“Democrats signal voting rights bills will top the agenda if Harris wins”

Patrick Marley deep for WaPo:

Democratic leaders say passing sweeping legislation to expand voting rights and curb gerrymandering will be at or near the top of their governing agenda should Vice President Kamala Harris win the presidency this fall in a blue wave that also ushers in unified control of Capitol Hill.

To enact the measures, they say, they are even willing to bypass the filibuster, a staple of the Senate that the party increasingly sees as one among a litany of tools that Republicans have used to thwart the popular will.

The focus on changing the systems for elections and governance that undergird American democracy reflects widespread frustration among Democrats that they have been unable to accomplish more on issues such as guns, abortion and the climate — despite polling that suggests many of their policy positions have widespread support….

Earlier Wednesday, Schumer said that if the party keeps the Senate majority, it will have the votes necessary to “change the rules” and make voting rights legislation a top priority, a reference to carving out an exception to the filibuster.

“One of the first things I want to do, should we have the presidency and keep the majority, is change the rules and enact both the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Act,” Schumer said at a panel discussion in Chicago on voting rights….

But Richard Hasen, a UCLA law professor and director of the university’s Safeguarding Democracy Project, expressed skepticism that Democrats would stay unified. “There are people who didn’t have to stick their neck out because Manchin did,” he said. “So I’m not so confident that the Democrats could blow up the filibuster rule for this if they wanted to.”

He described the Freedom to Vote legislation as a wish list with many provisions, “some of which were better thought out than others.” If they have a chance to pass voting rights legislation next year, he said, they will need to think carefully about what they want to include — and what can pass muster with the conservatives who hold a majority on the Supreme Court.

“Although the [Constitution’s] elections clause power is broad, we’ve seen the Supreme Court rein in Congress in voting rights and the Voting Rights Act and campaign finance and lots of other places,” Hasen said…..

“If we’re going to have a massive overhaul of election policy in the United States implemented by Washington, the most important voices to be heard are election officials,” said David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research. “And those voices have to be bipartisan and reflect regional diversity as well.”….

Republicans say they are eager to challenge any new law’slegitimacy and warn it could weaken efforts to tighten election rules in a way that makes it hard to cheat.

“I would be first in line to file litigation on this,” said Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R).

He called the legislation a “massive federal power grab” that would turn the Department of Justice into a “national election czar” and take authority away from state officials who have long been responsible for setting voting rules….

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