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What Democrats put in their voting rights megabill — and what got left out [1]

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Date: 2022-01-14

But while the House passed the bill on a party-line vote Thursday, it faces a blockage in the 50-50 Senate: the filibuster rule. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) remain opposed to changing the chamber’s rules requiring 60 votes to move forward with most legislation, and the bill has not garnered Republican support.

“While I continue to support these bills, I will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country,” Sinema said in a floor speech on Thursday.

Here are some of the most consequential provisions in the legislation — and what was left out.

Expanding how voters access the ballot box

The new combined legislation largely draws on the Freedom to Vote Act to expand ballot access in several ways. The provisions include requiring states to offer online and Election Day voter registration, as well as offering automatic voter registration when an eligible would-be voter interacts with a state’s motor vehicle department.

The bill would also set minimum requirements for offering early in-person voting — all states would have to have an early-voting window starting at least 15 days before the election — and making mail absentee voting available to all voters.

Currently, 44 states and Washington, D.C. offer at least some level of in-person early voting, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Thirty-four states and D.C. offer no-excuse mail balloting, per the NCSL.

The bill also includes mandates about the ways voters could return their mail ballots. States would have to make drop boxes widely available. And mail ballots postmarked by Election Day would have to be accepted by election officials if they arrived up to seven days after Election Day.

The package does not mandate universal vote-by-mail systems, in which states automatically mail ballots to voters without a request. Eight states currently conduct at least some elections this way, with limited in-person options typically offered as well.

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[1] Url: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/14/democrats-voting-rights-megabill-left-out-527095

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