Sarbanes deserves Maryland’s praise

John Sarbanes didn’t run to solve the problems with the U.S. electoral system.

Motivated by the example of his father, the late Sen. Paul Sarbanes, he worked for years in the Maryland State Department of Education, health care law and at the Public Justice Center, where he toiled to protect consumers, provide decent public housing and ensure fair treatment in the workplace.

Those were the things he wanted to change when he ran for Congress from Maryland’s 3rd District in 2006.

When he got to Washington, he discovered it wasn’t that simple. There are powerful forces in Washington that block changes not based on what Americans want or need but on what benefits the powerful and influential.

After two terms, Sarbanes found himself in the minority party following a Republican surge that changed control of the House and the Senate.

In years of conversations with the congressman that would follow, the Capital Gazette Editorial Board would always ask: If Democrats could take back the majority, what would change? What would Sarbanes like to see passed?

And Sarbanes would always answer: H.R. 1. Also known as “The For the People Bill,” this 791-page bill would touch virtually every aspect of the electoral process — striking down hurdles to voting erected in the name of election security, curbing partisan gerrymandering and curtailing the influence of big money in politics.

In every conversation, he would launch into the specifics of his legislation because that’s what this is, Sarbanes’ cause. This is certainly the moment for the Democrat from Towson.

The house is expected to vote on H.R.1 this week, and a companion bill is waiting in the Senate. A win is assured in the House, but prospects in the Senate are unsure because of the potential for a filibuster.

If the prospect of a fight over access to voting seems puzzling, you haven’t been paying attention.

Voting rights were the struggle in last year’s election. In some ways, it has been the struggle of every election since our founding. Sarbanes now has put his legislation squarely in the middle of that fight.

Who gets to vote has been the evolution that followed the Revolution in this country. The 15th Amendment added Black men to voter rolls after the Civil War, and the 19th Amendment added women 50 years later.

But there has always been pushback; Jim Crow Democrats made it impossible for Black men in Maryland to vote for nine years in the early part of this century with the grandfather clause, disenfranchising anyone whose grandparents were enslaved.

Today, Republicans are focused on restricting how people vote with fairy tales about voter fraud, lies about stolen elections and fear-mongering aimed at making mail-in voting a boogeyman.

In both cases, the actions were motivated by a fear of losing power.

Sarbanes’ H.R. 1 would directly address the current battlefield in American politics: Who controls the election system in the United States. It would make great strides toward ensuring equal access to the ballot box regardless of what state you live in.

We can’t predict the outcome of what happens in Washington on this issue.

It is likely to be decided by Democrats’ willingness to end the filibuster, a Senate tradition that denies power to the elected majority.

Sarbanes, however, deserves Maryland’s respect and praise for bring his cause to this moment. It might surprise some to see the congressman out front on an issue that will affect the lives of every American.

But not those who have been listening to him.