Small changes in new voting rules for something as simple as an envelope. Sealing it can keep legitimate votes from counting. That's the takeaway from Newsy's investigation into what happened with a surge of rejected ballots in Texas. 

We found a redesigned ballot envelope, which Republicans in Texas said would prevent voter fraud, actually blocked legal votes, including one from Rev. Aroyal Ruth Princess-Love.

"I was shocked," she said. 

Princess-Love hadn't missed an election in decades. She even volunteers at the polls. 

"I mean, it's just it's part of my breathing, voting is," she said. "It's just part of my nature."

Princess-Love is among Texans who failed to comply with a new rule for voters to print their driver's license number, or last four digits of their social security number, on their ballot return envelope. 

Princess-Love told Newsy she just never saw the new instructions. 

The rate of rejected mail-in ballots in Texas jumped from less than 1% in 2020, to more than 12% during a March primary.

The state doesn't track how often the new ID rule on the envelope was the problem, but data we analyzed from Harris County — home to Houston — gives us a good idea. 

Harris County rejected about 7,000 ballots because of the new ID requirement. 

It may surprise you to hear the envelope tripped up Republicans at a higher rate than Democrats. 

Interviews with denied voters reveal the problem was with the design of the new ballot envelope. 

The ID requirement was buried in a heap of fine print. 

"I had not read that, and probably most of Houston hadn't read that," Republican voter Susan Gaertner said.

It appears the key instructions were printed in about 7-point font, even though national election standards recommend nothing smaller than 10-point font.

Also, the boxes for voters to fill out ID numbers had to be hidden for privacy, according to the secretary of state's office, which designed the envelope. 

They were in an unusual place beneath the envelope's flap. 

Whitney Quesenbery helps election offices build simple, clear ballots. 

"I think design had a huge impact here," she said.

She says the trouble in Texas is a warning to 18 other states that also passed restrictive voting rules after the 2020 election.

Hasty design changes, even to just an envelope, can disenfranchise voters of all political stripes. 

"This is not just an envelope," Quesenbery continued. "This is like — this is the pony express of Democracy."

Ohio has a similar requirement for mail-in voters to include an ID number. Yet that state's rejection rates are normal, low. The difference? Ohio's voter instructions have been the same for years.

They're big, written in plain language and important things are highlighted. 

"They've numbered the steps," Quesenbery said. "You must complete all five sections, so they've done things to create a pathway through it."

Ohio also has more space to work with, spreading out instructions on a second secrecy envelope. 

Quesenbery says Texas just didn't have enough time to thoughtfully re-tool its ballot. 

The new law took effect in December, with an election on March 1. 

"When we ask elections to move fast, it's easy to make mistakes," she said. "And it's easy to make mistakes, not because someone's trying to make mistakes, but because it's a complicated, human system." 

Poor design may have been especially significant in Texas, where mail-in voting is reserved for people with disabilities and seniors. 

"Lots of people have old age infirmities, which include your vision going," Quesenbery said.

Harris County Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria said officials had no choice but to cram the new instructions on a mailer with limited space. 

"This is very clearly an envelope, right? What makes it so difficult is you see all this text," she said. "It is mandated by law we include it on here, no matter how small the font is, to maintain uniformity of ballots across the state. Even the smallest tweaks need approval."

To make one word purple, Longoria said she had to get approval from the secretary of state and that took about a month.  

The Secretary of State's Office acknowledges the ballot envelope was difficult to navigate.  An updated envelope now includes red boxes around the ID requirement to draw voters' attention.  

But Harris County said it's impractical to switch envelopes now. 

They have stacks of the old envelope. Election offices had to buy supplies for 2022 months ago to handle another problem — paper shortage. 

"You have to actually plan six months to eight months in advance to even get these things," Longoria said.

They plan to re-evaluate design of the mail ballot envelopes ahead of the November election. Election offices in Texas call up voters who send an incomplete ballot if they have a phone number on file, giving them a chance to fix the problem so their vote can be accepted. 

Longoria is concerned rejection rates appear to be high again during May voting, especially among African American voters. 

