Key takeaways from the Senate's hearing on S.1., Democrats' flagship voting rights bill

• A Senate committee held an in-depth hearing on S.1., Democrats' flagship voting rights bill.
• The bill could be a flashpoint in an ongoing debate over the filibuster in the Senate.
• Here are key takeaways from the in-depth hearing.

The Senate Rules Committee held a hearing on S.1., or the For the People Act, congressional Democrats' flagship election and democracy reform bill that expands federal regulations on campaign finance, ethics, and election policy.

The House version, H.R. 1, passed the US House by a vote of 220-210 on March 3. It was initially passed in 2019 at the beginning of the 116th Congress, but did not receive a hearing or vote in the Senate, then controlled by Republicans.

On Tuesday, House Rules Chairwoman Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Ranking Member Sen. Roy Blunt gave the bill the hearing that Democrats have been waiting for, setting the legislation up to be the center of a high-stakes fight over voting rights and the filibuster in the Senate.

The bill aims to increase transparency in the US' campaign finance system by cracking down on foreign financial influence in US elections, requiring 501c(4) "dark money" groups to disclose political donations over a certain amount, and mandating digital platforms to create publicly-available databases of ad purchases.

Read more: Want to run for Congress but can't afford to pay your own rent or bills? This former House candidate has an idea.

The For the People Act would also be the most significant and wide-ranging federal legislation on election administration policy, requiring states to massively expand registration and voting for federal elections and roll back rules like voter ID requirements.

Democrats contend that such rules are necessary to preempt unprecedented efforts to restrict voting access currently underway in state legislatures as a backlash to the 2020 election.

"The Senate considers S. 1 at a time of crisis for our democracy. Legislatures across the country are moving to enact curbs on voting, an assault on voting rights that targets people of color. This legislation would stop the new wave of voter suppression, cold. Congress has the power to do so-legally and constitutionally," Michael Waldman, President of the Brennan Center for Justice, said in his opening statement.

Republicans, however, have criticized both the broad scope of the bill in setting wide-ranging one-size-fits-all standards for all 50 states and, in their view, eroding certain safeguards.

The committee held a substantive hearing on election issues

The majority of the hearing focused on the most controversial election administration and voting provisions in the bill.

It mandates states to enact online, automatic, and same-day voter registration and to give voting rights to the formerly incarcerated, and softens voter ID laws by allowing voters to sign sworn affidavits instead of showing an ID.

The bill also requires all states to hold 15 days of early voting as well as no-excuse mail voting while offering online ballot tracking, prepaid postage, and the option for voters to return their ballots at drop boxes, and allowing for third-party ballot collection.

It would also take redistricting out of the hands of elected officials by requiring independent commissions to draw political lines in every state.

"The For The People Act is a necessary and appropriate response to both the erosion of voting rights and the advancement of special interests," former Attorney General Eric Holder said, calling it "the right remedy for the right time."

Both lawmakers and nonpartisan election experts, however, raised concerns, including in the hearing, about the burdens and costs of implementing the bill for election offices, unrealistic deadlines for election officials, and mandates without clear long-term funding for some of the rules, as VoteBeat's Jessica Huseman recently reported.

These include mandates that states use voting equipment with paper backups compliant with the Election Assistance Commission's brand-new Voluntary Voting System Guidelines 2.0 (the certification process for which has not been developed), establish phone-based registration systems (which no states currently use), and use costly self-sealing envelopes - not to mention provisions that give states differing deadlines for the same requirements.

Both the Senate's majority and minority leaders spoke

It's not often that both the majority and minority leaders testify at a regular committee meeting, but newly-minted Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell both gave passionate speeches on Wednesday.

Schumer said the Rules hearing was the first committee hearing he had attended as majority leader "because I believe this issue is so, so important."

"It's one of the most despicable things I have seen in all my years," Schumer said of proposed voting restrictions in Arizona and other states. "Shame, shame, shame."

McConnell, a member of the Rules Committee, slammed the bill's campaign finance-related reforms as an unfair power play that will "harass" and "intimidate" the other side, and said the election provisions are "a solution in search of a problem" given the high voter turnout in 2020.

"This is clearly an effort by one party to rewrite the rules of the political system," McConnell said. "But even more immediately, it would create an implementation nightmare...that would drown state and local officials who run elections."

Three state-level officials offered perspective

Two Republican statewide officials, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner, laid out their concerns with the significant federal mandates in the bill and the effects on states.

Warner said the bill's requirement to have systems compliant with the brand-new guidelines would force West Virginia to "decertify" all their existing election equipment and convene a special session to get new voting equipment ready for 2022.

Rokita argued that the bill is "a power grab that would federalize and nationalize our elections and erode trust in our electoral system." He also defended Indiana's voter ID law and falsely claimed that the rise in mail voting in 2020 caused chaos and dysfunction.

Michigan's Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson countered that her state's recent experience enacting major election reforms on a short timeline shows that it's not a pipe dream, but very achievable.

In 2018, Michigan voters moved to approve constitutional amendments establishing automatic and same-day voter registration, no-excuse absentee voting, and an independent citizen redistricting commission, leaving the implementation to Benson and the state's municipal clerks.

"If Michigan can do all of this in one election cycle, in the midst of a global pandemic and during one of the most significant and highly scrutinized election cycles in our lifetime, every state in the country can do the same in advance of future elections," Benson said.

In response to Republicans who claimed that automatic voter registration opens the door to illegal immigrants registering, Benson noted that in Michigan officials use a six-step system of checks to ensure that everyone who automatically registers is a citizen.

"Not only were these policies enormously popular on both sides of the aisle, but we saw record voter turnout in elections following the implementation of these policies," Benson said.

Rokita also warned that the federal government could face costly litigation over the bill from himself and other Republican attorneys general if the bill is passed and signed into law.

"The sun won't set in Indiana before we sue," she said.