Trump proposes new voting limits, rails against "monster" voting rights bill

Congress is beginning debate on the biggest overhaul of US elections law in a generation.

As reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the chamber passed House Bill 531 in a party-line 97-72 vote. The bill now heads to the state Senate for consideration.

The introduction of the bill comes as statehouses across the country - many of them controlled by Republicans - are weighing imposing stricter voter ID laws, curbing mail-in voting and other measures that would restrict access to the polls.

Demonstrators marched outside the Capitol on Monday to protest the bill, which the Rev. James Woodall, president of the Georgia NAACP, said is one of the "most egregious, dangerous, and most expensive voter suppression acts in this entire nation, rolling back years of hardball progress and renewing our own reputation for discrimination".

But CPAC has brought that fissure into the spotlight, most prominently with the very awkward moment of Kevin McCarthy talking up Donald Trump's CPAC appearance last week right before Liz Cheney took a very different position on the former president's speech. Biden's fellow Democrats have a majority in the House, but the bill is unlikely to pass the Senate, where the measure would need support from all 50 members of that party caucus, plus 10 Republicans.

Democrats say the legislation furthers Trump's lies and would disproportionately affect voters of color. With a rallying cry about the presidential election having been stolen from Trump, and basing their plans on the premise that large turnouts benefit Democrats, state legislators are seeking major changes to help Republicans win the presidency next time, the New York Times reports. "And now they are doing anything they can to silence the voices of Black and brown voters specifically, because they largely powered these wins".

"There should be a legitimate reason for someone to vote absentee", he said.

"Today, before the eyes of this country, Georgia is poised to pass some of the most egregious, unsafe and most expensive voter suppression acts in this entire nation, rolling back years of hardball progress and renewing our own reputation for discrimination", the Rev. James Woodall, president of the Georgia NAACP, said at the rally.

Alaina Reaves, the president of the Clayton County Young Democrats, was among the protestors.