Biden to sign order to make voting easier

In commemoration of ‘Bloody Sunday’

March 07, 2021 10:14 pm | Updated 10:27 pm IST - Washington

U.S. President Joe Biden. File.

U.S. President Joe Biden. File.

U.S. President Joe Biden will sign an executive order to make it easier for Americans to vote to commemorate the 56th anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” civil rights march when peaceful activists were attacked by police in Selma, Alabama.

Mr. Biden’s move comes as several Republican-controlled state legislatures push to curtail voting access in response to Donald Trump’s election loss and his repeated false claims of election fraud.

It also directs the federal chief information officer to improve or modernise federal websites that provide voting information.

“Today, on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, I am signing an executive order to make it easier for eligible voters to register to vote and improve access to voting,” Mr. Biden will say in pre-taped remarks to be made at the Martin and Coretta King unity breakfast on Sunday.

“Every eligible voter should be able to vote and have that vote counted. If you have the best ideas, you have nothing to hide. Let the people vote.”

The breakfast marks the anniversary of the 1965 march in Selma when hundreds of peaceful protesters were beaten and tear-gassed by police and state troopers.

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