"Texas is no longer a leader when it comes to voting innovation," Longoria said. "In fact, I think we're a warning sign to the rest of the country."

Longoria agreed to resign her post effective July, amid backlash over an unrelated issue involving the unofficial tally of ballots. 

Neither Princess-Love nor Gaertner fixed their ballots from March, both deciding to wait until the next election to try again with voting by mail.  

"We shouldn't give up on it," Princess-Love said.

Gaertner carefully filled out that tricky ballot envelope for the May election, a little less sure her vote would count.

Newsy is the nation’s only free 24/7 national news network. You can find Newsy using your TV’s digital antenna or stream for free. See all the ways you can watch Newsy here. 

NEW YORK CITY — The National Basketball Association announced Tuesday that teams would not play any games on Election Day this year.

The league said that the decision not to play that day was so "the NBA family’s focus on promoting nonpartisan civic engagement and encouraging fans to make a plan to vote during midterm elections."

CNN reported that the league added that teams would share information on the voting processes in their state and registration deadlines leading up to Nov. 8.

According to the Associated Press, 30 teams are scheduled to play on Nov. 7, the night before the midterm elections.

The move for the league to not play on Election Day is a rare one, the news outlet pointed out. Typically the league doesn't play on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, nor do they try to play on the day of the NCAA men’s basketball championship game, the Associated Press reported.

“It’s unusual. We don’t usually change the schedule for an external event,” executive director of the NBA’s social justice coalition James Cadogan told NBC. “But voting and Election Day are obviously unique and incredibly important to our democracy.”

This isn't the first time the NBA has become involved in election-related issues.

The news outlets reported that in 2020, several NBA teams made their arenas available for polling places.

As voters head to the polls, they'll get to vote to see who will fill all 435 House seats and 35 of the 100 Senate seats that are available, the news outlets reported.

According to CNN, 36 states will be electing governors.

As the U.S. midterm elections approach, voters say they feel heightened concern about impediments to voting, including intimidation at the polls in some places.

A Reuters-Ipsos poll found that of registered voters surveyed, 43% said they felt some concern about threats or violence against voters while voting in-person.

The poll found that around two in every five U.S. voter worried about intimidation at the polls.

In Arizona, which has become a key battleground, officials have asked the federal government to look into a case of voter intimidation.

People in that state were filmed and followed while casting ballots. The complaint says self-appointed monitors called voters "mules," referencing a conspiracy theory related to former President Donald Trump's unfounded claims that he was defeated in the 2020 presidential election because of widespread fraud.

RELATED: Film and book said to play large role in election conspiracy theories

Experts say if a voter shows up at the polls and finds their eligibility is in question, they should stand their ground calmly. If a voter feels they have been targeted by an erroneous challenge, and know they are qualified to vote and have not yet voted, they should calmly insist.

Jonathan Diaz, the senior legal counsel for voting rights at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center told CNN, “A state cannot just throw out your ballot without notifying you that your vote has been challenged and giving you the chance to prove that you are who you say you are,” he said.

Kathy Boockvar, a former top election official for Pennsylvania told Reuters, "Our country is based on democracy. We should be excited about Election Day."

The ACLU says people with disabilities have faced some of the greatest barriers to voting.

In 2021, the ACLU said there were over 400 anti-voter measures introduced in various U.S. states, citing research from the Brennan Center for Justice.

Those measures included restricting access to absentee voting, removing Election Day registration, and making it harder to vote in-person, during early voting. There have also been reports of authorities making it a crime to assist voters with disabilities.

There are resources for voters who have difficulties or encounter issues.

A hotline run by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law can advise voters on their rights: 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683).

Another run by NALEO Educational Fund has English and Spanish speakers available to help: 888-VE-Y-VOTA (888-839-8682).

The Arab American Institute has a hotline that has Arabic and English speakers at: 844-YALLA-US (844-925-5287).

Another hotline run by APIA Vote and Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC is speakers of Mandarin, Cantonese, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and English: 888-API-VOTE (888-274-8683).

The Brennan Center says the Freedom to Vote Act is a package of voting reforms that ensure a minimum national standard for voting access for Americans.

