Senate GOP again blocks Democrats' election bill

For third time this year, Senate Democrats on Wednesday tried to pass sweeping elections legislation that y tout as a powerful counterweight to new voting restrictions in states.

Once again, Republicans blocked m.

But amid stalemate, re are signs that Democrats are making headway in ir effort to create consensus around changing Senate procedural rules, a key step that could allow m to muscle transformative legislation through narrowly divided chamber.

Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, recently eased his longstanding opposition to changing filibuster rules, which create a 60-vote threshold for most legislation to pass.

Democrats still face long odds of passing ir bill, w kwn as Freedom to Vote Act, which Senate Mirity Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., excoriated Wednesday as a federal “election takeover scheme.”

Democrats' voting bill was first introduced in March in wake of Jan. 6 Capitol attack. It quickly passed House at a time when Republican-controlled legislatures - many inspired by Donald Trump's false claims of a stolen 2020 election - were advancing restrictions in name of election security that will make it harder to vote and could make administration of elections more subject to partisan interference.

Trump’s claims of election fraud were widely rejected in courts, by state officials who certified results and by his own attorney general.

But initial optimism that measure would swiftly pass Senate dissipated after several members of Democratic caucus, including King, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, among ors, made clear ir reluctance to change filibuster rules. Manchin, who has said that any election overhaul needs bipartisan support, also sought changes to voting bill to make it more palatable to Republicans.

As written, current “compromise” version of bill would establish national rules for running elections, limit partisanship in drawing of congressional districts and force disclosure of many anymous dors who spend big to influence elections.

Or provisions are aimed at alleviating concerns from local elections officials, who worried that that original bill would have been too difficult to implement. And some new additions are aimed at insulating npartisan election officials, who may be subject to greater partisan pressure under some of new state laws.

It also includes a number of changes sought by Manchin, chamber’s most conservative Democrat, including a provision that would limit, but t prohibit, state voter ID requirements.

But so far, those changes have t attracted Republican support that Manchin was seeking.