Republicans in the U.S. Senate blocked the advancement of a major voting rights bill Tuesday.The Senate’s top Democrat, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, set a procedural vote for the For the People Act, but with 60 votes required to advance the bill for debate and Republicans opposing the measure in the evenly split 100-member chamber, the bill stalled.Lindsey Graham, a prominent South Carolina Republican, called the measure “an insane idea” in a statement released shortly after he voted no. “Simply put, this is the biggest power-grab in modern American history. S.1 has nothing to do with making voting easier — it has everything to do with skewing the system in a fashion to benefit the liberal agenda,” Graham said. Simply put, this is the biggest power-grab in modern American history. S.1 has nothing to do with making voting easier – it has everything to do with skewing the system in a fashion to benefit the liberal agenda. I enthusiastically voted no.— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is followed by reporters after a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill with other Democrats in the bipartisan talks, in Washington, June 22, 2021.But his changes to the measure have drawn no Republican support.The Democratic push for election reform comes as Republican-controlled legislatures in many states enact new restrictions following the 2020 election that saw former president Donald Trump repeatedly make false claims of election fraud.The original Senate bill, which passed the Democrat-majority House in March, would make it easier for people to register to vote, require states to hold at least 15 days of early voting, allow people to cast absentee ballots without giving a reason, and put the redrawing of congressional districts in the hands of nonpartisan commissions and not state legislatures.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York speaks with reporters as the Senate prepares for a key test vote on the For the People Act, a sweeping bill that would overhaul the election system and voting rights, at the Capitol, June 22, 2021.Schumer said that voting rights are “under assault from one end of the country to the other,” and that the Republican-led efforts in the various states are an attempt to give Republicans “a partisan advantage at the polls by making it harder for Democratic-leaning voters to vote.”
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