Senate halts electoral reform: Big blow to Democrats

Wednesday 23 June 2021

Senate halts electoral reform
Deep blow to Democrats

After the defeat of Donald Trump in the presidential election, many US states want to change the electoral law. As a result, fewer people could cast their vote there in future. Democratic plans to prevent this through electoral reforms are now being badly crushed.

President Joe Biden’s Democrats have faced a severe blow from the Republican opposition with a legislative proposal for far-reaching electoral reform. Republicans in the US Senate blocked Tuesday evening (local time) through a procedural rule from the parliamentary chamber that the project could be voted on.

This would require 60 out of 100 votes. All 50 Democrats were in favor and all 50 Republicans were against it. Democrats wanted to use the law to counteract plans to restrict voting rights in several Republican-dominated states. Some time ago the White House once again openly supported this project. “Here, democracy in America is at risk,” it said in a statement on Tuesday. “The right to vote – a sacred right in this country – is being attacked with such intensity and aggression that we have not seen in a long time.” Earlier in the month, Biden himself spoke of a “truly unprecedented attack on our democracy.”

Changes resulting from Trump’s exit from office

Democrats’ majority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, announced after the vote that his party would pursue the project. “We won’t let it die.” Democrats accused Republicans of using unfounded claims of fraud in the presidential election last November as an excuse to restrict their right to vote. Republican Donald Trump, who lost the election to Biden, continues to claim that his victory was fraudulently robbed. Trump’s camp has failed with dozens of lawsuits against the results and has presented no evidence of fraud to date.

Several states, including Florida, Texas and Georgia, are planning electoral law reform. They particularly concern the option of postal voting. Trump had presented this form of voting as particularly prone to fraud. There is no proof of this. Planned restrictions, for example through an identification requirement for postal voters, would make voting more difficult, especially for non-whites and low-income people, as they often do not have photo identification.

Biden’s Democrats control 50, or exactly half, of the seats in the Senate. If there is a deadlock, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is the Senate’s ex-officio president, could help Democrats win. The so-called filibuster process enables a minority in the Senate to block several bills proposed by the majority. This rule, which has been in effect for more than 100 years in principle, states that in most bills, 60 out of 100 senators must approve the end of the debate for the actual vote.