More information on the Freedom to Vote Act can be found at the Brennan Center for Justice website.

WASHINGTON —

Republicans inched closer to a narrow House majority Wednesday, while control of the Senate hinged on a few tight races in a midterm election that defied expectations of sweeping conservative victories driven by frustration over inflation and President Joe Biden’s leadership.

Here's the latest on key races as of 3 a.m. EST:

Either party could secure a Senate majority with wins in both Nevada and Arizona — where the races were too early to call. But there was a strong possibility that, for the second time in two years, the Senate majority could come down to a runoff in Georgia next month, with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker failing to earn enough votes to win outright.

In the House, Republicans on Wednesday night were within a dozen seats of the 218 needed to take control, while Democrats kept seats in districts from Virginia to Pennsylvania to Kansas and many West Coast contests were still too early to call. In a particularly symbolic victory for the GOP, Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, the House Democratic campaign chief, lost his bid for a sixth term.

Control of Congress will decide how the next two years of Biden's term play out, and whether he is able to achieve more of his agenda or will see it blocked by a new GOP majority. Republicans are likely to launch a spate of investigations into Biden, his family and his administration if they take power, while a GOP takeover of the Senate would hobble the president’s ability to appoint judges.

Video above: Fetterman wins Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race against Mehmet Oz

“Regardless of what the final tally of these elections show, and there's still some counting going on, I'm prepared to work with my Republican colleagues," Biden said Wednesday in his first public remarks since the polls closed. “The American people have made clear, I think, that they expect Republicans to be prepared to work with me as well.”

Democrats did better than history suggested they would. The party in power almost always suffers losses in the president’s first midterm elections, though even if the GOP ultimately wins the House, it won't be by a margin as large as during other midterm cycles. Democrats gained a net of 41 House seats under then-President Donald Trump in 2018, President Barack Obama saw the GOP gain 63 in 2010 and Republicans gained 54 seats during President Bill Clinton's first midterm.

A small majority in the House would pose a great challenge for the GOP and especially California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who is in line to be House speaker and would have little room for error in navigating a chamber of members eager to leverage their votes to advance their own agenda.

In the fight for Senate control, Pennsylvania was a bright spot for Democrats. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who suffered a stroke five months ago, flipped a Republican-controlled Senate seat, topping Trump-endorsed Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Georgia, meanwhile, was set for yet another runoff on Dec. 6. In 2021, Warnock used a runoff to win his seat, as did Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff — which gave Democrats control of the Senate. Both Warnock and Walker were already fundraising off the race stretching into a second round.

Both Republican and Democratic incumbents maintained key Senate seats. In Wisconsin, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson prevailed over Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, while in New Hampshire, Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan beat Don Bolduc, a retired Army general who had initially promoted Trump’s lies about the 2020 election but tried to shift away those views closer to Election Day.

AP VoteCast, a broad survey of the national electorate, showed that high inflation and concerns about the fragility of democracy were heavily influencing voters. Half of voters said inflation factored significantly, with groceries, gasoline, housing and other costs that have shot up in the past year. Slightly fewer — 44% — said the future of democracy was their primary consideration.

Biden didn’t entirely shoulder the blame for inflation, with close to half of voters saying the higher-than-usual prices were more because of factors outside of his control. And despite the president bearing criticism from a pessimistic electorate, some of those voters backed Democratic candidates.

Democrats counted on a midterm boost from the Supreme Court’s decision to gut abortion rights, which they thought might energize their voters, and the bet paid off. In four states where the issue was on the ballot, voters backed abortion rights. VoteCast showed that 7 in 10 national voters said overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was an important factor in their midterm decisions. It also showed the reversal was broadly unpopular. And roughly 6 in 10 said they favor a law guaranteeing access to legal abortion nationwide.

In the first national election since the Jan. 6 insurrection, some who participated in or were in the vicinity of the attack on the U.S. Capitol were poised to win elected office. One of those Republican candidates, Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin — who was outside the Capitol during the deadly riot — won a House seat. Another, J.R. Majewski, lost to Ohio Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur.

