats’ policy priorities stem from the core constitutional idea that Americans, through voting, hold the keys to government and self-determination. With that in mind, she said Democrats would make efforts to protect democracy their first legislative proposal out of the gate in 2025, with a voting rights bill receiving the coveted H.R. 1 title.
“We know that everything flows from the right to vote and having voter security, and what we have seen are attacks on that right to vote — undermining, through misinformation, Americans’ belief in the integrity [of elections],” Clark said. “We have fair and secure elections in this country. … Donald Trump and JD Vance are still denying the 2020 election, which is outrageous.”
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https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4942046-voting-rights-bill-priority-house-democrats-majority/
