“Obama Touts Voting Rights Bill, Patent Reform”

NLJ:

“Last year, part of the Voting Rights Act was weakened,” Obama said tonight. “But conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats are working together to strengthen it.”

Obama also touted the report of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration to address a range of electoral issues, including voting accessibility and voting machine technology.

The president announced the commission during last year’s State of the Union, and chose his 2008 and 2012 campaign counsel, Robert Bauer of Perkins Coie, and Mitt Romney’s 2008 and 2012 campaign counsel, Benjamin Ginsberg of Patton Boggs, to lead the 10-member group.

“The bipartisan commission I appointed last year has offered reforms so that no one has to wait more than a half hour to vote. Let’s support these efforts,” Obama said. “It should be the power of our vote, not the size of our bank account, that drives our democracy.”

 

Jess Bravin

:

Chastened after his 2010 State of the Union address, when his explicit criticism of a Supreme Court decision sparked a rebuke from several justices, President Barack Obama took a more subtle approach Tuesday regarding a ruling he considers misguided. The reference in Tuesday’s address to Congress was so subtle, in fact, that television camera operators apparently didn’t realize what he was referring to, and failed to cut to attending justices for a reaction shot.

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