Republicans again filibuster a bill to protect voting rights. As state Republicans pass bills to suppress voting and subvert elections, the Republicans in Congress do nothing. In some states they not only make is harder to vote but if the legislature doesn’t like the will of the people, they can just overturn the results of the election.

Senate Republicans as well as House Republicans are apparently fine with that.

The first attempt to protect and enhance voting was the For the People Act of 2021 which passed the House in early March with no Republican votes. The bill was sent to the Senate where it was blocked by the Republicans. There was quite a bit it that bill and it was unclear what Republicans object to.

So a less ambitious bill was written hoping to satisfy Republicans, Senator Manchin, and Democrats who favored the earlier bill. The bill is sponsored by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Angus King (I-ME), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA). The full text is at Congress.gov.

For those of us who like reading in plain English rather than legalese there is a press release on Senator Klobuchar’s site as well as a summary by the League of Women Voters. In my estimation, the League is non-partisan but definitely pro-voting.

But once again the Republicans oppose voting rights. In the words of the NY Times:

All 50 Democrats and independents supported bringing the Freedom to Vote Act to the floor, but all 50 Republicans voted against doing so, maintaining a stalemate over a proposal that Democrats say is needed to counter efforts in Republican-controlled states to impose new restrictions on voting in the aftermath of the 2020 elections.

“These laws will make it harder for millions of Americans to participate in their government,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader. “If there is anything worthy of the Senate’s attention, if there’s any issue that merits debate on this floor, it is protecting our democracy from the forces that are trying to unravel it from the inside out.”

Again the Republicans have not said what they object to. It might become clearer if they allowed debate on the issue.