Mitch McConnell accuses Democrats of ‘power grab’ for trying to make Election Day a national holiday

McConnell

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell felt the wrath of social media on Wednesday after he derided a proposal to declare Election Day a national holiday as a “power grab” by Democrats.

Election Day is typically held on a Tuesday in the United States, which just so happens to be on a school day and a workday, making it much harder for millions of Americans to stand in line for hours to cast a ballot.

If Election Day were to be a national holiday, however, voter turnout would likely rise because more people would have the whole day to vote.

Even a majority of Americans say that Election should be a national holiday according to a poll taken in November.

But when Democrats introduced a bill known as the “For the People Act of 2019,” McConnell whined about it on the Senate floor.

Bloomberg’s Steven Daniels reported on McConnell’s objections to the bill.

McConnell also attacked the bill on Twitter.

This an incredibly dishonest attack by McConnell as usual. What he’s basically claiming is that making Election Day a holiday would benefit Democrats because more people would be able to vote. In short, McConnell is admitting that he wants fewer Americans to be able to vote because it helps Republicans.

The fact is that voter turnout in this country only reached 61 percent in 2016 in an election that saw President Donald Trump win even though he lost the popular vote overall, while winning by narrow margins in several swing states.

Under 50 percent of registered voters went to the polls in 2018, an election that saw Democrats win seats to take over the House.

Going by a comparison of the math, one would think Republicans would want more Americans to vote since it appears a higher turnout benefited them in 2016 versus a lower turnout in 2018.

The bill also includes reforms like automatic and Election Day registration, nationwide early voting, independent redistricting commissions, and public financing of congressional campaigns. These measures would ensure everyone who wants to vote gets to vote, would prevent the wealthy from buying elections and would stop gerrymandering.

At any rate, Twitter users ripped McConnell a new one for being scared of democracy.

It’s time for Kentucky to ditch Mitch so that American democracy can stay alive. Because as long as McConnell is in power, voter rights are going to continue being assaulted by Republicans until we all wake up one day and discover that our democracy is gone.

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