Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Lawmakers Spar Over Voting Rights Bill

 

Chuck Schumer in a suit and tie© Kevin Dietsch - Pool Via Cnp/Zuma Press

Lawmakers squared off Wednesday at a hearing on nationwide voting rules, with Democrats proposing an overhaul to ease voting access, and Republicans calling it a power grab and arguing states should retain flexibility on their elections.

The Senate Committee on Rules and Administration is holding the chamber’s first hearing on the legislation since Democrats won control of the Senate in January. The Democratic bill, dubbed the For the People Act, would loosen state voter-identification requirements, expand mail-in voting and mandate online and same-day voter registration as well as early voting, among other measures.

The bill faces steep odds of passing in the 50-50 Senate, where it will need at least 60 votes to advance, thanks to the chamber’s legislative filibuster rule. The House version of the bill passed 220-210 earlier this month. No Republicans voted for it.

Democrats say that their legislation would remove obstacles to election participation in the U.S., particularly for minority voters. They also say it is especially crucial now because many Republican-controlled state legislatures are considering their own laws to tighten voting procedures, saying that changes are needed to restore faith in the voting process.

Republicans argue that election rules should be left in the hands of the states on questions such as early voting, voter eligibility and election security. They say that Democrats want to change the rules to gain an advantage in winning elections.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) appeared in person at the hearing, in a reflection of how both parties are emphasizing the fight over the bill and using it to rally activists and supporters.

Mr. Schumer compared the Republican bills being proposed in many state legislatures to Jim Crow-era racial segregation rules. “I would like to ask my Republican colleagues, why are you so afraid of democracy?” he said.

“This is clearly an effort by one party to rewrite the rules of our political system,” said Mr. McConnell. He said the bill would invite chaos because it would force states to rush through big changes, like building new technology systems to register voters.

The bill has also become a flashpoint in the debate over the filibuster rule, which some Democratic advocates and lawmakers want to change, potentially by creating a carve-out for civil rights or voting legislation. Some Democrats oppose ending the filibuster, saying the rule forces legislators to seek broad consensus for policies that affect the entire country, but they have indicated that Republican moves to block the voting-rights bill could change their position.

“All-out opposition to reasonable voting rights protections cannot be enabled by the filibuster,” said Sen. Angus King (I., Maine), who caucuses with the Democrats and who last year said he opposed ending the filibuster. “If forced to choose between a Senate rule and democracy itself, I know where I will come down,” he wrote in an opinion article in the Washington Post.

He follows Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), who last year called for ending the filibuster if that was necessary to pass legislation expanding the Voting Rights Act. He had opposed ending the filibuster during his campaigns for president.

The bill makes many changes. It would restructure the Federal Election Commission and create independent panels to draw voting districts in each state to end gerrymandering. The bill also would enable candidates for Congress to get a 6-to-1 federal match for small-dollar donations, which proponents say would open up the political system for new kinds of candidates and curtail the influence of big donors.

Ten witnesses were scheduled to testify at the hearing. They include two top state election officials, Indiana’s Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who is now chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, along with other former government officials and analysts.

One of the Republican witnesses, West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner, previously said he opposes the bill because it would impose some federal requirements, such as same-day registration, that he said don’t make sense for his state.

West Virginia could be especially important because the state’s centrist senator, Joe Manchin, is the only senator on the Democratic side who wasn’t listed as a co-sponsor of the legislation as of Tuesday. Last week he told reporters he was still reviewing the bill, and West Virginia election officials have lobbied Mr. Manchin to oppose it.

Write to Alexa Corse at alexa.corse@wsj.com

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