Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Senate Democrats are set for a doomed attempt Wednesday evening to allow for passage of election reform with a simple-majority vote, pressing forward despite unflinching opposition from Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s anticipated vote is the culmination of several failed attempts to pass the election reform legislation, which Republicans unanimously oppose. While progressives have hoped the stalled elections bill would lead Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sinema (D-Ariz.) to endorse weakening the 60-vote threshold required to steer most bills through the Senate, the two centrists remain unmoved.<\/p>\n
Despite its looming failure, the vote will put senators on record on a proposed revival of the “talking filibuster” that only covers the elections and voting package, allowing it to \u2014 following lengthy debate \u2014 pass by a simple majority in a Senate divided 50-50 between the parties. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer won over one of the few remaining undecided Democrats on Wednesday as Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly endorsed a rules change specific to elections legislation.<\/p>\n
During his floor speech, Schumer acknowledged divisions in his caucus and had an implicit message for Manchin and Sinema, who have received a flood of angry critiques and mounting primary threats from progressives and Democratic donors. <\/p>\n
There are \u201ca few who believe [the filibuster] helps bring us together. I don\u2019t see evidence of that at all and I think the majority of my colleagues would agree with that,\u201d Schumer said. \u201cBut even those who feel that the filibuster is a good thing and helps bring us together, I would ask this question: isn\u2019t the protection of voting rights \u2026 more important?\u201d <\/p>\n
Most Senate Democrats, including Manchin and Sinema, sat together on the Senate floor listening to one another’s speeches. At times just a single Republican was sitting across the aisle.<\/p>\n
Sinema has warned that watering down the 60-vote threshold will empower wild legislative swings when Republicans take back Congress and the White House, while Manchin says the higher threshold encourages compromise in an increasingly divisive environment. Their Democratic colleagues strongly disagree, positing that new voting regulations in GOP states should prompt the 50-member majority to change the fabric of the Senate. <\/p>\n