Senate prospects dim for Democrat voting bill, as Pelosi omits changes sought by Manchin

On Aug. 25, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi oversaw the 219-212 party line passage of HR 4, (the John Lewis Voting Rights Act), the Democrats' second attempt at the federalization of U.S. election laws, after their earlier effort, HR 1 (the For the People Act) was blocked by Senate Republicans in June.

Pelosi's victory, however, is likely to prove short-lived, as the sweeping elections bill included none of the changes publicly proposed by West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin as implied conditions for winning his support for the legislation.

The centrist Manchin is a key swing vote in the evenly split Senate, where Democrats retain a one-vote edge with the vice president voting to break a tie. In June, Manchin wrote that he would vote against the original Pelosi-led election reform effort — HR 1, the For the People Act — due to its boldly partisan nature and unanimous Republican opposition. 

HR 4 is Democrats' renewed effort to federalize elections, handing significantly more control to the Department of Justice, and limiting the reach of a Supreme Court ruling that makes it more difficult to challenge potentially discriminatory voting changes.