The United States is at a Critical Moment for Voting Rights
Protestors marching in support of a modern Voting Rights Act in 2019. Source.
On March 3, the United States House of Representatives passed HR-1, an expansive bill focused on voting rights, campaign finance, and ethics, by a 220-210 vote along mostly party lines. The bill, also named the “For the People Act,” was introduced and advocated for by Democrats in Congress, who consider it an essential step towards preserving voting rights in the United States — including the largest package of voting rights laws since the 1960s. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said that “everything is at stake” and that “we must win this fight.” However, the bill faces significant opposition from Republicans in Congress and will face trouble in the Senate, where it either must receive 60 votes or Democrats will have to reform or abolish the filibuster to get it through. In today’s politically charged environment, marked by former President Donald Trump and Republicans falsely claiming widespread fraud in the 2020 election, the outcome of HR-1 could affect elections and voting rights for years to come.
The bill includes a vast number of provisions focused in three main areas: voting rights, campaign finance, and ethics. Significant changes regarding voting rights include nationwide automatic voter registration, national standards that would weaken restrictive voter ID laws, expanding early voting to require at least 15 days of early voting for at least 10 hours each day, and expanding mail-in voting. In the area of voting rights, Republicans are likely to most strongly oppose changes that would create independent commissions in each state to determine redistricting–which would eliminate partisan gerrymandering–and the full restoration of voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences.
In the area of campaign finance, the bill proposes restrictions that would require more transparency for dark money donations and require social media websites like Facebook and Twitter to disclose the source of money for political advertisements on their platforms. The most innovative provision–and likely controversial– regarding campaign finance is the creation of public financing for congressional and presidential campaigns. Through this system, the federal government would provide a voluntary 6 to 1 match of small donations to campaigns, capping matched small donations at $200. The matching would not be funded through taxpayer dollars, instead it would be funded by placing a 4.75% fee on criminal and civil fines and fees on settlements with large banks and corporations for corporate malfeasance. This plan has already faced severe backlash from Republican groups: a GOP group named The American Action Network has run advertisements in 15 Democratic congressional districts specifically attacking the public financing part of the bill.
Finally, the bill includes several changes to address ethics issues and increase transparency. It would require that Presidents and Vice Presidents, as well as candidates for those offices, release 10 years of tax returns. Further, it would give more power and oversight ability to the Office of Government Ethics and would ban members of Congress from using taxpayer dollars to settle sexual harassment and discrimination suits.
GOP opposition to the For the People Act has been swift and vehement. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has painted the bill as a power grab by Democrats afraid of losing their slim majorities in the House and Senate. He stated that “House Democrats do not get to take their razor-thin majority — which voters just shrunk — and use it to steamroll states and localities to try and prevent themselves from losing even more seats next time.” The bill received broad Republican opposition in the House and it is likely that no Republican Senators will vote for it. However, polling shows that the bill has broad support across America: a recent poll from Data for Progress showed 67% of national likely voters supported its passage, including a majority of Republican voters at 56%, and 68% of independents as well.
The passage of the bill and the debate surrounding it comes at a tense time in which voting rights and elections are at the center of political debate. After the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump and many Republicans pushed the false narrative that there was widespread fraud leading to his defeat in the election. In response, lawmakers in statehouses across the country have introduced legislation that would restrict voting rights with the purpose of stopping the purported fraud: since the election, 250 bills that would restrict voting rights have been introduced in 43 states. Most notably, in Georgia, Republicans have sought to alter voting rules in the state that helped decide the Presidency and control of the Senate. One bill in the state would severely limit early voting availability on Sundays, a day when many black voters in the state vote after church. Daniel Weiner, the deputy director of the Brennan Center’s Election Reform Program, said that “there is a new and palpable intensity to voter suppression, particularly targeting communities of color” and denounced Republicans’ “alarming willingness to push these policies based on false premises.” For Democrats, the sudden rise in voter suppression laws makes the passage of HR-1 even more urgent and important. Representative John Sarbanes of Maryland, the lead sponsor of the bill, explained that “we're not pursuing this reform against the backdrop of the status quo. We're pursuing it against the prospect that the Republicans will take things in the wrong direction, and in a significant way.”
Whether or not Democrats can pass the “For the People Act” before restrictive voting laws are implemented at the state level will make a significant difference in the political future of the country. The elimination of gerrymandering, protection of early voting, campaign finance reform, and higher ethics standards are all on the table and could be lost causes for many years if the bill is not passed. However, in order to pass HR-1, Democrats in the Senate will likely have to reform or eliminate the filibuster, which moderate Democrats like Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have opposed up until now. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki commented recently that President Biden “remains committed to protecting the fundamental right to vote and making it easy for all eligible Americans to vote.” If the protection of voting rights is truly a priority for congressional Democrats and President Biden, then finding a way to pass HR-1 is undeniably essential and urgent.