Alas, it seems the For The People Act was just too much democracy for Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV). That being the case, Democratic legislators have had to recalibrate their goals, and have scrambled to produce a new bill of election reforms dubbed the Freedom To Vote Act.
There’s actually a lot to like in this bill–specifically, it:
- Sets standards for election administration, including minimum amounts of early voting, the availability of mail-in ballots, and crucially wait times on poll lines.
- Makes election day a public holiday.
- Criminalizes disseminating any false information that would deter voters from casting a ballot.
- Restores federal voting rights to convicts who have paid their debt to society.
- Sets standard for redistricting that should severely impede Republican’s data-driven gerrymandering efforts currently underway (hel-LO Texas).
- For states that require Voter ID, it sets (fairly permissive) standards for what should be considered legitimate identification.
And much more. As usual, the Brennan Center has all the details.
The main thing missing from FTV that had been in FTP is campaign finance reform (see the in-depth discussion of differences over at Democracy Docket).
But can it pass?
Manchin’s objection to For The People was that it “wasn’t bipartisan”. Freedom To Vote is largely based on a framework that he put out, and so now the task will be to convince 10 republican Senators to support the bill, in order to surmount the current filibuster rule. These days it’s hard to be optimistic that so many republicans can be convinced to support such a bill (heck, they don’t even seem to support the US meeting its debt obligations lately). But maybe Manchin knows something the rest of us don’t.
In the meantime, please be sure to call your Senators and let them know that you want to see Freedom To Vote pass, and have their back to modify or completely do away with the filibuster if necessary.