Former President Barack Obama delivered a eulogy for the late congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis, calling for automatic voter registration, an Election Day national holiday and expanded ballot access.
In order to honor Lewis' legacy, Obama called on elected officials to go further than merely renaming the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
"By adding polling places and expanding early voting and making Election Day a national holiday. So if you are somebody who is working in a factory or you're a single mom who's got to go to her job and doesn't get time off, you can still cast your ballot," Obama continued. "And if all this takes eliminating the filibuster, another Jim Crow relic, in order to secure the God-given rights of every American, then that's what we should do," he said.
"John Lewis always looked outward, not inward," said Bush, a Republican who was the last president to renew the Voting Rights Act. "He always thought of others. He always believed in preaching the gospel, in word and in deed, insisting that hate and fear had to be answered with love and hope."
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