The Justice Department will also launch a task force to address the rise in threats against election officials

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee with jurisdiction over federal elections and campaign finance law and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee with jurisdiction over civil rights law, issued the statement below following the Department of Justice’s announcement that it is filing a lawsuit challenging new voting restrictions in Georgia and will launch a task force to address the rise in threats against election officials.

“This lawsuit by the Justice Department is an important step towards ensuring all Georgians are able to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Georgia’s new law rolling back voting rights is a targeted effort to disenfranchise Americans from casting their ballots – especially people of color who are more likely to rely on voting by mail, dropboxes, and provisional ballots to ensure their votes are counted.

“The Biden administration is showing that it is committed to tackling efforts to restrict voting head on. In Congress, this fight has just begun – that’s why, as Chairwoman of the Rules Committee, I announced earlier this week that I will hold a series of hearings on the urgent need to pass critical voting, campaign finance, and ethics reforms, including a field hearing in Georgia. In the face of these unprecedented attacks, we must move quickly to ensure our democracy works for every American.”

Earlier this week, Klobuchar joined Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Jon Ossoff (D-GA) in introducing legislation to ensure the integrity of local elections while protecting the safety and security of election workers and volunteers. The Preventing Election Subversion Act would make it a federal crime for any person to attempt to intimidate, threaten, coerce, or harass election workers.

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