Written by Sasha Reva
It is ridiculous that Gary Jacobson, professor of political science emeritus at UC San Diego, is pushing the “Freedom to Vote Act” which is encouraging to prevent voter suppression and keep politicians from intervening in election administration and overturning election results when their side loses.
He says in a 700-words letter, “this is no ordinary moment in the course of our democracy.” “It is a moment of great peril and risk.” Gary titled the letter as a “Statement in Support of the Freedom to Vote Act” including luminaries such as Norman Ornstein, Laurence Tribe and Larry Sabato.
He signed it because he believes that it is “essential to establish electoral rules that prevent voter suppression and keep politicians from intervening in election administration and overturning election results when their side loses.” He believes that a real “threat” is coming from Republican-controlled state governments “pandering to believers in Trump’s Big Lie of a stolen election.”
Jacobson also said, “Republican state governments nullifying election results based on spurious claims of fraud of the kind that have been circulated by Trump and his enablers since the 2020 election. Such actions would be a direct assault on American democracy.”
On June 1, Jacobson signed a statement of concerns, titled, “The Threats to American Democracy and the Need for National Voting and Election Administration Standards.”
Part of the statement said, “In future elections [certain GOP-sponsored] laws politicizing the administration and certification of elections could enable some state legislatures or partisan election officials to do what they failed to do in 2020: reverse the outcome of a free and fair election.”
The new November letter was saying, “We urge the Senate to suspend the filibuster rule for this measure and pass the Freedom to Vote Act. This would uphold the Senate’s noblest tradition of preserving and strengthening American democracy.” While Jacobson and other radical professors continue to push the end of the filibuster, it does not seem like that idea will be happening anytime soon. Democrat Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have both stated they are against the end of the filibuster.
Photo Cred: UCSD/ La Jolla Light
