Elections certainly do have consequences:
Senate Democrats are preparing to release a revised voting rights bill as soon as this week, hoping to keep the legislation alive a month after Republicans blocked the consideration of a previous, more sweeping proposal.
Several key senators huddled inside Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s office on Wednesday to hash out the details of the bill, which is expected to at least partially incorporate a framework assembled by Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), who expressed qualms about the previous bill, known as the For the People Act.
They emerged saying a new product could be released in a matter of days.
“It’s important that the American people understand that this is very much on our radar, and we understand the urgency, and we’re committed to getting some progress,” said Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.), who said he asked Schumer (D-N.Y.) to call the meeting.
The talks come at a delicate time for the Senate, with lawmakers of both parties eager to move forward with a bipartisan infrastructure deal and Democrats eyeing a separate economic package that could total $3 trillion or more.
Here’s how Warnock has been able to keep up the fight:
On July 14, Warnock attended a special Senate Democratic caucus meeting where he pressed President Joe Biden not to allow the voting rights debate to get lost in the shuffle of other Washington priorities.
On July 20, a day after the senator testified at a Rules Committee field hearing to criticize Georgia’s new election law, he urged his caucus during the closed-door meeting to keep the hope alive for a voting bill. Schumer asked Warnock for a private meeting to discuss ways to move forward.
The two spoke the next day, where Warnock said lawmakers should work on infrastructure legislation in tandem with a voting overhaul. He also stressed he would support the Senate staying in session through the August recess to get the two efforts across the finish line.
At Wednesday’s meeting, which included Manchin, the Democrats agreed on a path forward before lawmakers go home for August recess. The new version, Senate officials say, could be released in days.
Expect another closed-door Democratic meeting with Warnock and key colleagues to try to hammer out a consensus. Keep an eye, also, on Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
McConnell and Warnock were spotted on the Senate floor Wednesday huddling for about 10 minutes during votes.
There are clearly some positive signs happening here:
If the conservative Democrat intended to derail the effort -- again -- he gave no indication of that yesterday. On the contrary, Manchin agreed that a new bill will likely be released in the coming days.
And what happens when Senate Republicans make clear that they'll never support such an effort? For now, that's a difficult question to answer with confidence, but for voting-rights advocates, there are some hints of momentum.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), for example, is a centrist Dem who's expressed opposition to overhauling the Senate's filibuster rules. This past weekend, however, the Virginian announced that he's so concerned about GOP voter-suppression measures and their impact on democracy that he's prepared to support "a small carve out on filibuster for voting rights."
One way to do this is to make the argument that Manchin’s version of a voting rights bill is the golden standard that should be allowed an exception to the filibuster rule. Former U.S. Senator Doug Jones’ (D. AL) op-ed in USA Today makes a pretty solid case:
There was a time when members of both major political parties came together to protect Americans’ fundamental right to vote. For decades, Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress stewarded legislation that expanded voting protections and instituted practical registration and election administration standards, including passage and reauthorization of the monumental Voting Rights Act. Regrettably, far too few of my Republican Senate colleagues have co-sponsored pro-voter legislation in recent years.
I have hope that a Manchin Plus package can attract support from Republicans who still believe in preserving free and fair elections. I implore my former Republican colleagues to step forward in this pivotal moment. Look beyond your own states, which may at present have secure and functional elections. Instead, act in the best interests of an American democracy under assault. After all, while you represent the voices of the people of one state, a significant component of your oath is to support and defend the Constitution for the betterment of all U.S. citizens.
Our country would benefit enormously from seeing bipartisan support for national standards like those in a Manchin Plus bill. But the stakes are too high to let partisanship doom this effort. I am a strong proponent of bipartisanship, but I am a stronger proponent of democracy. Congress must be the backstop for the attacks on democracy and the right to vote. If Republicans remain uniformly opposed to policies that strengthen our democracy, Democratic senators, including my friend Joe Manchin, must do what is necessary to enact these critical protections: Institute a filibuster exception for voting-rights legislation before the August recess, so a Manchin Plus package can become federal law.
It’s not just Warnock who is also pushing hard to get a voting rights bill to become a reality:
The Texas House Democrats who are breaking quorum to block their Republican colleagues from advancing voting restrictions will meet with Bill and Hillary Clinton and voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams on Thursday, state legislators said.
Members of the Texas House Democratic Caucus will meet with Abrams at 10 a.m. and the Clintons at 11 a.m. Both meetings will take place virtually, over Zoom.
More than 50 members of the Texas House are in Washington this month, waiting out the clock on a special legislative session to block Republicans from enacting sweeping changes to elections in the state. Through meetings with members of Congress and a steady stream of media events, the legislators have used their time in the capital to plead for federal voting legislation.
In interviews, the state Democrats said the meetings with the former president, the 2016 Democratic nominee and Abrams come at a critical time. After more than two weeks of frenzied activity — and a number of breakthrough Covid cases — lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill slowed this week as the Senate turned its attention to working out a bipartisan infrastructure deal. Some members have also said they are frustrated that they haven't yet been able to secure a meeting with President Joe Biden.
