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Despite holding the White House and both chambers of Congress, Democrats have not yet been able to stem the tide of GOP disenfranchisement laws. Now, with time running out to pass something ahead of the 2022 midterms, the party is preparing what may be their final push to pass voter protections before next years election. Its an open question as to whether we can get to 60 votes in the Senate on voting, Hakeem Jeffries, one of the top Democrats in the House, told Axios on Sunday. And if we cant, then the Senate is going to have to make some decisions as it relates to filibuster reform.

The integrity of our democracy hangs in the balance, the House Democratic Caucus chair added.

In July, President Joe Biden described the laws Republicans have enacted in states across the country based on Donald Trumps election fraud lies as a 21st century Jim Crow assault. But while his administration has sought to defend against those attacks through the Justice Department and with voter outreach efforts, his party has failed to come up with a legislative solution. The House, where Jeffries is the number five Democrat, has teed up a voting rights package named for the late civil rights leader and congressman, John Lewis. But it has been a non-starter in the Senate, thanks to the filibuster rule that conservative Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have steadfastly refused to touch.

Previous calls to amend or abolish the filibuster, or create a carve-out for voting rights, have not moved those two hold-outs. But with the clock ticking, and dire warning signs both for the party and the state of democracybacksliding is how one international think tank described it Mondayadvocates are redoubling their efforts. Defenders of democracy in America still have a slim window of opportunity to act, more than 150 scholars said in a letter urging Democrats to pass the Freedom to Vote Act through a simple majority. But time is ticking away, and midnight is approaching.

With Senate Democrats spinning their wheels on voting rights, the party has appeared to invest its hopes for 2022 and beyond in boosting turnout enough to overcome obstacles to the ballot box. Thats never been a particularly strong strategy. We cannot out-organize voter suppression, as NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson told me back in August. But as Jeffries suggested to Axios Sunday, failure on the part of Democratic lawmakers to protect their voters could itself dampen the enthusiasm the party seems to be relying on. Asked what Democrats can tell their voters if they cant use their majorities to deliver on ballot protections, Jeffries replied: Theres no message to communicate to Democratic voters now.

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Democrats Still Have a Chance to Stop Democracy From Getting Trampled - Vanity Fair