Senate Republicans are likely to stand firm on Tuesday and kill the federal election takeover legislation through which Democrats seek to cancel state voter ID laws and publicly fund political campaigns.
The bill, dubbed the “For The People Act” or S.1, will encounter a Senate procedural vote to begin debate on the legislation.
But Republicans, labeling the legislation as a purely a “partisan power grab” by the Democrats “to rig the rules of American elections permanently” in their favor, seem poised to block any discussion of the measure through the filibuster.
In order to advance the measure, Democrats would need ten Republicans to vote with them.
1) The Senate is likely to kill S.1, the Democrats voting rights bill today.
The Senate won’t take a straight, up/down vote on the measure. Today’s vote is procedural just to begin debate on the legislation. The measure needs 60 yeas to trigger debate.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) June 22, 2021
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) exposed the election bill Monday for what he says is a part of an agenda that is designed to lose.
“The Democratic leader planned votes on a host of the left’s most radical priorities,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.
“None of it was ever intended to clear the Senate’s appropriately high bar for advancing legislation. Instead, the failure of their partisan agenda was meant to show somehow — somehow — that the Senate itself was failing,” McConnell explained. “For months, our colleagues built anticipation for the failure.”
The cancellation of voter ID is a particular sticky point in the bill. At least one Democrat, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), has shifted his opinion on the effort, claiming he never supported ending voter ID requirements.
A Thursday poll suggested the majority of likely general election voters oppose the federal election takeover bill that cancels voter ID laws.
A second poll on Monday by Monmouth University indicated 80 percent of the public supports requiring a form of ID before a person can vote. The poll found only 18 percent oppose such policies.
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