Democrats argue that voting rights have to be protected at national level. They are promoting a sweeping voting rights legislation called the For the People Act, H.R.1. Republicans are largely against a “federal takeover of elections”. A vote in the Senate on Tuesday on H.R.1. saw the house equally split on the bill, 50-50, short of the super majority needed for discussions on the bill to begin. This article by Mike DeBonis is published by The Washington Post. Here is an excerpt:

Senate Republicans banded together Tuesday to block a sweeping Democratic bill that would revamp the architecture of American democracy, dealing a grave blow to efforts to federally override dozens of GOP-passed state voting laws.

The test vote, which would have cleared the way to start debate on voting legislation, failed 50-50 on straight party lines — 10 votes short of the supermajority needed to advance legislation in the Senate.

It came after a succession of Democrats delivered warnings about what they said was the dire state of American democracy, accusing former president Donald Trump of undermining the country’s democratic system by challenging the results of the 2020 election in a campaign that prompted his supporters in numerous state legislatures to pass laws rolling back ballot access.

Read the full article here.