Electoral reform crashes once again against the Republican wall in the Senate

Activists in favor of electoral reform, this Wednesday in front of the White House. DANIEL SLIM (AFP)

For the fifth time in the past six months, the Republican caucus voted monolithically against the Democrats' attempt to pass voting rights legislation. The magic number of 10 Republican senators was needed to reach the desired 60 votes imposed by the archaic filibusterism to approve a law by qualified majority. Not a single Republican senator took that step forward. To make possible, but at the same time further confuse the explanation and development of events, the leader of the Democratic majority, Chuck Schumer, changed his vote and spoke against his own party in order to force a new vote tonight. . The result was 49-51.

Vice President Kamala Harris was in the Senate. Until there he had moved in case his quality vote was necessary to tip the balance on the side of the Democrats. It was not necessary. First because Schumer changed ranks. Second, because it was not enough to bring down the wall of the 1960s. “The president and I are not going to throw in the towel on this issue,” Harris declared. "This issue is fundamental to our democracy."

As a statement of intent, it is irreproachable.

And yet, as much as the president of the United States, Joe Biden, expresses the danger that almost 20 States of the Union have tampered with their state regulations to make it more difficult for minorities to vote, especially the black population. America, the partisan divide clearly reflects that there is no room to make much-needed reform a reality.

Inaction is not an option on voting rights

Because Republicans blocked these bills that protect the right to vote:

We're going to vote on changing Senate rules for these bills

The Senate must choose in favor of our democracy

The Senate must stand up and defend voting rights

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) January 20, 2022

The legislation put to the vote combined key provisions from two bills: the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Schumer was very clear about what was about to happen when, at the beginning of the debate, he recognized that the project had little chance of going ahead.

As the best of generals who knows how the fight will end but is forced to put up a fight, Schumer declared that "the eyes of the nation are watching what happens here this week."

What happened is a repetition in a loop that tonight will try to be modified to change the ending by putting to the vote a regulation that circumvents the need for a qualified majority, known as "the nuclear option", which translates into temporarily changing the rules of the Senate, ignoring minority objections to a project or an appointment and allow it to be approved by a simple majority.

But then the Democrats, in addition to seeing the fangs of the Republicans, will face two dissidents within their ranks, Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin.

Both politicians have made their position clear since it was proposed to suppress filibustering, no matter how they make it up, neither of them will vote in favor, since they are aware that he is a Trojan horse.

The controversial bill would expand access to the vote in a country that, after Donald Trump's passage through the White House, has seen minority rights regress. The reform would restore key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, legislation made possible by the mobilization of Luther King and then-President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. The House of Representatives passed the bill last week with only the Democratic endorsement, and now faces the big -- and near-impossible -- challenge to pass it in the Senate. The current text would also establish that the day of the elections be a holiday at the national level, which could increase participation. In the US, voting is always done on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, a weekday that makes it difficult to go to the polls.

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