• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. voting rights>

Senate Democrats revive push for long-shot voting rights legislation

Sara Swann
https://twitter.com/saramswann?lang=en
October 06, 2021
Voting rights advocates

Voting rights advocates held a rally in August demanding the passage of the Voting Rights Advancement Act, but the bill remains stuck in the Senate.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty Images

Democrats are making a fresh push for voting rights legislation in the Senate, despite the filibuster all but guaranteeing it will go nowhere.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont introduced the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act on Tuesday, calling the bill a "bedrock voting rights law." The Judiciary Committee convened a hearing on the legislation Wednesday afternoon.

The House passed a version of the bill in August, but the Senate waited to take up the legislation. So far no Republicans have indicated they are willing to support the VRAA, which means it will likely fall short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.


Every Senate Democrat has signed on to the VRAA except Joe Manchin of West Virginia. He similarly held out on co-sponsoring the For the People Act, a broad electoral reform bill, before ultimately supporting it and helping to craft a paired-down version known as the Freedom to Vote Act. Both bills remain in legislative limbo while the Senate resolves how to deal with debt ceiling, infrastructure bill and an additional spending package.

If the VRAA were to become law, it would restore voting protections struck down by the Supreme Court. In 2013, the court's decision in Shelby County v. Holder eliminated the preclearance requirement, which mandated certain states with histories of racial discrimination receive advanced approval from the Justice Department before enacting new voting laws. The court's decision this summer in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee made it harder to challenge potentially discriminatory laws in court.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Voting rights advocates say the VRAA is especially important now as 19 states have passed 33 laws that make it harder to vote, according to the latest tally by the Brennan Center for Justice.

"The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would help identify barriers that could silence Black, Latino, Indigenous, young and new Americans and ensure we all have an equal say in the decisions that impact our lives," said Wade Henderson, interim president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

The Voting Rights Act has been reauthorized in a bipartisan manner five times since its original passing in 1965. However, Senate Republicans are likely to filibuster any attempt to pass the VRAA. Voting rights advocates are putting the pressure on Democrats to choose between the landmark legislation and modifying Senate procedure.

"Voting rights should never be a partisan issue, and for decades it wasn't," said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause. "If 10 Senate Republicans will not support this bill, then Senate Democrats must reform the filibuster."

From Your Site Articles
  • How Joe Manchin would rewrite the For the People Act - The Fulcrum ›
  • Will 2021 be defined by voting rights and electoral reform? - The ... ›
  • Congress faces pressure to act on voting rights legislation - The ... ›
  • What would the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act do ... ›
  • Democrats pressured to choose voting rights or filibuster - The Fulcrum ›
  • Conservatives should be clamoring for filibuster reform - The Fulcrum ›
  • Schumer includes voting rights in end-of-year priorities - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021 | Congress.gov ›
  • John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act - HRC ›
  • Senate Democrats are making a fresh push to strengthen the Voting ... ›
  • Voting Rights Advancement Act: House passes bill to expand voting ... ›
voting rights

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow

Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

Contribute
Contributors

To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

Julio A. Alicea

Policymakers must address worsening civil unrest post Roe

Sarah K. Burke

Video: How to salvage U.S. democracy from the "tyranny of the minority"

Our Staff

What "Progress" should look like, and what we get wrong

Damien De Pyle

The long kiss goodnight: Nancy Pelosi and the protracted decay of public office

Kevin Frazier

Demanding corporate responsibility for food system challenges

C.Anne Long
latest News

Ask Joe: Warring with AI is warring with ourselves

Joe Weston
22 September

Prioritizing the grand challenges

Leland R. Beaumont
22 September

Podcast: All politics is local

Our Staff
22 September

The show must go on

Amy Lockard
21 September

Constitution Day conversation with Jamie Raskin: Preserving democracy today and tomorrow

Rick LaRue
Jamie Raskin
21 September

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Stephen Richer

Michael Beckel
Ariana Rojas
20 September
Videos
Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Our Staff
Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Our Staff
Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Our Staff
Video: The history of Labor Day

Video: The history of Labor Day

Our Staff
Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Our Staff
Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: All politics is local

Our Staff
22 September

Podcast: How states hold fair elections

Our Staff
14 September

Podcast: The MAGA Bubble, Bidenonmics and Playing the Victim

Debilyn Molineaux
David Riordan
12 September

Podcast: Defending the founding principles of our government

Our Staff
07 September
Recommended
Ask Joe: Warring with AI is warring with ourselves

Ask Joe: Warring with AI is warring with ourselves

Pop Culture
Prioritizing the grand challenges

Prioritizing the grand challenges

Big Picture
Podcast: All politics is local

Podcast: All politics is local

Big Picture
The show must go on

The show must go on

Big Picture
To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

Big Picture
Constitution Day conversation with Jamie Raskin: Preserving democracy today and tomorrow

Constitution Day conversation with Jamie Raskin: Preserving democracy today and tomorrow

Big Picture