There will be NO Voting Rights counter to the Republican voter suppression efforts across the country…..
This the Senator from West Virginia assures……
But lets face it?
It isn’t just him….
(The Senate Super Majority rule also)
And?
Democrats will have to turn to courts and media pressure….
Or water down the legislation….
“I believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy, and for that reason, I will vote against the For the People Act. Furthermore, I will not vote to weaken or eliminate the filibuster,” Mr. Manchin wrote in The Charleston Gazette-Mail, his home state capital’s newspaper.
Under Senate rules, 60 votes are needed to end debate and break a filibuster on policy legislation. Republican and Democratic Senates have chipped away at the filibuster, ensuring that most executive branch appointees and judicial nominees can be confirmed with a simple 51-vote majority. A budget rule, called reconciliation, has also been stretched to pass ambitious legislation under the guise of spending and taxation. Major tax cuts pressed by President George W. Bush and Mr. Trump were passed with simple majorities as budget bills, as were parts of the Affordable Care Act and a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill earlier this year.
But bills that are purely policy oriented are still subject to a 60-vote majority in the Senate, and all 48 Democrats and both liberal-leaning independents would have to align to change that rule. Even if they did, all 50 would have to vote for the voting rights and ethics bill, considering that no Republican is expected to back it.
Mr. Manchin said instead that he would support passage of another bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore federal oversight over state-level voting law changes to protect minority groups that might be targeted. He cited one Republican, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, as a supporter of the measure.
But he is still far short of the 60-vote threshold he backs to pass even that bill.
“I continue to engage with my Republican and Democratic colleagues about the value of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and I am encouraged by the desire from both sides to transcend partisan politics and strengthen our democracy by protecting voting rights,” Mr. Manchin wrote….
Note…
President Biden is also against getting ride of the super majority filibuster rule in the US Senate….
Nate Silver on Manchin….
Nate Silver
@NateSilver538
There aren’t a lot of ways to exercise pressure on Manchin. Biden and other Democrats aren’t popular in his state. A primary challenge probably wouldn’t work (and if it did, the nominee would lose the general election) and he may not run for re-election anyway.
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Nate Silver
@NateSilver538
Replying to
@NateSilver538
He’s signaled all along that he wasn’t on board with HR1. He’s also left the door open on HR4 (a.k.a. the John Lewis Voting Rights Act). So Democrats can work on something along those lines…or hope to add a Senate seat or two (and hold the House) in 2022. Those are the options.
Pressure coming at Manchin on Voting Reform…..
Hundreds of demonstrators outraged with Sen. Joe Manchin’s opposition to a sweeping overhaul of U.S. election law marched through West Virginia’s capital city on Monday evening.
Rev. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, denounced the influential moderate Democratic senator and called for a diverse coalition of working people to apply pressure on Manchin, who recently opposed a $15 minimum wage and the price tag of President Joe Biden’s initial $2 trillion infrastructure plan.
“West Virginia needs a real senator,” he thundered at a Charleston park in front of a festive crowd.
Then they marched a mile to Manchin’s office. Unable to meet with the senator — an aide told Barber that he was in Washington — leaders of the demonstration affixed a poster-sized protest letter to the front doors of the office building. Rally-goers took turns signing their names on it…
More…
Update on Vote Reform efforts that isn’t going much of anywhere….
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Thursday that Republicans will oppose a compromise election reform proposal put forward by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).
“I would make this observation about the revised version … all Republicans I think will oppose that as well if that were to be what surfaced on the floor,” McConnell told reporters, referring to Manchin’s proposal.
McConnell’s comments, which came during a press conference with GOP senators railing against the For the People Act, are the latest signal that the election bill will fail during a procedural vote next week due to a GOP filibuster….
More…
This doesn’t really matter…
But could give Manchin a few point’s with some Democrats….
Stacey Abrams on Thursday threw her support behind Sen. Joe Manchin’s proposed revisions to congressional Democrats’ expansive election and ethics reform bill, conferring him the endorsement of one of the nation’s premier voting rights activists.
In an interview on CNN, Abrams — a former Democratic nominee for Georgia governor who founded an organization to fight voter suppression — said she “absolutely” could support the changes to the For the People Act that Manchin (D-W.Va.) outlined in a memo circulated among colleagues on Wednesday….
More…