Senate leaders clash over election bill

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Senate Republicans should be ashamed of trying to implement tighter voter registration rules and said such efforts would cause a “third-world autocracy like Erdogan’s Turkey.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., accused Democrats of a “partisan power grab” and trying to “rewrite the rules of our political system.” The Senate Rules and Administration Committee debated the sweeping election bill on Wednesday after its companion legislation passed the House with no Republican support.

What’s in the bill anyway? Under the For the People Act of 2021, states would have to implement automatic voter registration and make it easier to get absentee ballots. The bill requires increased in-person voting hours and 15 days of early voting. It would also restrict how state election officials remove outdated information from voter rolls.

Dig deeper: Read Harvest Prude’s report on ideas for cleaning up states’ voter registration rolls to improve election security.