Manchin Offers A Voting Bill Compromise, But Key Republicans Swiftly Reject It

An attempt by West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin to float a compromise proposal on Democratic-led efforts to enact sweeping voting and election reforms was swiftly criticized by the chamber’s Republican leader on Thursday.

Manchin has frustrated many voting advocates and fellow Democrats by coming out in opposition to the party’s far-reaching election and campaign fundraising measure — S.1, the For the People Act — because it doesn’t have bipartisan support. Instead, Manchin has backed a narrower bill named after the late civil rights icon John Lewis.

But on Wednesday, the West Virginia Democrat, who holds a crucial centrist position in the evenly divided Senate, laid out a larger series of provisions he’d support.