Stacey Abrams backs Sen. Joe Manchin’s ‘strong’ voting reform compromise
Georgia’s Stacey Abrams threw her support Thursday behind West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin’s proposals for a compromise on voting reform, giving the plan some momentum as Democrats seek to unite against Republican efforts to impose restrictive new ballot rules across the country.
Abrams, a former candidate for Georgia governor and leading voting rights advocate, praised the moderate Democratic senator’s scaled-back policy demands even though it doesn’t go nearly as far as other left-wing proposals.
“What Senator Manchin is putting forward are some basic building blocks we need to ensure that democracy is accessible,” Abrams said on CNN. “The provisions that he is setting forth are strong ones that will create level playing field (and) create standards that do not vary from state to state.
“I think (they would) ensure that every American has improved access to the right to vote,” Abrams added.
Abrams notably said she does not oppose Manchin’s proposal to add a GOP-friendly provision requiring voter identification.
“No one has ever objected to having to prove who you are to vote,” Abrams said. “It’s been part of our nation’s history since the inception of voting.
“What’s been problematic is the type of restrictive I.D. that we’ve seen pop up,” she said.
Democrats have been pushing for the Senate to pass the For The People Act, a sweeping voting rights bill which already got through the House of Representatives.
Even if a reworked bill can win the support of all 50 Senate Democrats, it would need the backing of 10 Republicans to have a chance of overcoming a certain GOP filibuster.
Manchin has repeatedly said he will not support eliminating the filibuster rule, which requires 60 votes to pass most measures.
Some Democrats hope he and other moderates will agree to carve out an exception for voting rights, similar to the exception that Republicans made for Supreme Court justices who can now be confirmed by a simple majority vote.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has set for next Tuesday a procedural vote for moving the voting rights bill forward. That’s when Manchin will likely have to decide whether to support it.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell immediately poured cold water on any bipartisan agreement, saying Thursday that “a plan endorsed by Stacey Abrams is no compromise.”
The GOP lawmaker slammed the voting reforms for embracing “cancel culture” and taking redistricting power away from state lawmakers, many of which are gerrymandered to virtually ensure they stay in Republican hands.
“It still retains (a) rotten core: an assault on the fundamental idea that states, not the federal government, should decide how to run their own elections,” McConnell told reporters.
