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Mississippi senators join fellow Republicans to block voting bill
Wicker, Hyde-Smith bash bill that Dems say is vital to protecting democracy
By Angela Williams
WASHINGTON — Republicans have blocked votes on bills that would have made Election Day a federal holiday.
The proposed legislation also expanded early and mail-in voting and added provisions that would have allowed the Department of Justice to police potential voter discrimination.
U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, voted against the two Senate proposals that he said would have forced a federal takeover of elections.
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"President Biden and national Democrats attempted to take over our federal election system with a razor-thin Senate majority. Along the way, they have attacked sensible state election integrity laws and spread reckless falsehoods that needlessly raised the temperature of our politics," Wicker said in a statement. "In a last-ditch attempt to pass their partisan agenda, the president and his party sought to toss aside two centuries of sound precedent and eliminate the consensus-building 60-vote requirement for this legislation. This requirement has stood the test of time and separates us from the rest of the world as a beacon of reason and unity."
Democrats and civil rights leaders said the move is vital to protecting democracy. Voting rights advocates are warning that Republican-led states nationwide are passing laws making it more difficult for Black Americans and others to vote by consolidating polling locations, requiring certain types of identification and ordering other changes.
"I am profoundly disappointed that the Senate has failed to stand up for our democracy. I am disappointed — but I am not deterred," Biden said in a tweet minutes after the vote.
U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith joined fellow Mississippi Republican Wicker in voting against the proposals.
"Much to the frustration of Americans, the Senate is spending another week fighting fake hysteria fanned by Dems to justify a federal takeover of our elections. This bill, like the last four, amounts to a cynical power grab (and) is not a true effort to strengthen electoral integrity," Hyde-Smith said in a tweet following the vote.
The outcome was a stinging defeat for Biden and his party, coming at the tumultuous close to his first year in office.