US President Joe Biden’s sweeping election reform bill, which hopes to remedy an “unprecedented assault” on democracy and African Americans’ right to vote, has been faced with protests from even key Democratic quarters.

The legislation has already received an overwhelming Republican opposition, and given Democrats’ razor-thin control of the Senate, support of all Democratic senators is a must.

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But what is the election reform bill?

Following former president Donald Trump’s frequent, baseless claims of election fraud in November, the Republican-controlled states have passed legislation aiming to make the voting process more secure. 

However, Democrats say the Republican-backed changes will have the clear effect of suppressing votes, especially in heavily Black, Democrat-leaning cities.

In the House of Representatives, with a slightly larger majority, Democrats passed the election reform bill in March without a single Republican vote.

Among other things, it would protect the right to register to vote even on Election Day, as well as the right to vote early or by mail-in ballot — methods sharply curbed by the Republican states.

Those methods are credited with boosting the African-American vote — normally reliably Democratic — especially in urban areas with insufficient election sites where the wait to vote can last hours.

Meanwhile, every state would require to automatically register eligible voters, restore voting rights to former felons and offer early voting and no-excuse absentee balloting.

The bill would also require presidents and vice presidents to make their tax returns publicly available, something Donald Trump consistently refused to do.

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In addition to electoral reforms, the bill would also bring about wide-reaching ethics and accountability reforms, including a code of ethics for the U.S. Supreme Court justices, a ban on congressional legislators sitting on corporate boards and bringing transparency to campaign financing. 

Biden has said the Republican legislation amounts to “an assault on democracy… often disproportionately targeting Black and Brown Americans,” according to AFP inputs.

He promised last week to fight “like heck” for passage of the legislation.