Video above: Inflation, democracy top of mind as America votes

Republicans had sought to make inroads in liberal New England but were shut out of House contests, with one Maine race still set to be determined by ranked choice voting.

Governors' races took on outsized significance this year, particularly in battleground states that could help decide the results of the 2024 presidential election. Democrats held on to governors' mansions in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, defeating Republicans who promoted Trump's lies about a stolen 2020 election. Republicans held on to governors’ mansions in Florida, Texas and Georgia, another battleground state Biden narrowly won two years ago.

Trump found some success as well. He lifted Republican Senate candidates to victory in Ohio and North Carolina. JD Vance, the bestselling author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” defeated 10-term congressman Tim Ryan, while Rep. Ted Budd beat Cheri Beasley, the former chief justice of the state Supreme Court.

Video above: Healey declares victory, Diehl concedes in governor's race

Trump had endorsed more than 300 candidates across the country, hoping the night would end in a red wave he could ride to the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. After summoning reporters and his most loyal supporters to a watch party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Tuesday, he ended the night without a triumphant speech.

Still, the former president insisted on social media that he’d had “A GREAT EVENING.” Hours later, Palm Beach County issued an evacuation order for an area that included Trump's club with Hurricane Nicole approaching.

___

Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut contributed.

Republican Kevin McCarthy flipped several colleagues to support him in dramatic votes Friday for House speaker, a major sign of progress for the embattled leader on the fourth day and 12th ballot of a grueling standoff that is testing American democracy.

The changed votes from the conservative holdouts, including the chairman of the conservative Freedom Caucus, put McCarthy closer to seizing the gavel. The stunning turnaround came after McCarthy agreed to many of the detractors' demands -- including the reinstatement of a longstanding House rule that would allow any single member to call a vote to oust him from office.

The showdown that has stymied the new Congress came against the backdrop of the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, which shook the country when a mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters tried to stop Congress from certifying the Republican’s 2020 election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.

For a few minutes in the House chamber. Republicans tiring of the spectacle walked out in protest when one of McCarthy's most ardent challengers railed against the GOP leader.

“We do not trust Mr. McCarthy with power,” said Republican Matt Gaetz of Florida, as colleagues streamed out of the chamber in protest of his remarks.

Contours of a deal with conservative holdouts who have been blocking McCarthy's rise emerged, but was still out of reach after three dismal days and 11 failed votes in a political spectacle unseen in a century.

Arriving at the Capitol Friday morning, an upbeat McCarthy said to reporters, “We’re going to make progress. We’re going to shock you.”

But there’s no deal yet, he told colleagues on a private morning call, according to a Republican familiar with the call and granted anonymity to discuss it.

Voting resumed after Republican Rep. Mike Garcia nominated McCarthy for a 12th time, also thanking the U.S. Capitol Police who were given a standing ovation for protecting lawmakers and the legislative seat of democracy on Jan. 6.

The chamber is unable to swear in members and begin its 2023-24 session. McCarthy told lawmakers there were no plans to adjourn for the weekend, one Republican said, but it might be difficult to keep them in town.

So far Republicans have been unable to settle on a new speaker — normally an easy, joyous task for a party that has just won majority control. But not this time: About 200 Republicans are stymied by 20 far-right colleagues who say he’s not conservative enough.

The agreement McCarthy presented to the holdouts from the conservative Freedom Caucus and others centers around rules changes they have been seeking for months. Those changes would shrink the power of the speaker's office and give rank-and-file lawmakers more influence in drafting and passing legislation.

Even if McCarthy is able to secure the votes he needs, he will emerge as a weakened speaker, having given away some powers, leaving him constantly under threat of being voted out by his detractors. But he would also be potentially emboldened as a survivor of one of the more brutal fights for the gavel in U.S. history.

At the core of the emerging deal is the reinstatement of a House rule that would allow a single lawmaker to make a motion to "vacate the chair," essentially calling a vote to oust the speaker. McCarthy had resisted allowing it, because it had been held over the head of past Republican Speaker John Boehner, chasing him to early retirement.

The chairman of the chamber's Freedom Caucus, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who had been a leader in Trump's efforts to challenge his presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, appeared receptive to the proposed package, tweeting an adage from Ronald Reagan, "Trust but verify."

