OnPolitics: New Yorkers head to the voting booth

Mayoral candidates Andrew Yang and Kathryn Garcia wave to New Yorkers after speaking at the AAPI Democracy Project's "Voting is Justice Rally" in Chinatown on Sunday, June 20, 2021, in New York. (Photo: Brittainy Newman, AP)

It’s primary day for New Yorkers!

Voters in the city that never sleeps were heading to the polls Tuesday to pick their next mayor in what could be one of the most consequential elections in recent history.

The winner of the crowded Democratic primary in New York City is all but sure to win the general election in November, and voters will pick the nominee using ranked choice voting, a new twist to the mayoral election.

In disappointing news for the White House: The Biden administration won’t reach its “aspirational” goal of getting 70% of adult Americans at least partially vaccinated for COVID-19 by the Fourth of July. 

It’s Mabinty, with the news of the day. 

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A doomed For the People Act Senate vote

Democrats in the Senate are trying this week to convince their Republican colleagues that updated voting rights legislation is necessary, but the bill they are bringing forward is unlikely to pass. The For the People Act, which passed in the House largely along party lines in March, is unlikely to pass the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster in the evenly divided Senate. 

The bill is relevant as Republican-led states have introduced a slew of new voting restrictions that civil rights groups fear could suppress the vote for marginalized groups and make it harder to vote overall. It could be voted on as early as Tuesday.

What’s in the bill? The largest focus of the For the People Act would federalize provisions Democrats hope would make it easier for people to vote and register to vote. The bill would also make it a requirement for states to establish independent, bipartisan commissions to oversee the once-every-decade redistricting process that determines how voters will be represented.  Read more from USA TODAY’s Jeanine Santucci on what else is in the bill. 

Real quick: Stories you’ll want to read

  • Manchin supports taking up debate on For the People Act, the voting rights bill being considered in Senate
  • Indiana woman to plead guilty in Capitol riot role, ‘learned’ after watching ‘Schindler’s List’ and ‘Just Mercy’
  • Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to address legacy of Indigenous boarding schools
  • Federal judge tosses most claims over clearing protesters in DC’s Lafayette Park
  • Philippine President Duterte threatens to arrest Filipinos who refuse vaccination

Will SCOTUS take on warrantless searches case? 

Diane Zorri is one of eight plaintiffs in a lawsuit at the Supreme Court challenging warrantless searches of phones and other devices at the U.S. border. The justices are set to consider whether to take the case, and another one raising similar questions, when they meet Thursday for their final conference of the current term.      

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports it performed 40,913 so-called basic searches of electronic devices in 2019, a 22% increase from the prior fiscal year. Those searches involve an officer looking through a phone – reading emails, texts and calendar items – without the help of third-party software. The agency doesn’t track more advanced searches that involve connecting a phone to a computer for analysis.

Appeals courts have offered varying views on how much authority border officials have to search electronic devices, meaning that an international passenger entering the United States at Boston Logan International Airport faces a different set of rules than if that same passenger touches down in Los Angeles. Read more on the lawsuit from USA TODAY’s John Fritze. 

Hope you drink something sweet, like lemonade or iced coffee, today — Mabinty 

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