House passes landmark election bill as parties war over voting

To an extent not seen in a century, America’s two major parties have gone to battle over the rules that govern voting — an intensifying fight that threatens to dominate and embitter the country’s politics.

Skirmishes along the battle line flared repeatedly this week:

At the Supreme Court, Republican and Democratic lawyers clashed over part of the landmark Voting Rights Act. A court ruling that would broadly define the reach of that law “puts us at a competitive disadvantage relative to Democrats,” attorney Michael Carvin, who represented the Arizona Republican Party, bluntly told the justices.

“Politics is a zero-sum game,” he said.

In Congress, the House on Wednesday night passed by 220-210 a bill that would set nationwide standards for federal elections — a major expansion of Washington’s authority that Democrats say is needed to protect voting rights against restrictions in Republican states.

The Democratic effort aims to block bills in Republican-majority state legislatures that would limit mail-in voting, cut back on early voting, impose new voter identification requirements and take other steps that would make voting more difficult.

In Georgia, for example, a bill moving through the Legislature would, among other things, wipe out a day of Sunday voting frequently used by Black congregations, drastically reduce the number of drop boxes available for voters to deposit ballots and impose criminal penalties on groups that give food or water to people standing in line to vote.

People in Georgia, especially in largely Black communities, have “had to wait in extraordinarily long lines to vote, putting in an entire shift, eight hours, standing on their feet,” said Nsé Ufot, chief executive of the New Georgia Project. A law that would “criminally prosecute volunteers who are providing water and snacks,” she said, “is evil — evil and racist.”

The New Georgia Project on Wednesday opened a campaign to pressure major companies based in Georgia, including Coca-Cola and Home Depot, to call on Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to veto the bill if it passes.

Arguments over voting rules are not new to American politics. What is new is the intense focus coupled with sharp partisan division, which, especially on the Republican side has made the issue a major campaign theme.

Both parties describe their clash in near-apocalyptic terms.

During House debate on Tuesday, Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) said the Democrats’ bill would “put a thumb on the scale in every election in America so that Democrats can turn a temporary majority into permanent control.”

Former President Trump in a speech Sunday called the bill a “monster” that “must be stopped.”

Democrats and voting rights advocates describe their cause with equal urgency.

“We have a wave of restrictionist legislation being introduced across the country,” said Myrna Pérez of New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. “People can dress it up in terms of fraud…