Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Democrat election process legislation will receive “full consideration in committee and eventually on the Senate floor.”
“This Senate will once again be the forum where civil rights is debated and historic action is taken to secure them for all Americans,” Schumer wrote in a letter to senators. “Each of these bills will receive full consideration in committee and eventually on the Senate floor.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has called the legislative effort “replete with problems,” containing items that President Joe Biden voters, black Americans, and Latino citizens do not support, such as canceling voter ID laws in 35 states.
However, the Senate version of the legislation, known as S.1 or the “For the People Act,” is a long shot for passage through the Senate without repealing the filibuster some Democrats hope to revoke to force through radical legislation on partisan lines. As it stands now, though, the Senate needs 60 votes to pass legislation.
“It’s an existential threat, I think, to our election system and to our democracy,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who opposes the bill. “Basically, what they want to do is install a permanent partisan advantage and run all the elections out of Washington, D.C., and eliminate ballot integrity measures like voter ID.”
Schumer’s letter comes after the State of Georgia passed legislation to ensure election integrity. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) defended the state’s efforts Friday, saying, “There’s no rational argument against requiring state ID — provided for free to those who don’t have a driver’s license — for absentee ballots.”
But Democrats disagree, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who compared the state’s election integrity legislation to the era of Jim Crow. Biden has also labeled Georgia’s efforts “sick” and “un-American.”
Despite the partisan debate, Democrats have problems of their own, facing resistance within their own ranks to “completely consolidate power for all time.” For instance, Breitbart News reported Saturday that moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) took aim at Schumer, highlighting his linchpin position in the Senate.
“I know one thing, Chuck, you wouldn’t have this problem at all if I wasn’t here,” Manchin said.
Manchin has also boasted about his well-fortified position, which he believes is immune to left-wing pressure. “What are they going to do, they going to go into West Virginia and campaign against me? Please, that would help me more than anything.”
Additionally, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), having both voiced “concerns about eliminating the filibuster.”
“Kyrsten is against eliminating the filibuster, and she is not open to changing her mind about eliminating the filibuster,” a spokesperson for Sinema said.
Increasing the pressure on the Democrat divide, NBC News reported Sunday, “The American Conservative Union Foundation has launched the Center to Protect Elections, which is mobilizing voters against the bill.”
“‘We need bipartisan, common-sense solutions to strengthen our voting system, but H.R.1 is not the answer,’ Alfredo Ortiz, head of the conservative Job Creators Network, said in a statement. ‘This is a time of choosing for ‘centrist’ Democrats like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.’”
