Mountain State Times

Proposed changes by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to sweeping election legislation (House Resolution 1 and Senate Bill 1) being pushed by congressional Democrats has failed to make final passage of the bill any more likely, according to Republican critics.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that the proposal by Manchin, a moderate Democrat opposed to S.1. as currently written, doesn’t change the fact that the legislation “still subverts the First Amendment to supercharge cancel culture and the left's name-and-shame campaign model.”

“It takes redistricting away from state legislatures and hands it over to computers,” McConnell added. “And it still retains S.1's rotten core: an assault on the fundamental idea that states, not the federal government, should decide how to run their own elections."

Manchin’s changes would include a national voter ID requirement, a move supported, polls show, by a majority of Americans. It also would limit mail voting and implement computer models -- the change that McConnell referred to -- to redraw congressional districts rather than using “nonpartisan commissions.”

Manchin’s version of S.1 keeps automatic voter registration, mandates 15 days of early voting, and makes Election Day a holiday.

Manchin has reiterated his opposition both to S.1 and the abolishment of the filibuster, which, with the 50-50 tie in the Senate, has helped keep S.1 and H.R.1 bottled up in the Senate. The House passed H.R. 1 in March on a party-line vote.

Manchin prefers a bipartisan approach to voting law changes.

"Congressional action on federal voting rights legislation must be the result of both Democrats and Republicans coming together to find a pathway forward or we risk further dividing and destroying the republic we swore to protect and defend as elected officials," he told NPR.

The Election Transparency Initiative, headed by former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a Republican, is urging Manchin not to waiver in his opposition to S.1.

“West Virginians want elections in their state to be simple and secure, easy to vote and hard to cheat,” the group said in a video," Cuccinelli said. “We are calling on Sen. Joe Manchin to listen to his constituents and oppose S.1, Washington’s attempt to override the state’s election laws. With public trust in elections at an all-time low, voters in West Virginia want to see increased security, transparency, and accountability – not a Washington takeover of state elections that serves the interests of corrupt politicians.”

According to the House Rules Committee, S.1 will enable third parties, including campaign officials to collect ballots (ballot harvesting), a practice some states have banned since they say it invites voter fraud. Ballot harvesters, the committee determined, can either forge ballots or trick voters, especially elderly citizens. In one poll cited by the committee, 62% of respondents in one poll believed all ballot harvesting should be illegal.

Moreover, the House Rules Committee said that under S.1, $6 of federal government funds would be sent to politicians seeking election for every $1 they raise from small donors. This provision would force the American people to fund candidates they disagree with and support attack ads against candidates they support.

Finally, according to polls, 75% of voters nationally support voter ID, including 69% of black voters and 60% of Democrats, the House Rules Committee said.

Following the failure of S.1 to advance in the Senate, many in Washington are turning their attention to House Resolution 4, also known as the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. However, its passage also seems unlikely as the Lone Star Standard has reported that Republicans, led by Minority Leader McConnell, consider the bill “unnecessary” at best, and a dangerous cession of power at worst. Senate Republicans are particularly concerned about two components of HR 4: the overriding of State election laws such as voter ID and the reintroduction of "preclearance," which permitted the Department of Justice to approve any changes to state election laws before they would take effect. Preclearance was federal law up until 2013, when the Supreme Court struck it down in Shelby County v. Holder.