By Steven Allen Adams, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — With a vote expected next week on an election reform bill, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin laid out a pathway for the bill to gain his support Wednesday.
The Democratic Senator from West Virginia released a list Wednesday afternoon of the items he would like to see in S.1, the For the People Act, the comprehensive election, voting rights, and campaign finance reform bill.
“The right to vote is fundamental to our American democracy and protecting that right should not be about party or politics,” Manchin said. “Congressional action on federal voting rights legislation must be the result of both Democrats and Republicans coming together to find a pathway forward or we risk further dividing and destroying the republic we swore to protect and defend as elected officials.”
Manchin’s wish includes making Election Day a public holiday, banning partisan gerrymandering of legislative districts and requiring the use of computer modeling, requiring voter identification with multiple alternative forms of identifications, and requiring states to send absentee ballots by mail to eligible voters before an election if the voter is unable to vote in-person during early voting or Election Day due to certain circumstances along with civil penalties for failure to send the absentee ballot…
To read more: https://www.newsandsentinel.com/news/local-news/2021/06/manchin-lays-out-wish-list-for-election-reform-bill/