Video below: Stalemate over election of US House speaker continues

Other wins for the holdouts include provisions in the proposed deal to expand the number of seats available on the House Rules Committee, to mandate 72 hours for bills to be posted before votes and to promise to try for a constitutional amendment that would impose federal limits on the number of terms a person could serve in the House and Senate.

Lest hopes get ahead of reality, conservative holdout Ralph Norman of South Carolina said: "This is round one."

It could be the makings of a deal to end a standoff that has left the House unable to fully function. Members have not been sworn in and almost no other business can happen. A memo sent out by the House's chief administrative officer Thursday evening said that committees "shall only carry-out core Constitutional responsibilities." Payroll cannot be processed if the House isn't functioning by Jan. 13.

After a long week of failed votes, Thursday's tally was dismal: McCarthy lost seventh, eighth and then historic ninth, 10th and 11th rounds of voting, surpassing the number from 100 years ago in the last drawn-out fight to choose a speaker.

The California Republican exited the chamber and quipped about the moment: "Apparently, I like to make history."

Feelings of boredom, desperation and annoyance seemed increasingly evident.

One McCarthy critic, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, cast votes for Trump — a symbolic but pointed sign of the broad divisions over the Republican Party's future. Then he went further, moving the day from protest toward the absurd in formally nominating the former president to be House speaker on the 11th ballot. Trump got one vote, from Gaetz, drawing laughter.

Democrats said it was time to get serious. "This sacred House of Representatives needs a leader," said Democrat Joe Neguse of Colorado, nominating his own party's leader, Hakeem Jeffries, as speaker.

What started as a political novelty, the first time since 1923 a nominee had not won the gavel on the first vote, has devolved into a bitter Republican Party feud and deepening potential crisis.

Democratic leader Jeffries of New York won the most votes on every ballot but also remained short of a majority. McCarthy ran second, gaining no ground.

Pressure has grown with each passing day for McCarthy to somehow find the votes he needs or step aside. The incoming Republican chairmen of the House's Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence committees all said national security was at risk.

But McCarthy's right-flank detractors, led by the Freedom Caucus and aligned with Trump, appeared emboldened — even though the former president publicly backed McCarthy.

Republican Party holdouts repeatedly put forward the name of Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, ensuring continuation of the stalemate that increasingly carried undercurrents of race and politics. They also put forward Republican Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, splitting the protest vote.

Donalds, who is Black, is seen as an emerging party leader and a GOP counterpoint to the Democratic leader, Jeffries, who is the first Black leader of a major political party in the U.S. Congress and on track himself to become speaker some day.

Ballots kept producing almost the same outcome with 20 conservative holdouts still refusing to support McCarthy, leaving him far short of the 218 typically needed to win the gavel.

In fact, McCarthy saw his support slip to 201, as one fellow Republican switched to vote simply "present," and later to 200. With just a 222-seat GOP majority, he could not spare votes.

The disorganized start to the new Congress pointed to difficulties ahead with Republicans now in control of the House, much the way that some past Republican speakers, including Boehner, had trouble leading a rebellious right flank. The result: government shutdowns, standoffs and Boehner's early retirement.

The longest fight for the gavel started in late 1855 and dragged on for two months, with 133 ballots, during debates over slavery in the run-up to the Civil War.

___

AP writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

MEMPHIS, Ten. — Ranked choice voting gives voters the chance to vote for more than one candidate in an election. This system is becoming more popular for many elections.

“I think a lot of voters realize that they have limited choices, that sometimes it's a Coke versus Pepsi kind of thing, and they like more choice,” said Steven Mulroy, a professor of law at the University of Memphis.

Mulroy has studied ranked choice voting for decades and said more people are supporting this system because it’s more representative of who voters want to elect.

“Ranked choice voting is a voting system where rather than just voting for one person only, the voter is given the option if they want, to rank their preferences,” said Mulroy.

This may sound confusing, but here’s how it works: You rank candidates in order of preference. If a candidate receives more than half of the first choices, that candidate wins, just like in any other election.

