- We urge Congress to act.
- We need legislation to be passed in Congress.
- We need Congress and all of our federal leaders
to use that time wisely.
- Congress faces growing pressure from Democrats,
voting rights groups, and the Biden administration
to pass federal voting legislation
in the wake of a Supreme Court decision
that will make it more difficult to challenge the onslaught
of new Republican-backed state-level voting restrictions.
- As part of the Arizona decision,
the Supreme Court did make it clear
that there are very high hurdles
to proving racially discriminatory allegations
in a voting rights case.
- The court upheld two provisions in Arizona,
one that said if you cast your ballot accidentally
in the wrong precinct, the state will throw it out,
and secondly that only you or your caregiver
or somebody closely associated with you
can collect your mail-in ballot, that you can't engage
in what the state derisively called ballot harvesting.
- There's still a window but a narrow window
for plaintiffs to kind of go through in order to succeed
on one of these Voting Rights Act challenges
to some of the laws being adopted these days.
- Where the court has seemingly gone in the wrong directions,
it will be public policy,
and that public policy must come from the Senate.
The Senate, they have to do their job,
and to allow a procedural rule to prevent them
from sublative protections of the right to vote
is not acceptable.
- Voting issues have become a top priority in both parties
this year in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
But they see the issue differently.
Republicans say they are improving election integrity.
- Mail-in ballot situation is one that has
the possibility of fraud, and that is --
shoring that up is a way to ensure election integrity.
- While Democrats say GOP state changes
make it harder for minority groups to vote.
- The devastating impact this is gonna have on Latinos,
on Mexican-Americans, on our African-American community,
and especially our community of people with disabilities.
- Two bills on the issue have struggled to advance
in an equally divided Senate.
- The motion is not agreed to.
- When you perpetuate or tolerate
lies about the election like this, you erode our democracy.
- The truth is quite simple.
Our democracy's not in crisis.
- The Biden administration and allies
have limited options to alter voting rules
without Senate Democrats getting rid of the filibuster,
a rule that requires 60 votes in order to close debate
and move forward on passing legislation.
And it's looking outside of DC
in hopes of building pressure on lawmakers
ahead of next year's midterm elections.
- We'll be asking my Republican friends in Congress
and states and cities and counties to stand up,
for God's sake.
- One of the most controversial election changes
has been in Georgia.
The Department of Justice and civil rights groups
have sued the state.
- We are litigating at the Legal Defense Fund in Georgia,
challenging their voter suppression law.
We're challenging Florida's voter suppression law,
but I told the President we will not be able to litigate
our way out of this threat to Black citizenship, voting,
and political participation.
- A fight escalated in Texas,
where a majority of the Democratic caucus left the state
to deny the Republican- controlled legislature
the quorum needed to attempt to pass new voting legislation
during a special session.
- We can't stay here
indefinitely to run out the clock,
to stop Republican anti-voter bills.
That's why we need Congress to act now.
- Even thought the Texas lawmakers face arrest
for leaving the special session, they brought the fight to DC
to put pressure on Congress to act,
and fast, because in some states,
these new voting laws are already in effect.
- We're actually handing the baton to our Senate colleagues,
to our Senate members to finish this race for us.