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Manchin Elections Bill Could Get Vote in Senate This Month

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., talks to reporters as he arrives to chair the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021. Manchin is key holdout vote on President Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion domestic agenda. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

CHARLESTON — While debate over hard infrastructure, the price tag of President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better legislation and the fight between Republicans and Democrats over who should raise the debt ceiling have dominated headlines, supporters of an elections reform bill still hope it comes up for a vote.

According to National Public Radio, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday a vote on the Freedom to Vote Act could come sometime this month.

The Freedom to Vote Act, a compromise bill developed by Sen. Joe Manchin as a slimmed-down version of the failed For the People Act, was introduced at the end of September.

Wayne County native and former House of Delegates Majority Leader Rick Staton and Charleston City Council member Becky Ceperley, both Democrats, were supporters of the previous For the People Act. Even though the Freedom to Vote Act doesn’t have all of the same provisions as the previous bill, both supported the new bill as a good compromise.

“It is still a very comprehensive piece of legislation that we think needs to be passed,” said Ceperley, a former president of the League of Women Voters. “I had hoped that Sen. Manchin would step up and take a leadership role and that’s exactly what he did.”

“There’s been significant changes from the original act,” Staton said. “Most of it, frankly, reflects what we do here in West Virginia.”

Among the bill’s provisions, it would require states to implement automatic voter registration and online voter registration, allow for same day voter registration by 2024, make Election Day a federal holiday, require 15 days of consecutive early voting for federal elections, and allow all voters to request mail-in absentee ballots without the need for excuses and allow for ballot drop boxes.

“The problem that I see is there are efforts around the country to make it harder to vote,” Staton said. “In my judgment, especially with the advent of tech secure technologies, we should be making it easier.”

“We’re such a move-around society anymore, where people will change jobs or move to different parts of the country,” Ceperley said. “It would be wonderful to know that wherever you go, when you go to vote the same rules apply and it’s the same system.”

The bill prohibits removal of voters from county voter rolls based on returned mail, frequently used to determine whether a voter has moved. It would require provisional ballots to be counted regardless of the precinct where they were cast. It would also create a nationwide standard for requiring photo and non-photo identification at polls, as well as return the right to vote to felons who served their time.

Other provisions include a ban on partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts, including the use of independent redistricting commissions; and requires super PACs and other groups that spend money in elections to disclose their donors and requires greater disclosure on political ads.

“Dark money is starting to control elections,” Staton said. “You don’t know where that money’s coming from or why it’s being paid out or who’s behind it. That is, to me, is not democracy. We need to know who has who’s backing your campaign and why.”

While the bill is a major priority for U.S. Senate Democratic leadership, Republican support is not locked up. The bill will need 60 votes to be considered by the Senate, meaning it needs 10 Republicans to support it. Manchin and others have been working behind-the-scenes to get Republican support for the bill.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito has been vocal in her opposition to the bill, believing it to be federal overreach into how states manage their elections. The bill is also opposed by Republican Mac Warner, West Virginia’s Secretary of State.

Both Staton and Ceperley said parts of the bill are based on West Virginia’s successful elections during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

“One of the things that confuses me about Warner’s opposition and position, frankly, is that in my opinion, he ought to be taking a victory lap,” Staton said. “Moving the success in West Virginia into a national model is something that he and all of us should be proud of rather than trying to attack.”

“Frankly, I’m disappointed (with) Capito,” Ceperley said. “I would have thought that she would want to embrace it. She has stood up for voter rights before. She has certainly been a representative of the citizens of West Virginia often. I’m confused about why she would just sort of knee jerk reaction to what is a good piece of legislation. It’s very disappointing.”

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