‌‌What's The Plan For The Freedom To Vote Act?

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has moved to bring the Freedom To Vote Act up for debate and a vote in the Senate. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has, in theory, been trying to get the 10 Republicans needed to overcome a filibuster to sign on — a quest that seems quite doomed from the start. So the question will soon become: What’s Manchin’s plan here? And what’s Schumer’s?

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Alright, let’s dig in.

Focus Back On Manchin As Schumer Moves Freedom To Vote Act Forward

The Freedom to Vote Act is teed up for a Senate vote on Wednesday, now that Majority Leader Schumer has called a cloture vote on the legislation. 
 

Let’s remember the context: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) voted against the previous iteration of this bill, the For The People Act, because it was “partisan.” 
 

This time, he’s helped craft the legislation, and he’s very openly tried to recruit Republican support for it. But there’s no sign at all that he’s won over the 10 Republicans necessary to surpass a filibuster.

So has Manchin loosened his opposition to changing the filibuster? Is he willing to change the rules and pass this bill on a simple 51-50 majority, with every Democrat plus Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote?

If so, he hasn’t said as much yet. Activists tracking the legislation want Joe Biden to step in. 
 

“We know that this procedural rule, the filibuster, is blocking progress, and we want President Biden to weigh in on this,” Jana Morgan, director of the Declaration for American Democracy Coalition, told RollCall this week. “We want to see President Biden using every lever of power to compel the Senate to move on this.”

The Fallout Continues From Mike Lindell’s ‘Cyber Symposium’

A state judge this week prohibited Mesa County, COLORADO Clerk Tina Peters from administering the upcoming November elections, the result of Peters allowing an unauthorized man into a software update for voting machines, after which digital images of the election machines were leaked online.

The digital images were then presented at Mike Lindell’s “Cyber Symposium” in August, with Peters in attendance.

But that’s not all: As we've reported, Lindell’s symposium also included digital images of voting machines from Antrim County, Michigan, where Big Liars pursued a lawsuit alleging widespread election fraud.

The judge in that case allowed the plaintiffs to view the machines’ code, but only under a judicial seal. How it ended up on the big screen at Lindell's event remains unclear. 

The lead attorney for the plaintiffs, Matthew DePerno, is also now a Trump-endorsed contender for attorney general. According to newly reported court filings, DePerno sent Lindell a cease-and-desist email in the middle of the conference. 

The digital images reached Lindell in suspicious fashion: Two “expert” witnesses in DePerno’s suit were also speakers at the symposium.

Around The States

The TEXAS House passed a gerrymandered state legislative map at around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. As Mother Jones’ Ari Berman noted: “Whites 40% population but control 59% districts” – decreasing majority-minority districts despite people of color making up the vast majority of recent growth in the state. 
 

Democrats’ proposed congressional map of ILLINOIS looks like a tie-dye t-shirt. 
 

As voting begins in state and local elections around the country, many voters are dealing with newly restrictive laws – including NEW YORKers. Local election workers must now receive mail-in ballot applications 15 days before Election Day, as opposed to the prior law, which required mailing the applications until a week before Election Day. 
 

In many states, including NEW JERSEY and OHIO, poll workers are in short supply. 
 

MICHIGAN legislators have passed a package of voting restrictions that includes new ID requirements or in-person and by-mail voting. Republicans are also attempting to make them law via an unusual petition process. 
 

The MONTANA Democratic Party and others are suing over a new law prohibiting student organizations and other groups from conducting voter registration drives at some university campus locations. 
 

The VIRGINIA House of Delegates elections will be based on decade-old districts this year because of the delay in U.S. Census data used for redistricting. Attorney General Mark Herring (D) has ignored calls for a legal opinion on the matter. Now, a federal judge says he wants Herring “to do his job.” 
 

The Latest In Audit Mania

A GEORGIA state judge threw out a months-old suit seeking physical access to Atlanta voters’ mail-in ballots after lawyers for the state said they’d found no evidence of “counterfeit” ballots or other shenanigans.

“Republicans will not be voting in ‘22 or ‘24” if we don’t “solve” the 2020 election, Donald Trump threatened Wednesday. 

PENNSYLVANIA's attorney general is seeking to stop a GOP-led effort to subpoena 2020 voters' information, saying the real goal was “to manufacture mistrust about Pennsylvania’s elections.”
 

“Shut this fake investigation down,” WISCONSIN’s Democratic attorney general urged the Republican assembly speaker, Robin Vos, referring to the politicized 2020 election review that Vos assigned to former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman. 
 

One COLORADO county clerk says “we have no reason to do” a retabulation of the 2020 vote – but they’re doing it anyway, “for the community because of the concerns that we consistently hear about.” 
 

Canvassing, canvassing, everywhere: most recently in MICHIGAN, where Trump supporters are on the hunt for “ghost votes.” 
 

FLORIDA Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is resisting audit mania: “What we do in Florida is, there’s a pre- and post-election audit that happens automatically,” he said. “So, that has happened. It passed with flying colors in terms of how that’s going.”
 

TEXAS legislators could soon pass a bill mandating a “forensic audit” of the 2020 election, as well as provide a pathway for party officials and interest groups to challenge future elections. Estimated price tag: $250 million.

WaPo: Advocates worry Biden is letting U.S. democracy erode on his watch

Politico: Trump allies eye election law push should he be reelected

Texas Tribune and ProPublica: Trump won Hood County in a landslide. His supporters still hounded the elections administrator until she resigned.
 

Election Law Blog: Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment and January 6, 2025: the need for legislation now

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