- We were a small spark that reignited a national debate
and discussion on voting rights in America.
- There's a number of ways Congress has in the past,
and could in the future, protect voting rights.
Right now, Democrats are proposing a very broad law
that touches on voting rights, campaign finance reform,
ethics in government, called the For the People Act.
- The bill is passed.
- This particular piece of legislation,
the For the People Act, existed even before 2020
and President Trump's efforts to delegitimize the election,
make false claims of a stolen election,
which prompted, in 2021, several state legislatures
to change their voting laws to make them more restrictive,
crack down on early voting, crack down on mail voting,
roll back some of the opportunities that voters had.
- This just hours ago.
Governor Doug Ducey signed a controversial election bill.
- Governor DeSantis signing a controversial
elections bill into law today.
- There is a lot packed into this piece of legislation.
- Pressure is growing on Congress to take action
and get something done on voting rights.
- Our voting rights are at stake.
There's a concerted assault across this nation
to suppress the votes of people of color.
I mean, literally, we're relying on Congress to,
you know, provide that coverage for us.
- The Senate is expected to take a procedural vote,
in hopes of advancing it,
passing it into law for President Biden's signature.
- I've taken a look at all these new state laws.
None of them are designed to suppress the vote.
There is no rational basis for the federal government
trying to take over all of American elections.
- The problem is that Republicans
are uniformly opposing it.
- All Republicans, I think, will oppose that.
- I believe the Senate will reject this bill.
- It's not a For the People Act.
It is welfare for politicians.
- The advocacy community has been clear in saying
that they're both necessary, you know.
The For the People Act
basically sets minimum standards for elections.
You know, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act
is a little different.
What that's meant to do is to restore a process
of federal review that had been in place prior to 2013.
- What this means is those states that are covered,
they're mostly in the South, right now,
are not going to have to get this preapproval
before they make changes in their voting requirements.
- We have seen exactly what we feared
when that case came down in 2013.
Because that case was an opening of a door to allow states
to do what otherwise we had protected against.
- Under the Voting Rights Act of 1965,
that was targeted specifically to jurisdictions
that had documented histories of racial discrimination in voting,
the Supreme Court overturned that portion
of the Voting Rights Act in 2013
and, you know, Democrats in Congress, in particular,
had been trying to reestablish that ever since.
But that would only reestablish that federal review process,
prospectively, in the future.
It would not go back and overturn some of these laws
that have already been passed by Republican legislatures
in the individual states.
- I hear that they say, "Everything is big in Texas".
You know they say that.
And it's no different
than the violation of constitutional rights.
- Senate Democrat Joe Manchin is proposing a compromise,
which includes doing away
with things like same-day voting registration,
but allowing voter ID requirements.
- I'm working across the aisle with all the Republicans,
trying to get people to understand
that that's the bedrock of our democracy:
an accessible, fair, and basically secure vote.
- Manchin has tried to get some Republicans
involved in this conversation, too,
but he hasn't been especially successful with that, so far.
- We hope we can get bipartisan support.
So far, we have not seen any glimmers on S1 and,
if we don't, everything's going to be on the table.
- The Senate, even if you have the majority,
due to the filibuster rule,
you need at least some Republicans to join you,
if you want to pass a law.
There's no indication there's anywhere near 10 Republicans
amenable to even what Senator Manchin proposed.
- This bill isn't about strengthening democracy.
This bill is about strengthening Democrats.
- You know, the line that Senator McConnell has drawn
is that the federal government simply should not be involved
in dictating how states run their elections
and, as long as that continues to be his view
and the view of the vast majority of his conference,
then Democrats are going to have,
really, no real path to passing federal legislation on this.