The West Virginia senator does not support his party’s top legislative priority on voting. Republicans also don’t like his preferred legislative alternat.
Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), a key vote in the 50-50 Senate, says he won’t support his party’s H.R. 1 bill – but, he would back a scaled-back version of Democrats’ efforts to overhaul and federalize elections.
Joe Manchin Finally Has a Good Idea
The key vote of the Senate might have a way to preserve voting rights from the GOP’s assaults and John Roberts’ legal opinions.
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West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, the nation’s de facto prime minister, threw cold water this week on the Democrats’ signature election-reform bill. The For the People Act would expand early voting, curb gerrymandering, and enact new campaign-finance restrictions. But Manchin suggested that he wouldn’t be willing to make major reforms without bipartisan support, effectively killing them.
His announcement is a grievous blow to a bill that was already facing a tough road to passage. But rather than just shrug and move on, the conservative Democratic senator instead charted a more interesting way forward. He threw his weight behind the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, an update to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and proposed applying its most sweeping provision to every state
Voting rights: Where do the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and For the People Act stand? Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY
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WASHINGTON – During his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Joe Biden put his support behind two pieces of legislation Democrats want to pass to strengthen access to voting and codify certain voter rights.
The For the People Act is in the spotlight as it heads toward a potential fight in the Senate, while the John Lewis Voting Rights Act has not yet made it through the House. Democrats would need at least 10 Republican senators to get on board with either piece of legislation to prevent a filibuster.
By Craig Bannister | May 13, 2021 | 3:43pm EDT
Sen. Joe Manchin
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Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), a key vote in the 50-50 Senate, says he won’t support his party’s H.R. 1 bill – but, he would back a scaled-back version of Democrats’ efforts to overhaul and federalize elections.
Machin prefers the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to Democrats’ “For The People” (H.R. 1) bill. But, even then, Manchin has “vowed that he would not bring the he bill to the floor for consideration unless it has bipartisan backing,” ABC News reports.
Passing a bill that would impose federal voting standards on all 50 states is “something that can be done; it should be done,” Manchin told ABC News Correspondent Rachael Scott on Tuesday.