Manchin, a West Virginia moderate, said he's now open to supporting a bill if it's revised, despite declaring earlier this month that the measure was the “wrong piece of legislation to bring our country together.'
WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Manchin is proposing an extensive list of changes to his party's sweeping elections and voting bill, raising hopes among Democrats that they could unite behind the legislation even if the measure is nearly certain to be blocked by Republicans in a showdown Senate vote next week.
However, he added, “You should not pass any type of a voter bill in the most divisive time in our life unless you have some unity on this thing because you’ll just divide the country further." Manchin said he was “not confident” other Democrats would agree to his proposed changes. He has also called for changes to a section on the bill that would create nonpartisan commissions to redraw congressional maps. Manchin, instead, has proposed the use of computer models to prevent partisan gerrymandering.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, told reporters the proposal was a “way in which we stay engaged on the issue.” He said he was less troubled by Manchin's support for voter ID laws than “these terrible partisan political maneuvers” by Republican state lawmakers, including in Georgia, where the GOP-controlled legislature can now remove local elections officials they object to.
As the fight in Congress drags on, the Biden administration is taking steps to address voting at the state level.
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