If there is no majority winner after counting first choices, the race is decided by an "instant runoff."

The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and voters who picked that candidate as number 1 will have their votes count for their next choice.

This process continues until two candidates remain, and the majority candidate wins.

Voters do not have to rank candidates if they don’t want to; they have the choice to vote for one person.

This system is being more widely used across the country. Maine and Alaska used it in the last presidential election, and nearly two dozen other states use ranked choice voting in local elections.

“It's used in both red states and blue states,” said Mulroy. “They don't tend to favor Democrats or Republicans. They tend to favor who has majority support. So, in a Democratic majority district, it'll tend to favor Democrats, and in a republican majority district. It'll tend to favor Republicans.

It also eliminates runoff elections—which usually have low voter turnout and cost counties more money

“You're one and done. You make sure you have a majority winner, but you do it all at once without the trouble and the expense of a separate runoff election,” said Mulroy.

From what he’s seen, it’s helped make the campaign season less negative. “It tends to elect candidates with consensus candidates with broad based support. It has not depressed minority representation. In fact, minority representation has increased where it has been used. Another thing is that ranked choice voting tends to result in more women being elected,” said Mulroy.

In Mulroy’s hometown of Memphis, the community voted to enact ranked choice voting three separate times. But, state and local election officials pushed back…and the system has never been implemented, now, in Tennessee, the state legislature is working to ban ranked choice voting altogether.

“A lot of times the opposition that you hear comes from incumbents. Because ranked choice voting makes elections more competitive. It levels the playing field between incumbents and challengers, and incumbents don't like that,” said Mulroy.

Memphis teacher Erika Sugarmon tried to challenge the incumbent party in her local city council election. “They call me the crusader, you know, because I'm always fighting for teachers, students and parents,” said Erika.

Voters in her district had approved ranked choice voting, but the system was never implemented.

She said, if it had been, the election would’ve gone differently. “Looking at the figures and looking at our backgrounds and looking at the way the voters voted, I would have won,” said Sugarmon.

She’s now part of a lawsuit to get ranked choice voting into her district, a move she says will make elections more representative of the community.

“It's not a Democratic issue or Republican issue. It's an issue about the voting system and working for all people, and we all want the same thing. We all want fair elections,” said Sugarmon.

Not everyone is in support of ranked choice voting. Opponents of this voting method say it can be confusing to voters, it can give too much power to smaller parties, and changing voting systems could be expensive. But, both sides hope voters educate themselves, no matter their view.

RALEIGH, North Carolina — Once every ten years, the map of America turns into a board game.

"The party that has the most seats has the power of the pen. They get to draw the maps," said Bill Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause North Carolina.

What he's talking about is redistricting – when state congressional districts are redrawn to reflect the population gain or decline. Some states lose seats, others gain seats, all based on the census count.

In some states, a nonpartisan panel draws the districts, but in 39 states, the lawmakers choose their own district borders.

"I think most people are stunned to learn that. And I hate to use the word. Our elections are rigged. We live in a democracy, but because of the way the districts are drawn, we know who is going to win by and large," he said.

Common Cause is a non-partisan group whose mission is to protect fair elections. Something Phillips doesn’t believe can happen with how the system is set up.

"Out of the 435 congressional contests that will be up in November. Maybe 40 of them at most are actually competitive. That's just not healthy," he said.

You can see what he’s talking about by looking at the shapes in some of these districts. Take Illinois’ newly drawn 17^thdistrict. We all can agree that this… as far as shapes go… is an odd one. People like Phillips say it looks this way because of the party in power.

In this case, democrats want to include as many democratic voters as possible.

In Lousiana, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, despite being more than an hour away are in one blue district together in a sea of red. This pattern repeats across the country in states where lawmakers map the maps.

"Voting and redistricting is a part of the game of chess. So what is happening is that you have a group a party that looks to a stack the chips, or it looks to dilute the vote of others and it looks to draw lies in their favor," said Eric Claville, a political and legal analyst.

The practice of drawing lines in favor of political parties is called gerrymandering. Both Claville and Philips say gerrymandering has been one of the many ways politicians have tried to silence the voice of disenfranchised groups, like African Americans.

