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Klobuchar’s big test: Shepherding election reform

By Jim Spencer and Hunter Woodall, Star Tribune
Published: May 9, 2021, 11:00am

WASHINGTON — By most political calculus, the sweeping election reform bill that Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota is trying to shepherd through the Senate is a moonshot: hard to achieve and fraught with complications.

For “anyone who is serious about trying to get something done to make it easier for people to vote … we’re ready to go,” Minnesota’s senior senator said in an interview.

Dubbed the “For the People Act,” the bill affects everything from voter registration to absentee ballots to campaign finance to ethics laws. Its scope makes it an easy target for Republican opposition.

Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized the legislation during a March hearing as being “nowhere near ready for prime time. It’s an invitation to total chaos.”

Republicans also charge that the bill is an unconstitutional attempt by the federal government to wrest control of elections from the states.

As the bill faces a crucial May 11 markup before the Senate Rules Committee Klobuchar chairs, she is talking to colleagues and proposing changes to the bill. She has invested a big piece of her political reputation in “For the People” because she believes it is the most important voting rights law in half a century.

Still, former Carleton College political scientist Steve Schier warned, “there is a harsh and probably unbridgeable partisan divide on this that’s not going to be overcome.”

“For the People” aims to ensure access to remote voting that in 2020 helped spark the largest voter turnout in 120 years, despite the pandemic. Meanwhile, restrictions on remote voting are now passing in many Republican-run state legislatures in reaction to former President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that massive voter fraud cost him the 2020 presidential election.

Those competing approaches may be irreconcilable.

Klobuchar will likely be able to get the bill out of her committee next week on a party-line vote. She said she has not given up on getting the bill passed by the full Senate. She said she “would love to get Republican support,” but acknowledged that there were “not really indications of that now.” Republicans, she said “have filed more than 300 bills that make it harder to vote just at a time when Americans showed their engagement in democracy.”

The bill faces long odds in the equally-divided Senate. What’s less clear is which party and legislators get hurt most by defeat of the “For the People Act.” Control of Congress in the midterm elections is at stake, a decision that could determine the country’s political course for years and perhaps decades.

After House Democrats passed their version of the bill in March without a single Republican vote and one Democratic defector, Minnesota’s Tom Emmer, the fourth ranking Republican in the House, issued a statement saying that “223 Democrats are permanently on record for sponsoring a bill that would erode state control of their elections and provide government funding for partisan campaigns.”

There’s an urgency behind the bill, Sen. Tina Smith said in an interview. But the difficulties moving forward weren’t lost on the Minnesota Democrat.

“We won’t know what happens until this bill ultimately comes up for a vote, and I am sure that one way or another we’re going to have an opportunity to vote on this bill, and people are going to be held accountable for how they vote,” Smith said.

House Democrats from Minnesota were equally realistic about the bill’s chances.

“Recent history would indicate that very little can pass through the Senate considering the Senate’s rules,” Rep. Dean Phillips said in an interview, adding “I’m hopeful, but I’m not confident.”

Rep. Angie Craig admitted “it’s going to be tough in the Senate, I know. But this and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act are the two most important bills this Congress will address.”

In the Senate, Klobuchar, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon lead a charge that has yet to gain guaranteed support from Democrat Joe Manchin. The bill has no declared Republican support, yet needs at least 10 Republicans to end a filibuster that could stop its passage.

The changes Klobuchar is now proposing to the bill do little to mend a fractured Congress, said Lara Brown, who directs George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.

Klobuchar’s suggested changes “are about details,” she said. “The problem is that Republicans are against the provisions.”

Brown sees no way that the “For the People” bill or the less expansive voting rights bill named for the late Rep. John Lewis will pass this year or next. Instead, she predicts the voting process will become the issue that determines the outcome of the 2022 midterms. Republicans will argue for restrictions based on what Brown called Trump’s “lies” about election fraud. Democrats, she said, will argue against what they claim is voter suppression although no proof exists yet that new state initiatives will limit the number of votes cast.

Whatever the outcome, Schier thinks Klobuchar’s handling of the “For the People Act” will enhance her reputation by helping start a debate that “will be actively considered in future years.”

Klobuchar “should pass the bill (out of the Rules Committee) if she can, even with a partisan vote,” Schier said. “Then, it’s not her problem any more; it’s Schumer’s.”

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