CHARLESTON – U.S. Senator Joe Manchin’s commitments to a new voting rights bill and the filibuster soon could be put to the test.
Last week, the West Virginia Democrat helped introduce the Freedom to Vote Act, a successor to the For the People Act that passed the House in March but failed to garner any Republican support in the equally split Senate and was stopped by a Republican filibuster.
Meanwhile, a statewide poll shows most West Virginia voters support Manchin's public opposition to a similar voting rights bill and changes to the filibuster rule by more than 60 percent each.
Cuccinelli
Manchin and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) have worked on the Freedom to Vote Act in recent weeks, but Senate Democrats still can’t find a single Republican to cross the aisle and vote with them.
For the Freedom to Vote Act to avoid the same fate as the For the People Act, the 50 Senate Democrats need 10 Republicans to support it to avoid another filibuster. That seems unlikely, so the other option for Democrats is to eliminate the legislative filibuster to allow the measure to pass on a party line vote.
President Biden has said he plans to work to change the filibuster rule to help pass the bill. Manchin previously has said he doesn’t support ending the filibuster.
A poll from this summer shows solid support in West Virginia for Manchin’s stance on both the voting rights bill and the filibuster.
A statewide poll conducted by ARW Strategies showed that 52 percent of those surveyed agreed with Manchin’s opposition to HR1, and 11 percent somewhat agreed with him while 24 percent strongly disagreed with him. Manchin sought extensive changes to HR1 – also known as the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act – possibly to garner bipartisan support, which is something he has said is necessary on such a bill.
The same poll found 55 percent of those surveyed would encourage their Senators to vote against HR4, the predecessor to the Freedom to Vote Act that Manchin did support even before he and other Democrats modified it into what is now the Freedom to Vote Act.
In addition, the survey found that that 50 percent of those polled strongly agreed with Manchin’s position not to weaken or eliminate the filibuster rule, and 12 percent somewhat agreed.
In June, Manchin wrote an op-ed piece saying he would vote against the For the People Act because “the right to vote is fundamental to our American democracy and protecting that right should not be about party or politics.”
“I believe that partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy,” Manchin wrote. “Congressional action on federal voting rights legislation must be the result of both Democrats and Republicans coming together to find a pathway forward or we risk further dividing and destroying the republic we swore to protect and defend as elected officials.
“The truth, I would argue, is that voting and election reform that is done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen.”
In the piece, Manchin also was critical of those who wanted him to help eliminate the filibuster to pass the bill.
“The truth is there is a better way,” he said. “If we seek to find it together.”
Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said Manchin is in a unique situation.
“This new bill isn’t really a compromise bill,” Cuccinelli, a Republican, told The West Virginia Record. “It’s really only a compromise between Democrats. This is a liberal compromise.
“If you look at what Manchin wrote in June that he wanted to see, he has receded from those positions. That’s unfortunate. What else is he going to back off of? That’s certainly a concern a lot of people in and out of West Virginia have.
“But, he’s going to be in a position in the next few weeks to demonstrate how much he’s committed to what he’s promised over time.”
Cuccinelli, who also served as the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security and acting director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, now leads the Election Transparency Institute.
“West Virginia is a really interesting state,” Cuccinelli told The Record. “The left really doesn’t have anything to pressure Manchin with, so why is he moving their way? He holds himself out as not being a liberal or leftist, yet that’s who he’s accommodating here. And not to the benefit of West Virginia or the rest of the country.
“It’s as if the left just screeched in his ear for so long, he’s not only throwing them bones but he’s now giving them their bill with just a few minor differences. In truth, I don’t see a lot different here than what was in HR1.
“If you caught Manchin in the hallway and pressed him on what’s different about the bills, I don’t know if he could answer it.”
Manchin’s office did not return messages seeking comment.
Cuccinelli said Manchin is the most high-profile Democrat who publicly has said he feels strongly about not back off of the filibuster.
“But with these voting bills, he’s just shown he’s movable,” Cuccinelli said. “If he backs off on the filibuster, will the others? It makes me worry about other things.
“Plus, if he’ll give this much on what he had said he wanted to see in June, what will he do on the filibuster? What will he do on the $3.5 trillion spending bill? It’s hard to know.”
Cuccinelli, a former Virginia Attorney General, and fellow conservative Ken Blackwell, a former Ohio Secretary of State, published an opinion piece earlier this month that said Manchin shouldn’t support HR4 because his fellow Democrats have turned the election legislation into a power grab. The op-ed, first printed September 8 by The Exponent Telegram in Clarksburg, was headlined “Dems make it impossible for Sen. Manchin to support H.R. 4.”
