A Pivotal Moment for Voting Rights

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FRED WERTHEIMER’S WEEKLY NOTE | June 10, 2021

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“Only S. 1 will supersede the voter suppression laws being enacted by numerous Republican-controlled state legislatures all over the country. Legislation to override these laws must be enacted by this summer in order to be implemented by the states in time for the 2022 congressional elections.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has scheduled S. 1, the For the People Act, for Senate floor consideration during the week of June 21, 2021.

Senator Schumer has said about the legislation that “failure is not an option,” and he is conducting an all-out campaign to win this battle.

Standing in the way, so far, is Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) who says he wants a bipartisan bill, that he wants 10 Republicans to support it and break a filibuster, that he supports the John Lewis Voting Rights Act (VRAA), and that he doesn’t support changing the filibuster rules.

But, Senator Manchin has also flatly said that “inaction is not an option,” on voting rights.

Only S. 1 will supersede the voter suppression laws being enacted by numerous Republican-controlled state legislatures all over the country. Legislation to override these laws must be enacted by this summer in order to be implemented by the states in time for the 2022 congressional elections.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently said, the VRAA “must be passed, but it will not be ready until the fall, and it is not a substitute for H.R. 1,” the House version of S. 1.

There is no basis at all for concluding that 10 Republican Senators will support breaking a filibuster on any real voting rights legislation, including the VRAA. Senator Manchin needs to publicly identify who he thinks the 10 Republican Senators are or else drop this position.

Senator Manchin has not made clear what he objects to in S. 1, a bill he cosponsored in the last Congress. His Senate Democratic colleagues will need to press him on identifying his problems with the bill in order to reach an agreement and obtain his support.

Senator Manchin has said: “The right to vote is fundamental to our American democracy.”

To do his part to protect the fundamental right to vote, Senator Manchin will need to support making an exception to the filibuster rules. Manchin has supported changing the rules in the past – in 2011 he cosponsored and voted for a Senate Resolution to change the filibuster rules.

Senator Manchin is facing a historic moment.

If Senator Manchin is not prepared to vote for S. 1 and its voting rights provisions, and to vote for an exception to the filibuster rules to pass the legislation, Manchin will go down in history as the person responsible for denying millions of eligible citizens their precious right to vote in the 2022 congressional elections and beyond.

That is not, I believe, the place in history where Senator Manchin wants to end up.

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