Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) opposes fellow Democrats' voting Act

HR 1 - For the People Act of 2021 (Summary)

Sen. Manchin took position against his party's "For the People Act". 

 "…[W]e now are witnessing that the fundamental right to vote has itself become overtly politicized. Today’s debate about how to best protect our right to vote and to hold elections, however, is not about finding common ground, but seeking partisan advantage. Whether it is state laws that seek to needlessly restrict voting or politicians who ignore the need to secure our elections, partisan policymaking won’t instill confidence in our democracy — it will destroy it (Gazette Mail). 

"Manchin putting this marker in the ground has the left going absolutely insane, which is to be expected. Now, the Civil War is going hot. Rep. Mondaire Jones of New York responded to Manchin by accusing him of codifying Jim Crow (RedState)."

"The Left’s response, of course, is to imply he’s some sort of racist (Rich Lowry - National Review)."  The smear campaign is coming.

One reporter juxtaposed a story highlighting Biden criticizing Manchin with the Manchin op-ed (Sahil Kapur - Twitter)."

"Given fact that 1) It is very, very difficult to eliminate the legislative filibuster, and 2) Democrats do not control a majority of seats in the US Senate, it is amazing that some Democrats and their allies are so upset about this. What did they expect? (Byron York - Twitter)."

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 HR1 contains some familiar complaints the Democrats have about free democracy:

The bill would change ease-of-ballot access, election integrity and security, campaign finance, and ethics for the three branches of government.

The bill would ease voter registration.  Registration of residents can become automatic -- registration may not be limited to citizens..  Registration could be on election day --  Given that the US conducts secret balloting. the potential for multiple, fraudulent registrations is obvious. And voting access would include registration by mail, and ballot-by-mail, and early voting.

The bill would limit removing voters from voter rolls -- this would enable the dead to vote.

The bill requires states to establish independent redistricting commissions to carry out congressional redistricting.  Of course this is already done after the decennial census, so why is it in the bill?

"The bill adds provisions related to election security, including sharing intelligence information with state election officials, supporting states in securing their election systems, developing a national strategy to protect U.S. democratic institutions, establishing in the legislative branch the National Commission to Protect United States Democratic Institutions, and other provisions to improve the cybersecurity of election systems."

The bill controls campaign finance,  expanding the prohibition on campaign spending by foreign nationals, requiring additional disclosure of campaign-related fundraising and spending, requiring additional disclaimers regarding certain political advertising, and establishing an alternative campaign funding system for certain federal offices.

The bill addresses non-campaign items:  Ethics in all three branches of government; requiring a code of conduct for Supreme Court Justices; prohibiting Members of the House from serving on the board of a for-profit entity (a wastes-only entity is more in line with the Democrats' philosophy); establishing additional conflict-of-interest and ethics provisions for federal employees and the White House.

The bill requires the President, the Vice President, and certain candidates for those offices to disclose 10 years of tax returns.  This is an old bug-a-boo for the Democrats, since they think they should humiliate anyone who has ever earned a living.