Episode 32767: Open Democracy Minute for October 25, 2021: US Senate Freedom to Vote Act vote, NH House Redistricting committee schedules 2 hearings

Open Democracy Minute

You're listening to the Open Democracy Minute, keeping Granite State government by and for the people. As expected, the move to debate the Freedom to Vote Act in the US Senate was stonewalled with the filibuster, adding more pressure to change or abolish the archaic Senat rule. Eager to get a win, even President Biden expressed openness to changing the filibuster rules in an interview last week. This week, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act comes up for its first vote in the US Senate. The highly polarized Senate is expected to again invoke the filibuster’s 60-vote margin rule to block debate on restoring the 1965 Voting Rights Act rules stripped out by the Supreme Court in 2013. In NH democracy news, the final county hearings for the House and Senate redistricting committees were held last week, with residents of Hillsborough and Belknap counties speaking up for their constitutionally-guaranteed House districts, and a fair, nonpartisan process. Those hearings were followed on Wednesday by a House Special Committee on Redistricting work session which laid out a timetable for finishing the committee’s work. The members were asked to have draft maps by work sessions scheduled for Nov. 3rd & 4th. Two public hearings will also be held in the State House on either November 8th and 9th, or 9th & 10th. It is unclear whether online testimony will be allowed, despite high COVID numbers and disruptions and threats from anti-mandate protesters. As Granny D said, “Democracy is not something we HAVE, it's something we DO.” For the Open Democracy Minute, I'm Brian Beihl.