For the third time this year, Senate Republicans blocked a voting rights bill Wednesday, intensifying Democratic calls to eliminate the filibuster. Democrats say the legislation is necessary in order to protect democracy from a slew of recently passed state laws that limit access to the ballot box. Republicans, call it a “power grab” and a “election takeover scheme.”
The Guardian reports:
The bill, the Freedom to Vote Act, would impose significant new guardrails on the American democratic process and amount to the most significant overhaul of US elections in a generation. It would require every state to automatically register voters at motor vehicle agencies, offer 15 consecutive days of early voting and allow anyone to request a mail-in ballot. It would also set new standards to ensure voters are not wrongfully removed from the voter rolls, protect election officials against partisan interference, and set out clear alternatives people who lack ID to vote can use at the polls.
The vote to advance debate on the bill failed 49-51 (Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer switched his vote for procedural purposes; his ‘no’ vote allows him to reintroduce the bill at a later point). Any bill needs 60 votes to survive a GOP filibuster.
“Across the country, the Big Lie — the Big Lie — has spread like a cancer as many states across the nation have passed the most draconian restrictions against voting that we’ve seen in decades,” Schumer said. “If nothing is done, these laws will make it harder for millions of Americans to participate in their government.”
According to the Brennan Center For Justice, “at least 19 states enacted 33 laws that make it harder for Americans to vote” during the first nine months of 2021.
The bill up for vote Wednesday was a watered-down version of a previous legislative proposal. Changes were made at the behest of West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who wanted to include some sort of ID requirement to vote. Manchin thought his tweaks would draw GOP support.
But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says the new bill still has the “same rotten core” that reflects Democrats’ “radical agenda.”
Democrats have an option to work around GOP obstinance. They can eliminate the filibuster, thereby lowering the threshold for a bill’s passage from a supermajority (60 votes) to a simple majority (50 votes + a tiebreak from Vice President Kamala Harris).
The Associated Press reports:
…amid the ongoing stalemate, there are signs that Democrats are making headway in their effort to create consensus around changing Senate procedural rules, a key step that could allow them to muscle transformative legislation through the narrowly divided chamber.
Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, recently eased his longstanding opposition to changing the filibuster rules, which create a 60-vote threshold for most legislation to pass.
“I’ve concluded that democracy itself is more important than any Senate rule,” said King, who acknowledged that weakening the filibuster would likely prove to be a “double-edged sword” under a Republican majority.
Historian Heather Cox Richardson provided context on her Substack blog:
Since the Republican Senate seats skew heavily toward rural areas, in this case, it is possible for 41 Republican senators, who represent just 21% of the population, to stop voting rights legislation backed by 70% of Americans.
If this is permitted to stand, more and more voters will be silenced, and the nation will fall under a system of minority rule much like that in the American South between about 1876 and 1964. The South always held elections…and the outcome was always preordained.
