Voting & Elections

Sylvia Albert, voting and elections director for Common Cause, which advocates for expanded voter access, said that while the statewide positions come with more power, local officials generally have much discretion over how to solve common Election Day issues such as long lines, voter roll problems or trouble with voting machines. “If you have an elections official who doesn’t want to expand access to the ballot, who finds democracy disturbing to them, they’re not going to fix problems and then they’re going to multiply,” she said.

“Republican intransigence on voting rights is not an excuse for inaction and Senator Manchin must wake up to this fact,” said Karen Hobart Flynn, the president of Common Cause, a government watchdog group, which backs the bill. “If Senator Manchin thinks there should be more input from Republicans – as there was in last month’s Senate markup, when several Republican amendments were adopted by the committee – you do that by advancing the bill through the legislative process,” Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy and government affairs at Common Cause. “Senator Manchin should vote to advance the bill to a full floor debate, and not filibuster the bill with his Republican colleagues.”

The fight for voting rights does not end with an op-ed. The For the People Act (S. 1) has overwhelming bipartisan support nationwide and in West Virginia 79% of Senator Manchin’s constituents support the bill – including 76% of registered Republicans. Leader Schumer should advance the bill to a full Floor debate. If Senate Republicans try to filibuster such a motion to proceed to a full Floor debate, Senator Manchin should not join such a filibuster. He should vote to allow the debate to take place on the Floor and not just in the op-ed pages. The bill has already passed the House, had a Senate markup that adopted 5 Republican amendments, and is poised for Floor action.

“I hope it sends a really strong message to Democrats in Congress, especially in the Senate, that these fights are especially important. Democracy is literally at risk and you have to do absolutely everything you possibly can do,” said Anthony Gutierrez, the executive director of the Texas chapter of Common Cause, a government watchdog group. “This wasn’t Democrats shutting down the rules. This was them using every single thing to their advantage, taking a stand to protect voting rights.”

"The Texas Democratic Party is holding back the levy with a temporary band-aid, but they don’t have the resources to be able to hold it back permanently," said Sylvia Albert, voting and elections director for good-government watchdog Common Cause.

We cannot afford to preserve the filibuster if it costs us our democracy. Congress must pass the For the People Act and move quickly to restore and advance the Voting Rights Act, so that our country can finally realize its greatest promise of government for the people and by the people.