Manchin to Vote Against Democrats’ Sweeping Election Bill

Allen Zhong
By Allen Zhong
June 6, 2021Politics
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Manchin to Vote Against Democrats’ Sweeping Election Bill
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) speaks at Capital High School in Charleston, W.Va., on May 13, 2021. (Oliver Contreras/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said he will vote against a sweeping election reform bill pushed by his Democrat colleagues, also known as the For The People Act, or S.1, saying forcing it through via the partisan reconciliation process will further deepen divisions.

“I believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy, and for that reason, I will vote against the For the People Act,” he wrote in home-state newspaper The Charleston Gazette-Mail.

Manchin also reaffirmed that he will not vote to weaken or eliminate the filibuster.

He criticized Democrats and Republicans for politicizing election reform to seek partisan advantage and urged both sides to work along to find a path forward.

He suggested that the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is a good starting point to gain bipartisan support for election reform.

The senator also expressed concern over the trend of vying for absolute power over cooperation inside the Beltway.

“It has been said by much wiser people than me that absolute power corrupts absolutely,” he wrote. “Well, what I’ve seen during my time in Washington is that every party in power will always want to exercise absolute power, absolutely.”

After a contentious 2020 election, a number of states started election reform legislature in various forms to guarantee election integrity.

However, Democrats in Washington are aggressively pushing one-sided election reforms in an attempt to codify into law some operations conducted during the last presidential election at the federal level in the For The People Act.

The act would federalize components of the election system, eliminating nearly all requirements for photo identification, require states to offer 15 days of early voting, allow “no-excuse” absentee balloting, require states to implement a system of automatic voter registration, and allow same-day registration on any day voting is allowed.

Chuck Schumer
Senate Majority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) attends a Senate Administration and Rules Committee mark-up business meeting on Capitol Hill in the District of Columbia on May 11, 2021. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told Democrat colleagues in a memorandum that he will force a Senate vote on the sweeping election reform bill “that is essential to defending our democracy, reducing the influence of dark money and powerful special interests, and stopping the wave of Republican voter suppression happening in states across the country.”

The bill is expected to get little, if any, support from the Republican side.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has promised to block the bill, which he characterizes as undue government overreach into state election systems. He said no GOP senators support it.

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) has described the bill as “a massive federal takeover of elections.”

Manchin’s objection will dim Democrats’ hope of passing it in the Senate, which is split 50-50, even without the filibuster.

The Epoch Times reached out to Schumer’s officer for comment.

The House version of the For The People Act, H.R. 1, was passed in March.

All Republicans and one Democrat, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), voted against the bill.

Critics have promised to bring a flood of lawsuits if it’s passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Joe Biden.

“There are a number of constitutional infirmities and deficiencies that stem from its treatment of presidential and congressional elections identically, even though Congress has vastly reduced powers to regulate presidential elections under the Constitution,” Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, told reporters.

The Associated Press contributed to the report.

From The Epoch Times

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