GOP use filibuster to block Dems’ voting rights bill

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Republican senators blocked the Democrats’ efforts to rewrite the U.S. election and voting law Tuesday by using a filibuster wall.
• The voting bill, titled the For the People Act, has been used as an example of why the filibuster in the Senate should be eliminated.
• With a 50-50 vote, the Democratic measure fell short without any GOP support.

U.S. Senate Republicans shut down efforts to open debate on a sweeping elections reform and voting rights bill brought to the Senate floor by Democrats Tuesday night.

In a party-line 50-50 vote, the Democratic measure, S.1, titled the For the People Act, did not reach the 60-vote threshold required to end a filibuster and advance. Democrats did pick up the last-minute support of a wavering member, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III, and presented a united front, but still fell short without any GOP support.

Senate Majority Chuck Schumer acknowledged the likely outcome in a floor speech earlier Tuesday but stressed the need for federal legislation to protect voting rights. The 800-page voting bill has been a priority for Democrats this year and used as a prime example by progressives of why the filibuster should be eliminated.

Republican-controlled state legislatures have moved to propose and enact legislation that Democrats and experts say would restrict voting access, particularly for rural residents, people with disabilities and communities of color.

“So in state after state, state after state, Republicans are reducing polling hours and locations and the number of drop boxes, so that Americans of all parties—but particularly Democratic voters, people of color, young people, poorer people—have a harder time finding the time, place, and manner to vote,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said.

As of May 14, state Republican legislators have introduced 389 bills with restrictive voting provisions across 48 states, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

Currently, 22 bills have been passed into law, with 61 bills in 18 states pending in state legislatures. Recent overhauls of voting laws enacted in Georgia, Florida and Montana have alarmed Democrats because the laws limit the number of ballot boxes for voters, restrict mail-in voting and ban the distribution of food and water by groups to voters waiting in long lines.

“There is a rot—a rot—at the center of the modern Republican Party,” Schumer said.

“Donald Trump’s Big Lie has spread like a cancer and threatens to envelop one of America’s major political parties,” Schumer added. “Even worse, it has poisoned our democracy, eroded faith in our elections, which is so detrimental to the future faith people need to have in this democracy.”

The House passed its version of the bill in March, 220-210.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said during a Senate floor speech that the bill was nothing more than a political move by Democrats to win elections and is an overreach by the federal government in elections.

“The Senate is only an obstacle when the policy is flawed and the process is rotten,” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said. “And that’s exactly why this body exists. Today the Senate’s going to fulfill our founding purpose, stop the partisan power grab and reject S. 1.”

President Joe Biden did not answer questions at the White House on Tuesday afternoon on what Democrats’ next steps would be.

Source: Nevada Current