Federal bodies take steps to push voting rights after Biden’s executive order

United States President Joe Biden‘s administration on Tuesday released new steps for multiple federal agencies to promote voting rights and participation in the country, the White House said in a press release.

The press release said that on beginning Tuesday, “more than a dozen agencies across the federal government are announcing steps they are taking to respond to the President’s call for an all-of-government action to promote voting access and to further the ability of all eligible Americans to participate in our democracy.”

The following agencies will be implementing steps to promote Biden’s push:

1)  Department of the Treasury

The Treasury Department, which is headed by Secretary Janet Yellen, will reform its direct deposit campaigns and will now include information about voter registration and participation. Those who receive “Social Security, Veterans Affairs, and other federal benefit payments” will directly gain from this.

2)  Department of Justice

The United States Department of Justice, according to the press release, has created information databases that will provide information about voter registration, federal voting rights laws and how to report any potential violations of the same.

The Department of Justice will also provide information about voting to individuals in federal custody, facilitate voting by those who remain eligible to do so while in federal custody, the press release said.

3) Department of Homeland Security

Homeland Security will be assisting thousands of those who have been naturalised as United States citizens every year. This will be done by sending out invitations to local governments and nonpartisan nonprofit organizations to register voters at the end of naturalisation ceremonies.

Other federal departments that will also be taking part in Biden’s push for voting rights include the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of the Interior, Department of Transportation, Department of Veterans Affairs among others.

United States Vice President Kamala Harris wrote on Twitter, “On the 56th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in March 2021, President Biden issued the Executive Order on Promoting Access to Voting. That order instructs federal agencies to deploy resources available to them to work to promote voting access.”