Democrats’ Voting Rights Bill Appears Doomed as Manchin Rejects Rules Change

WASHINGTON (Reuters) —
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) takes a phone call in a hallway as the Senate continues debate of voting rights legislation at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., January 19, 2022. (Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz)

An effort by U.S. Senate Democrats to pass a voting-rights bill that faces rock-solid Republican opposition looked set to fail on Wednesday after Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said he would block a move to change the chamber’s filibuster rule.

Despite President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urging fellow Democrats to support suspending or easing the filibuster rule to circumvent the Republican blockade, Manchin took to the Senate floor to proclaim that he would not vote for such a rule change.

That left Republicans with the muscle to use the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold to block an election reform bill Democrats insist is necessary to preserve the right to vote in the United States. The procedural vote is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. EST (2330 GMT).

Manchin, a conservative Democrat, spoke as Biden, who has called the bill critical to preserving democracy, was giving his first news conference in months.

“Let this change happen in this way and the Senate will be a body without rules,” Manchin said in an afternoon speech on the Senate floor. “We don’t have to change the rules to make our case to the American people for voting rights.”

The bill that is set to fail is one that Manchin himself helped cobble together while trying — and failing — to win any Republican support.

Biden told reporters on Wednesday that he had not given up hope of advancing voting-rights.

“We’ve not run out of options yet,” Biden said.

ROCK-HARD OPPOSITION

With the Senate split 50-50, Democrats would need support from all of their caucus members plus a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris to change the chamber’s rules. Manchin joined fellow conservative Democrat Kyrsten Sinema in announcing their opposition to the rules change in Senate floor speeches.

While dashing his party’s hopes, possibly for years to come, for sweeping changes that would set minimum standards in all 50 states on elections for U.S. president and members of Congress, Manchin did open the door for backing narrower election legislation.

He pointed to the need to reform the 19th-century Electoral Count Act to make it harder for members of Congress to challenge state certifications of winners of presidential elections every four years. Several Republican lawmakers challenged the results of 2020 presidential election after former President Donald Trump falsely claimed there was widespread fraud.

Thousands of Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2016, launched a deadly attack on the Capitol in an effort to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s election.

Manchin also said: “We can protect (state) election workers from harassment by making it a national crime.” Some Republicans have shown interest in legislating on both of those matters and a bipartisan group to work on a potential bill was showing early signs of life.

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