‘Let the people vote’: Biden signs executive order to expand voting access

President Joe Biden signed an executive order Sunday calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of his administration’s efforts “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Biden announced the order in virtual remarks played before the Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast in Selma, Alabama, which commemorates the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where police beat Black demonstrators fighting for access to the ballot box along their march.

In his remarks Sunday, Biden said the Republican efforts were “an all-out assault on the right to vote.”

“During the current legislative session, elected officials in 43 states have already introduced more than 250 bills to make it harder for Americans to vote,” he said. “We cannot let them succeed.”

“I hope the Senate does its work so that I can sign it into law,” he said. “I also urge Congress to fully restore the Voting Rights Act, named in John Lewis’ honor.