US Senator Joe Manchin – Politico photo
By Nancy Thorner -
As reported by Politico on January 3, 2022, Dems to use Jan. 6 anniversary to supercharge voting rights push, Democrats in the Senate are hoping that Thursday, January 6, 2022 will be more than just a day of remembrance of the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 so-called Capitol siege in the Senate.
According to well-positioned Politico sources, “There’s a desire to take the opportunity to supercharge the party’s long-stalled voting rights legislation — possibly even using the anniversary to try to get Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin D-W.Va) to go nuclear on the filibuster or embrace rules changes.”
Although the bill is certain to get filibustered by the GOP — just as it has time and time again — some Dems think that an argument pegged to Jan. 6 could win over Sinema and Manchin, the party’s two major holdouts against making an end run around the filibuster to pass the voting bill.
Schumer, however, has signaled that when the bill goes down, he will open a debate about changing Senate rules to enable passage of voting measures without the chamber’s 60-vote threshold.
Statement by Mitch McConnell, U.S. Senate Republican Leader
Senate Update: October 14, 2021: The following statement was issued by U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) from Lexington, Kentucky, on October 14, 2021, about the Democrats’ effort to federalize all 50 states’ elections:
“I understand that Democrats are concerned about their reelections. Citizens are unhappy with the never-ending series of national crises that Democrats’ policies are inflicting on their families. The solution to their unpopularity is not this obsessive quest to rewrite election law and rig the game. It is to stop ramming through terrible policies that hurt families and help China.”
Senator Cruz has his say
Following are opening remarks by Sen. Cruz on S.1 at a Senate Rules Committee meeting. Included is the first paragraph of a rather lengthy diatribe by Cruz.
"This legislation, I believe, is the most radical legislation the Senate has considered in the nine years I've been here, and it is the most dangerous legislation pending before the United States Congress. You know, I listened to the speeches this morning, I listened to Senator Schumer's speech where he recounted this country's shameful history of Jim Crow laws. And he's right, Jim Crow laws were bigoted, racist, and disenfranchised millions of people. It is worth remembering that those Jim Crow laws were drafted by Democrats, they were implemented by Democrats, and they kept Democrats in power. Now, today's talking point repeated in the media is that was the Democrats of yesterday, not today. Well, today, the Democrats are doing it again, this legislation, to use a phrase that has been popularized on the media recently, is Jim Crow 2.0. This legislation would disenfranchise millions of Americans.
The Senate legislation is referred to by Sen. Cruz and other Senate Republicans as the "Corrupt Politicians Act" because it would do – Senator Schumer talked about politicians picking their constituents, that's what this legislation does. This legislation is designed to ensure that Democrats never lose another election.
Summary of Freedom to Vote Act
The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress and was published on Sep 14, 2021.
The bill addresses voter registration and voting access, election integrity and security, redistricting, and campaign finance.
Specifically, the bill expands voter registration (e.g., automatic and same-day registration) and voting access (e.g., vote-by-mail and early voting). It also limits removing voters from voter rolls.
Next, the bill establishes Election Day as a federal holiday.
The bill declares that the right of a U.S. citizen to vote in any election for federal office shall not be denied or abridged because that individual has been convicted of a criminal offense unless, at the time of the election, such individual is serving a felony sentence.
The bill establishes certain federal criminal offenses related to voting. In particular, the bill establishes a new criminal offense for conduct (or attempted conduct) to corruptly hinder, interfere with, or prevent another person from registering to vote or helping someone register to vote.
Additionally, the bill sets forth provisions related to election security, including by requiring states to conduct post-election audits for federal elections. The bill outlines criteria for congressional redistricting and generally prohibits mid-decade redistricting.
The bill outlines criteria for congressional redistricting and generally prohibits mid-decade redistricting.
The bill addresses campaign finance, including by expanding the prohibition on campaign spending by foreign nationals, requiring additional disclosure of campaign-related fundraising and spending, requiring additional disclaimers regarding certain political advertising, and establishing an alternative campaign funding system for certain federal office.
House passage of H.R. 4 – John Lewis Voting Rights Act
As reported on August 24, 2021, House lawmakers approved new legislation (H.R. 4) aimed at protecting the right to vote, amid a wave of restrictive new elections laws from Republican-controlled state legislatures.
The bill is named for the Georgia congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis, who died last year.
The bill passed in the House along party lines, with 219 Democrats in favor and all 212 Republicans opposed.
The stakes are high. If Manchin can be persuaded to vote yes, another Republican would possibly never again be elected.
Manchin puts a wrench into the bill?
As reported by Joseph Lord of Epoch Times at the last minute, updated January 4, 2022, Senator Joe Manchin seems to have put a wrench into Schumer's proposal to change Senate Rules for Voting Bill.
Said Manchin: “I’ve always been for rules being done the way we’ve always done,” Manchin said when asked about Schumer’s proposal. “Being open to a rules change that would create a nuclear option, it’s very, very difficult.”
“Any time there’s a carve out, you eat the whole turkey,” Manchin quipped, referencing potential dangers that could come from liberally using the nuclear option. “The Senate as it has operated for 232 years [is an] extremely, extremely high bar that we must be very careful [before crossing],” Manchin argued.
Manchin also said that he preferred that any election legislation or rule changes should be acceptable to both Republicans and Democrats and indicated that a bipartisan solution to the concerns of both Republicans and Democrats could be found.
Now that Manchin has seemingly come out against the Democrat's
proposal, hope has faded that Democrats’ newest scheme to federalize elections will come to fruition; that is, at least for now!
