Just Politics

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The Senate is set to debate Democrats’ expansive voting rights bill this week.

The Senate is expected this week to debate legislation that would create the most sweeping elections overhaul in generations, as Democrats try to force an issue that has divided their conference and will test some of their members who are most reluctant to back it.

“Democrats will bring forward legislation to protect voting rights and safeguard our democracy,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, said in a floor speech last week announcing the debate. “And we are going to see where everyone stands. Everyone.”

The formal Senate debate will come as Republican legislatures and governors across the country have sought to clamp down on voting rules. It also follows months of hand-wringing by Democrats. Even as they assert that failure is not an option, they have struggled to unite around a strategy to overcome Republican opposition and an almost certain filibuster — and they have not persuaded some of their own lawmakers that the law is necessary.

Republicans are united in their opposition, describing the bill as poorly drafted and overly prescriptive. To pass it on a simple majority, party-line vote, Democrats would have to destroy the Senate’s filibuster rule, which requires 60 votes to put aside any senator’s objection. Proceeding with a debate will test the opposition of Democratic senators who are holding out and lay the groundwork for party leaders to justify scrapping the filibuster.

Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a key Democratic swing vote who opposes ending the filibuster, said last week that he opposed the blanket prohibition on all voter identification laws in Senate Democrats’ current version of the bill and that he would not support public financing of elections. Showing some flexibility, he said he could support expansions of early and mail-in voting that would roll back dozens of voter restriction laws that have passed or are nearing passage in states like Georgia, Florida and Texas.

On Monday, President Barack Obama tepidly endorsed Mr. Manchin’s version of the bill as the best possible prospect to pass a new federal voting law.

“The bill that’s going to be debated, including Senator Manchin’s changes, would address, as Eric mentioned, many of the concerns and issues that I was just discussing,” Mr. Obama said during a call with former Attorney General Eric Holder and supporters. “I’ll be honest, the bill doesn’t have everything I’d like to see in a voting rights bill, it doesn’t address every problem.”

As long as 10 Republicans are needed to break a filibuster, Mr. Manchin’s version of the bill would have no chance of passage.

Other Democratic senators have joined Mr. Manchin opposing the end of the filibuster. Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and other lawmakers who have also privately expressed reluctance to scrap the rule have been far more circumspect, indicating that there are more hurdles than just two of the most outspoken Democrats.

Proponents of the bill have argued that protecting the right to vote in the face of a wave of new Republican-led restrictions is worth jettisoning the filibuster rule. If the measure passes, Democrats could effectively overpower the states’ new laws by putting in place national mandates that set up automatic voter registration, restore the franchise to felons who have served their terms and hold regular “no excuse” early and absentee voting.

Mr. Obama reiterated his call, first made last summer, to end the filibuster, and warned that not passing voting rights legislation could eventually lead to the crumbling of American democracy.

“We can’t wait until the next election because, if we have the same kinds of shenanigans that brought about January 6, you know, if we have that for a couple more election cycles we’re going to have real problems in terms of our democracy long term,” he said.

— Catie Edmondson

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/06/21/us/joe-biden-news?