John Lewis voting rights bill fails in Senate

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats on Wednesday afternoon again failed to expand voting rights when Senate Republicans blocked voting on a bill that would have required states to clear changes in voting procedures with the Justice Department to help ensure equal access to the ballot box.

The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act failed to meet the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a Republican filibuster and end debate so the bill can be brought to the Senate floor, where Vice President Kamala Harris would have cast the deciding vote in the evenly split chamber. The failed vote was the fourth time Republicans this year have blocked voting rights legislation.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who cosponsored the proposal, was the only Republican to favor voting on the bill.

The bill would require states to get approval from a federal court or the Justice Department before changing practices that might affect voting rights. Lawmakers revised this bill to expand voting access for Indigenous Americans on tribal lands, including in Alaska, Murkowski’s home state.

In a statement, Murkowski said she supports this legislation, “because it provides a framework through which legitimate voting rights issues can be tackled.”

“Every American deserves equal opportunity to participate in our electoral system and political process, and this bill provides a starting point as we seek broader bipartisan consensus on how best to ensure that,” Murkowski said.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., thanked Murkowski for crossing the aisle, then asked, “Where is the rest of the party of (former President Abraham) Lincoln?”

“This is a low, low point in the history of this body,” Schumer said after the vote failed. “Given the chance to debate in what is supposed to be the world’s greatest deliberative body, Republicans walked away.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY., has denounced the Lewis bill and other failed voting rights bills as an attempt to micromanage state and local elections.

Mcconnell said in a statement Wednesday that the nation doesn’t need the attorney general “ruling over their states’ and their counties’ elections any more than they need congressional Democrats doing it themselves.”

“The Senate will reject this go-nowhere bill today like we’ve rejected every other piece of fruit from this same poisonous tree,” he said.

After announcing from the dais that the chamber voted 50-49 against ending debate, Harris told reporters that Democrats would keep fighting to pass voting rights legislation but did not specify how.