Photograph by Rex/ShutterstockHappy ThursdayIt's hard to find a better way to put it: Tuesday saw the Democrats suffer one of their biggest setbacks under Joe Biden's presidency.To stop Democrats' huge voting rights bill from moving to the floor, Republicans used the filibuster (the procedural maneuver that requires 60 votes in order to advance most legislation in US Senate). It was impossible to expect it to be any other, as no Republican has ever indicated that they would sign on to this bill. Now, the bigger question is: What happens next?Democrats have pledged to not give up. During Tuesday's vote, Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, stated that this vote was only the beginning of the fight for voting rights. To highlight the need to have federal legislation, Senate Democrats will hold hearings in states such as Georgia that have passed restrictions on voting. Biden also promised to take more action next week. We will be intensifying our efforts to defeat again the people for our democracy.The Senate is expected to work on a compromise bill that Senator Joe Manchin (a moderate West Virginia Democrat) supports. He favors keeping the filibuster in its place. Manchin last week circulated the outline for a bill that would ban partisan-gerrymandering and require automatic voter registration at motor vehicles offices. It also requires at least two weeks of early vote.Fight to voteThe proposal does not address the protection of voting by mail, which is the main objective of many Republican-backed bills this year in the states. However, 46% of Americans voted via mail in 2020. Manchins bill would require voter ID. It does not mandate absentee voting, no-excuse ballot drop boxes, or voter identification. States would be allowed to continue disenfranchising felonies even after they have been released from prison. It does not mention any protections for voters who are disabled, but it requires states to encourage access to registration and voting for people with disabilities.Continue the storyAlthough the Manchin compromise is Democrats' best hope of passing voting reforms legislation, civil rights groups aren't in support. More than 20 civil rights organizations, including some prominent ones such as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or Black Voters Matter, issued a statement expressing their opposition to Manchin's proposal.Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter told me that if that's the starting point, then we are guaranteed to end up in a much worse place. We won't let them change the goalposts. He said that HR1, S1, which refers to the original broad voting rights bill, is our starting point.The Democrats are likely to push legislation that would update an important provision of 1965's landmark Voting rights Act. This provision, which was struck down by the supreme Court in 2013, required that places with a history or discrimination against voters obtain pre-clearance prior to making any changes to election procedures. Lisa Murkowski (moderate Senate Republican) said Tuesday that she supports such a bill. Although other Republicans are yet to comment on whether they will do so, there is some hope that it may be more popular.Voting rights groups fear that passing this provision will not suffice. It would protect against discrimination in the future, but it would not reverse many of the most damaging changes made.Nate Cohn is a New York Times journalist who has proposed a third route for Democrats. This bill would protect election administrators from partisan interference. Because of concerns about interference in their state, Senators Raphael Warnock (Georgia) and Jon Ossoff (from Georgia) are currently preparing such legislation.The same problem exists for all three proposals: 60 votes are required to defeat a filibuster. While Kamala Harris, Vice President, expressed confidence in the fight ahead, during Wednesday's meeting with voting rights advocates, she tacitly acknowledged any obstacles that still remain.She said that our fight doesn't look any different from yesterday.It's worth it to also watch
