Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a sweeping bill to overhaul federal elections, ratcheting up already inflamed tensions over voting rights.
Senators voted 50-50 in the evenly divided Senate on advancing the For the People Act, splitting along party lines and failing to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP filibuster.
The vote is the culmination of weeks of partisan rancor and behind-the-scenes talks over changing the nation’s voting laws in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.
That contest was historic both for taking place during the coronavirus pandemic, which led to historic levels of mail-in voting, and because of former President Trump‘s baseless allegations that massive voter fraud led to his defeat, an argument that culminated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and continues to reverberate in certain conservative circles.
Several states — including Georgia, which was won narrowly by President Biden and then delivered the Democrats their Senate majority — have made changes to their voting laws since then, energizing a sharp debate over whether the new rules will limit the votes of Democrats and minority groups and edge them out of being able to control of Congress.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}