In their commentary, Cuccinelli and Blackwell call a three-page list of policy demands Manchin issued in June just before the Senate was to vote on the measure his “red line in the sand.” They said Manchin outlined his willingness to support key provisions of the legislation, and Bloomburg called Manchin’s proposal “a bid for a compromise on an issue that has put him at odds with the rest of his party.”
“The legislation ultimately failed in the Senate, so when House Democrats recently circumvented the committee review process to abruptly force a vote on new election legislation known as HR 4, observers naturally expected it to incorporate Manchin’s proposals,” they wrote. “Instead, Democrats ran in the complete opposite direction.”
They said the previous version of HR 4 morphed into a “grab-bag of liberal policies completely contrary to Manchin’s proposals and pre-requisites that election reform be bi-partisan and adhere to regular order. …
“In reality, H.R. 4 is a politically driven takeover of state elections designed to rig the system in Democrats’ favor. It’s so unpopular and obviously partisan Nancy Pelosi had to force it through the House while the nation was focused on thousands of Americans stranded in Afghanistan. … In 2021, H.R. 4 is a mere shadow of the bill Manchin once supported.”
Last week, West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner urged Manchin to oppose the Freedom to Vote Act, which he called “nothing more than a watered-down version of H.R. 1, the so-called ‘For the People Act.’”
Warner, a Republican, sent a letter to Manchin, a Democrat, after Manchin had requested feedback on the proposed bill released by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota).
"The ‘Freedom to Vote Act’ is a solution in search of a problem," Warner said. "It is nothing more than an attempt to circumvent the authority placed on state legislatures by the U.S. Constitution.”
On September 14, Manchin joined a group of Democrat senators in introducing the Freedom to Vote Act. It hits on voting rights, campaign finance and government ethics. It retains some, but not all, of the For the People Act.
In his letter, Warner also called the new legislation another attempt by bureaucrats to take control of state and local election administration.
"You can fix a bad bill," Warner opened his letter to Manchin. "A bill that is premised on false assumptions, and designed to counter the clear language of the U.S. Constitution and the 10th Amendment, is a bill not worthy of construction or compromise."
He went on to call the bill and similar ones "disingenuous and a troublesome effort." He also reminded Manchin, who also once served as West Virginia's Secretary of State, that 54 of West Virginia's 55 county clerks are against most of the provisions mentioned in the bill.
"The inappropriate provisions contained in the 592 pages of this bill are too numerous to address in this letter," Warner wrote. "The gist is that this bill amounts to an overreach by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., to direct how elections will be run in the United States."
Other voting measures proposed by Klobuchar and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) have failed to move forward in Congress due to a lack of bi-partisan support. The provisions of this newly re-worded version of H.R. 1 differ so slightly from its previous forms, Warner has urged Senator Manchin to reject this repeat attempt at removing local control over state elections.
"This bill is addressing the wrong aspect of the election problems in the United States," Warner wrote. "The main focus of the election discussion should be to ensure only votes cast consistent with individual state laws, "legal votes," are counted. state legislatures should be left to address state-specific processes based on decades of solving the unique issues facing each local jurisdiction.
Warner also urged Manchin and other senators to look at "single shot approaches" rather than an omnibus bill.
"For example, if Congress wants to make Election Day a federal holiday, that is clearly in the purview of Congress," he wrote. "But that can be done with a single bill.
"Otherwise, the language of the U.S. Constitution is clear that the time, place and manner of elections shall be left to state legislators."
Kanawha County Commissioner Kent Carper, a Democrat, says Manchin’s compromise has some positives in it.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” Carper told The Record. “And let’s face it. The bill won’t pass and can’t pass unless they bust the filibuster. And I doubt it would pass even with busting the filibuster. So, you have two choices. You can either live in a fantasy or live in reality.
“The bottom line is that Senator Manchin is trying to obtain the good. So, I support Senator Manchin. In politics these days, this country is divided right down the middle on everything. And I do mean everything. I don’t know if you can always hold out for something that won’t happen. Sometimes when you’re in pursuit of perfect, you trip over the good.
“Listen, I live in West Virginia. I’ve never met Nancy Pelosi. My senator is Mr. Joseph Manchin. And, the last time I checked, we have a representative government. So I trust Joe Manchin.”