But in reaching out to centrist Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), Senate Democrats indicated that they were open to compromise.
The shameful reaction of Senate Republicans, on the other hand, demonstrated that they are willing to ignore laws approved by GOP-controlled legislatures that make voting harder.
Those measures reflect the lingering malign influence of Donald Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen.
Earlier on Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that Democrats were aiming to “tilt every election in America permanently in their favor.”
Some of Manchin’s ideas, such as a requirement for early voting, overlapped the provisions of the For the People Act.
Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s willingness to have the Senate consider Manchin’s ideas led the West Virginia senator to join all 49 of his Democratic colleagues in voting to advance debate.
Manchin and another Democratic senator, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have resisted the idea of abolishing the filibuster. »