"This is the kind of the stretch of the calendar when you start missing your family the most, you've been away from your job now for a couple weeks, things are starting to mount up," said Texas Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, one of six of the fully vaccinated Texas Democrats recovering from Covid-19. "To me, it just sort of reaffirms that this fight is a fight worth having."
Democrats said that they will ask the Clintons to lend their political capital to their effort and that they will seek strategic advice from all three about how to push forward on federal voting legislation, which remains stalled in the Senate despite the state legislators' efforts to sway support.
Republicans have consistently opposed such proposals, and legislation needs 60 votes to advance. The Senate is divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats, with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tiebreaking vote. A number of Democrats, Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona among the most vocal of them, have said they won't change Senate rules to eliminate the filibuster to pass voting legislation.
"They both have so much wise counsel that they can provide for us. We're hoping they can use their influence, as well," state Rep. Ron Reynolds said of the Clintons. "We're going to ask them, if they haven't already, if they would personally call Sen. Sinema and Sen. Manchin."
And the Justice Department is stepping up it’s game:
The Justice Department is putting states on notice about their obligations under federal law as GOP-led efforts to conduct reviews of the 2020 election intensify.
Federal authorities on Wednesday issued a pair of new guidance documents to states and voters to remind them of their responsibilities — and their rights.
The moves are part of the Biden administration's push to demonstrate it is on guard amid new voting restrictions proposed and enacted by Republican-led states across the nation — and as Democratic-led federal voting legislation has stalled in Congress.
"We are keeping a close eye on what's going on around the country," said a Justice Department official, who requested anonymity to brief reporters. "If they're going to conduct these so-called audits, they have to comply with federal law."
Here’s some more info:
On Wednesday, the Department of Justice released two documents warning states that they have to follow federal law before, during and after elections. Without naming names, the first set of guidelines generally called out states that have moved to change their election laws to restrict voters’ access to the polls after the 2020 election. The second is focused on the “audit” still taking place in Arizona, along with potential copycats.
The simple — and much-needed — message from the Justice Department: “We’re watching you.”
Nowhere in the first document does it explicitly say the department will be targeting state legislators, election officials or anyone else using Trump’s rhetoric to make voting harder. Instead, it just casually points out that several federal laws could be violated in the process of doing so, even if that just involves rolling procedures back to their pre-pandemic standards:
Since the 2020 election, some States have responded by permanently adopting their COVID-19 modifications; by contrast, other States have barred continued use of those practices or have imposed additional restrictions on voting by mail or early voting. In view of these developments, guidance concerning federal statutes affecting methods of voting is appropriate.
The Department’s enforcement policy does not consider a jurisdiction’s re-adoption of prior voting laws or procedures to be presumptively lawful; instead, the Department will review a jurisdiction’s changes in voting laws or procedures for compliance with all federal laws regarding elections, as the facts and circumstances warrant.
That, in DOJ’s eyes, includes making sure new restrictions on voting by mail, early voting or voting on Election Day don’t violate, for example, the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 or the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
The department has already made clear it is willing to go to court to enforce those laws. Last month, the Justice Department sued Georgia under the Voting Rights Act, alleging that the state’s recently passed election law unfairly targeted minority voters. The guidelines issued Wednesday are a shot across the bow of any states that would like to follow Georgia’s lead.
Even more interesting — and ominous — is the document focused on “Federal Law Constraints on Post-Election ‘Audits.’” (Scare quotes theirs!) In it, the Justice Department reminds readers the 2020 election was “the most secure in American history” and that none of the recounts required under state law “produced evidence of either wrongdoing or mistakes that casts any doubt on the outcome of the national election results.”
Jennifer Rubin from The Washington Post also pointed this out:
That part on audits is the most intriguing, as it attempts to keep Republicans from undermining or even changing election results. The Justice Department zeroed in on Section 20701 of Title 52 in the U.S. Code, which requires election officials to maintain custody of all election related materials for 22 months. “Election audits are exceedingly rare. But the Department is concerned that some jurisdictions conducting them may be using, or proposing to use, procedures that risk violating the Civil Rights Act,” the department found. “The duty to retain and preserve election records necessarily requires that elections officials maintain the security and integrity of those records and their attendant chain of custody, so that a complete and uncompromised record of federal elections can be reliably accessed and used in federal law enforcement matters.”
It means that, even when private “auditors” are given access, state election officials still must preserve their integrity. (Enforcing this part of the law something voting-rights groups have called on the administration to do.)
In a swipe at the unprofessional audit underway in Maricopa County, Ariz., the department stated: “Where election records leave the control of elections officials, the systems for maintaining the security, integrity and chain of custody of those records can easily be broken.” It added that the “risk of the records being lost, stolen, altered, compromised, or destroyed . . . is exacerbated if the election records are given to private actors who have neither experience nor expertise in handling such records and who are unfamiliar with the obligations imposed by federal law.”
