Senate Republicans block voting rights legislation

While the outcome of the vote was not unexpected, Democrats are using it to argue that Republicans are engaged in systemic voter suppression and a case in point for why the filibuster must be ended.

A procedural vote to begin debate on , failed to pass the U.S. Senate on Monday, after Senators voted 50-50 along party lines. The ‘For the People Act’, which sought to make access to voting easier across the country, in response to Republican-backed measures to tighten voting laws in several states, met with a filibuster from Senate Republicans, necessitating at least 60 of 100 votes to progress. The bill included provisions to increase early voting, absentee voting, limit gerrymandering (manipulating electoral constituency boundaries to favour a particular party), establish federal financing of campaigns and automatic voter registration. It also proposed additional campaign finance disclosures. The Democrat controlled House had passed its version of the legislation in March.