Civil Rights Leaders to Joe Manchin on Election Takeover Bill: ‘All Americans’ Must ‘Have Meaningful Access to Ballot’

Civil rights leaders spoke to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) Tuesday about the For the People Act to federalize local elections, urging Congress to “act so all Americans have meaningful access to the ballot.”

“The leaders also conveyed to Senator Manchin that a minority of senators must not be able to abuse the filibuster to impede much needed progress. Congress must act so all Americans have meaningful access to the ballot,” the NAACP President Derrick Johnson, National Urban League President Marc Morial, and Reverend Al Sharpton said after the meeting.

“Very good [meeting], very productive & very informative.. We had a constructive conversation.. I don’t think anybody changed positions. We’re just learning where everybody’s coming from.. We’re gonna continue our conversations,” they concluded.

The meeting comes as President Joe Biden is presumably attempting to change Manchin’s mind on supporting the federal government taking over elections away from local counties.

Manchin has opposed the proposition, saying Sunday he believes “partisan voting legislation will destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy, and for that reason, I will vote against the For the People Act. Furthermore, I will not vote to weaken or eliminate the filibuster,” he wrote in Charleston Gazette-Mail.

Manchin has also stood in the way of canceling the filibuster, which would allow partisan legislation to potentially pass the Senate.

Manchin also reiterated his position on the filibuster Sunday.

“With that in mind, some Democrats have again proposed eliminating the Senate filibuster rule in order to pass the For the People Act with only Democratic support,” he stated. “They’ve attempted to demonize the filibuster and conveniently ignore how it has been critical to protecting the rights of Democrats in the past.”

Manchin explained he will stand to keep the filibuster in place because he “cannot explain strictly partisan election reform or blowing up the Senate rules to expedite one party’s agenda” to his constituents.