The department also made clear it is prepared to enforce criminal penalties for violation of these document retention requirements. That is clearly a shot across the bow of the Arizona Republicans, who have allowed an inexperienced outfit led by conspiracy theorists to rifle through ballots and despoil voting machines.
Further, the department warned against various forms of voting intimidation that violate federal law, again signaling that phony GOP audits, especially Arizona’s, are on thin ice.
“There have been reports, with respect to some of the post-2020 ballot examinations, of proposals to contact individuals face to face to see whether the individuals were qualified voters who had actually voted,” the department stated, referencing Cyber Ninjas, the outfit that has proposed canvassing Arizona voters in search of voter fraud. “This sort of activity raises concerns regarding potential intimidation of voters. . . . Jurisdictions that authorize or conduct audits must ensure that the way those reviews are conducted has neither the purpose nor the effect of dissuading qualified citizens from participating in the electoral process. If they do not, the Department will act to ensure that all eligible citizens feel safe in exercising their right to register and cast a ballot in future elections.”
The directive is not a lawsuit, but it provides a clear predicate should Arizona or other jurisdictions flout voting laws. Given the uphill climb for new voting-rights legislation, aggressive enforcement of existing laws is critical. Attorney General Merrick Garland seems willing to combat fake audits, something not covered by legislation under consideration in Congress.
Speaking of Arizona Audits:
In a sign the Senate audit, which was supposed to be only about the 2020 election results, is now expanding in scope, Senate President Karen Fann now wants documents from Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.
In a public records request, the Prescott Republican is demanding any communications Hobbs has had with anyone about the audit and the litigation it has produced. And Fann is casting a wide net, seeking not just messages with federal, state and local officials but also political parties, volunteers, consultants, vendors, formal or informal advisors, fundraisers and the media.
“I can’t disclose what we’re looking for at this time,” Fann told Capitol Media Services, including how any of what she wants fits into the Senate’s need to investigate the election conduct and results as part of its duties to review existing laws and craft new ones.
The move comes as Hobbs, a Democrat, has publicly accused the auditors of “making it up as they go along,” and saying she has no confidence in whatever is produced by Cyber Ninjas, the firm Fann hired to conduct the review.
For the moment, Hobbs aide Murphy Hebert said her boss, is reviewing the request.
“At this point it appears to be the kind of nebulous fishing expedition that we’ve come to expect from the Senate president,” she said. And Hebert called it “ironic” that this comes even as Fann has hired outside counsel to fight requests for public records about the audit, “including who’s actually funding the partisan ballot review.”
And there is already momentum in the streets:
The Rev. William J. Barber II and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke launched a four-day, 27-mile march in Texas against voter suppression, calling on Congress to end the filibuster and pass voting rights legislation.
“We are here to start this march for our democracy,” Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, said at a press conference Tuesday, the evening before people were set to start the multiday march from Georgetown to Austin.
“Texas is the hardest state in the nation in which to vote. Republicans have introduced legislation that would make it even harder,” O’Rourke said Tuesday.
Barber urged the Senate to end the filibuster and pass the For The People Act. The latter bill would override much of Republicans’ state-level efforts by mandating states implement measures like early voting, no-excuse absentee ballots, and automatic and same-day voter registration.
In order to march, Barber said people will need to show proof that they are vaccinated against COVID-19 and wear masks.
This fight is far from over and Warnock knows this and has been keeping the fight alive. Especially since Georgia Republicans are pushing forward with taking over election boards:
Georgia Republicans have taken the first step on their freshly blazed path toward a possible takeover of Fulton County’s elections.
A letter obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows two dozen state senators support a performance review of Fulton elections chief Richard Barron. The letter was written Tuesday, the very same day a front-page AJC story examined the prospect of a takeover of elections in Fulton, home to a tenth of all Georgians.
“We’re asking them to simply correct a record they say is easily corrected. Is it or isn’t it? The people of Georgia deserve answers,” wrote Republican Senate President Pro Tem Butch Miller, who signed the letter.
As written into Senate Bill 202, the State Election Board can replace a county’s election board following a performance review/audit/investigation. Then, a temporary superintendent would enjoy full managerial authority of how the county counts votes and staffs polling places.
It’s important to keep up the pressure on Senate Democrats to pass a voting rights act with or without the Republicans help. Click here to contact your Democratic Senator to let them know you support carving out the filibuster to save voting rights.
Let’s also make sure Democrats like Warnock and voting rights groups in states like Georgia, Texas and Arizona know we have their backs. Click below to donate and get involved with their campaigns:
Georgia:
Arizona:
Katie Hobbs for Governor
Mark Kelly for Senate
Reginald Bolding for Secretary of State
Arizona Democratic Party
Kris Mayes for Attorney General
Texas:
Powered by People
Texas Democrats
Texas House Democrats
Poor People’s Campaign
Workers Defense Action
ADAPT
Texas Right To Vote