House Democrats, warning that “federal oversight is urgently needed” at the nation’s polling places, introduced a measure aimed at enhancing government control of elections and plan to consider it at a special August session that will convene next week.
The measure is named after the late Democratic House Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, who was also a prominent civil rights activist, and it takes aim at the Peach State and other states that have implemented new changes to voting laws that Democrats say will suppress the vote.
It would reinstate some of the 1965 Voting Rights Act language struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013 and 2021 decisions.
And it would go further by protecting the voting rights of transgender people and expanding the ability of the federal government to observe the polls in certain jurisdictions where discrimination is considered more likely.
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It would also “modernize” the formula for determining which jurisdictions have shown a pattern of discrimination at the polls.
Democrats announced the measure on Tuesday, ahead of the House session that will convene on Aug. 23 to consider a $3.4 trillion budget resolution.
The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act will also be on the agenda, Democratic leaders said.
“The House today is taking a momentous step to secure the sacred right to vote for generations to come,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat.
Democrats introduced the measure in the previous Congress but said it was urgent to take up the measure this summer in response to state-level changes to shore up voter integrity that includes requiring photo identification at the polls and purging voter rolls of those who have moved or died.
“Today, old battles have become new again as we face the most pernicious assault on the right to vote in generations,” said Rep. Terri Sewell, an Alabama Democrat who is the bill’s sponsor. “It’s clear federal oversight is urgently needed.”
Democrats had hoped by now to have passed a much broader voting and campaign overhaul measure, but it was blocked in the Senate by Republicans as well as Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
The For the People Act would have made sweeping changes to the nation’s voting system and would prohibit requiring voter ID and other integrity-enhancing measures implemented in Georgia and other states. It would have increased campaign finance disclosure rules and skewed the power of the Federal Election Commission to the party in control of the White House.
Manchin objected, arguing that a major voting overhaul bill should be bipartisan. He is now coordinating with other Senate Democrats on a measure he can support, but similar to the John Lewis Voting Advancement Act, it is bound for failure, thanks to the 60-vote threshold. At least 10 Republicans would be needed to advance the bill. So far, only Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska backs the John Lewis act among GOP senators.
House Democrats are nonetheless determined to pass the bill next week.
A coalition of liberal groups is coordinating marches in five major cities on Aug. 28 to push for passage of the bill and for the Senate to remove the 60-vote threshold so the bill can become law.
“House Democrats will not falter in the fight for the right to vote, and we remain committed to ensuring our democracy can prosper and continue to deliver for the people,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat. “That is why I will bring this essential bill to the House floor for a vote next week.”
Democrats have long criticized the 2013 Supreme Court decision that struck down part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The high court ruling eliminated the decades-old requirement that some states obtain permission from the federal government before changing voting laws.
In July, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of new Arizona laws requiring ballots to be discarded when cast in the wrong voting district and banning so-called ballot harvesting.
President Joe Biden said the court “has now done severe damage” to the nation’s voting rights.
Conservative groups on Tuesday criticized the Democrats’ bill, arguing that it is a scaled-down version of the For the People Act that would damage efforts to bolster voter integrity and eliminate voter fraud and give the federal government unprecedented power over elections.
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“The bill will punish election integrity reforms and put all 50 states under the thumb of unelected bureaucrats like Merrick Garland in President Biden’s Department of Justice through radical pre-clearance requirements,” Adam Brandon, president of the conservative group FreedomWorks, said in a statement.
