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Activists working in John Lewis' shadow warn about voter suppression ahead of November vote
<embed> https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/07/25/john-lewis-voting-rights-act-lawmakers-activists-honor-fallen-leader/5475879002 </embed>
“Do you know how traumatic it is in 2020 to wait out there five, six hours to vote?” says Brown, co-founder of the activist group Black Voters Matter. She says when she visited polling stations that day in largely white Atlanta neighborhoodsshe saw voters in and out in minutes. “McConnell should have come with me that night, because all I saw was evidence of attempts to suppress the Black vote,” she says. “You can praise John Lewis, but do you respect his values? Voting shouldn’t be a partisan issue, it's a democracy issue.”
'It's egregious': thousands of mail-in ballots could be rejected over small errors
<embed> https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/08/mail-in-ballots-rejected-small-errors </embed>
Voting rights advocates are worried about a surge in ‘arbitrary’ ballot rejections – over signatures and cutoff dates – this fall
NY Times: Senator Kamala Harris emerges as the front-runner in a short list of six
Kamala Harris is emerging as the front-runner to be Joe Biden’s running mate for one reason above all others: She is the only female African-American possibility who has the political experience typical of vice presidents.
Why Black Voters Back Biden
Such solid support helps explain why a 77-year-old white man is leading the most diverse presidential field in history among black voters. That backing has sustained Biden through a torrent of controversies that would sink virtually any other Democratic politician, including a series of awkward comments about race and persistent attacks from President Donald Trump on son Hunter Biden’s business ties in Ukraine.
Black voters will be crucial in determining the next Democratic nominee. Biden’s support among this group gives him an important and sometimes overlooked advantage nearly two months before voting begins. While Biden is bunched near the top of the pack in the overwhelmingly white early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, he’s better positioned in the more diverse states that follow.
Black voters are a dominant force in South Carolina, where two-thirds of the electorate in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary was nonwhite, according to data provided by the South Carolina Election Commission. A recent Monmouth University poll shows Biden earning support from about 4 in 10 black voters while Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts trailed with 11% each.
