Voting rights bill in Senate is doomed, but Joe Manchin will vote yes
The Democratic-led Senate Rules Committee plans to move ahead with a series of hearings, including in Georgia, calling for passage of new legislation — as well as to spotlight Republican-led efforts at the state level to enact restrictive measures in the wake of the growth of mail-in voting during the 2020 election season.
Tuesday’s vote is a procedural motion on whether to begin debate on the legislation. It would need 60 votes to succeed, a threshold it is not expected to meet.
Republicans have been unified in opposing the legislation, while Senate Democrats have been working to try to win over Manchin, who had expressed concerns over the legislation.
In a statement on Tuesday ahead of the vote, Manchin said that he had “found common ground with my Democratic colleagues on a new version of the bill that ensures our elections are fair, accessible and secure,” and that as a result he will “vote ‘YES’ to move to debate this updated voting legislation.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that he and Manchin had reached an agreement to move ahead with the bill. “I have committed to him that if our Republican colleagues don’t obstruct and allow us to move forward on the debate, we will take up his proposed substitute amendment as the first amendment we will consider,” Schumer said.
Schumer gave an impassioned speech on the Senate floor Monday on the significance of voting rights ahead of Tuesday’s “crucial vote” on legislation to “protect Americans’ voting rights,” which he argued “are under assault from one end of the country to the other.”
Still, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made clear on Monday afternoon that the legislation is destined to fail in the Senate, promising they will give it “no quarter.”
McConnell accused Democrats of trying to make election laws benefit their party, saying, “They’ve made it abundantly clear that the real driving force behind S1 is a desire to rig the rules of American elections permanently, permanently in Democrats’ favor,” rather than protecting the rights of voters.
McConnell last week threw cold water on Manchin’s proposal and indicated that he did not believe any Republican in the Senate would vote for it.
“There’s now a debate among Democrats over a revised version produced by one of the Democrats, ” McConnell said, before going on to call the proposal, “Equally unacceptable. Totally inappropriate.”
“All Republicans, I think, will oppose that as well,” he said.
Sen. Roy Blunt, a Republican from Missouri, told reporters on Monday that he believes Republicans will be 100% united against advancing the legislation.
“I expect we all vote against it,” Blunt said.
It would institute an ethics code for the US Supreme Court that would apply to justices and would implement measures intended to prevent presidential conflicts of interest.
It would stop lawmakers from using taxpayer money to reach settlements in employment discrimination cases stemming from their own actions.
The bill also takes aim at Citizens United, the landmark 2010 Supreme Court decision, by calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn the ruling, which opened the door to unlimited spending by corporations and unions to influence elections.
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments Tuesday.
CNN’s Manu Raju, Ted Barrett, Ali Zaslav, Morgan Rimmer and Fredreka Schouten contributed to this report.