"We still see redistricting done that will often be discriminatory to Black voters, and by that, I mean districts are drawn that might pack Black voters or crack, and that is diluting, the actual vote of an African American voter," said Phillips.

Ohio, New York, Mississippi, Texas and North Carolina are some of the states with ongoing contentious maps battles. Political parties are suing over maps drawn by opposing parties.

"To protect the rights of all, to be able to vote and not just be able to vote, but also to vote in districts that are fair, that are equitable and that are challenging and not those districts that are going to disenfranchise the power of the voter," said Claville.

Learning about this issue can make voters feel powerless. Advocates say that is not the case. If these practices concern you, you still have a voice and you can use it to rallying change for non-partisan redistricting practices.

"No matter how much money is spent, no matter what happens in the media, it boils down to this one point: one person, one vote. So if you could engage, if you could bring together a mass of votes, then you have the power in order to dictate the conversation and ultimately the outcome," said Claville.

WASHINGTON —

Voting legislation that Democrats and civil rights groups argued is vital for protecting democracy was blocked Wednesday by a Republican filibuster, a setback for President Joe Biden and his party after a raw, emotional debate.

Democrats were poised to immediately pivot to voting on a Senate rules change as a way to overcome the filibuster and approve the bill with a simple majority. But the rules change was also headed toward defeat, as Biden has been unable to persuade two holdout senators in his own party, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, to change the Senate procedures for this one bill.

"This is not just another routine day in the Senate, this is a moral moment," said Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.

The initial vote was 49-51, short of the 60 votes needed to advance over the filibuster. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., voted no for procedural reasons so Democrats can revisit the legislation.

The nighttime voting capped a day of piercing debate that carried echoes of an earlier era when the Senate filibuster was deployed in lengthy speeches by opponents of civil rights legislation.

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.

Vice President Kamala Harris presided, able to cast a potentially tie-breaking vote in the 50-50 Senate.

Democrats decided to press ahead despite the potential for high-stakes defeat at a tumultuous time for Biden and his party. Biden is marking his first year in office with his priorities stalling out in the face of solid Republican opposition and the Democrats' inability to unite around their own goals. But the Democrats wanted to force senators on the record — even their own party's holdouts — to show voters where they stand.

"I haven't given up," Biden said earlier at a White House news conference.

Sinema and Manchin have withstood an onslaught of criticism from Black leaders and civil rights organizations, and they risk further political fallout as other groups and even their own colleagues threaten to yank campaign support.

Schumer contended the fight is not over and he ridiculed Republican claims that the new election laws in the states will not end up hurting voter access and turnout, comparing it to Donald Trump's "big lie" about the 2020 presidential election.

The Democrats' bill, the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, would make Election Day a national holiday, ensure access to early voting and mail-in ballots — which have become especially popular during the COVID-19 pandemic — and enable the Justice Department to intervene in states with a history of voter interference, among other changes. It has passed the House.

Both Manchin and Sinema say they support the legislation but are unwilling to change Senate rules. With a 50-50 split, Democrats have a narrow Senate majority — Harris can break a tie — but they lack the 60 votes needed to overcome the GOP filibuster.

Instead, Schumer put forward a more specific rules change for a "talking filibuster" on this one bill. It would require senators to stand at their desks and exhaust the debate before holding a simple majority vote, rather than the current practice that simply allows senators to privately signal their objections.

But even that is expected to fail because Manchin and Sinema have said they are unwilling to change the rules on a party-line vote by Democrats alone.

Emotions were on display during the floor debate.

When Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asked Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky whether he would pause for a question, McConnell left the chamber, refusing to respond.

Durbin said he would have asked McConnell, "Does he really believe that there's no evidence of voter suppression?"

The No. 2 Republican, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, said at one point, "I am not a racist."

McConnell, who led his party in doing away with the filibuster's 60-vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees during Donald Trump's presidency, warned against changing the rules again.

McConnell derided the "fake hysteria" from Democrats over the states' new voting laws and called the pending bill a federal takeover of election systems. He said doing away with filibuster rules would "break the Senate."

Manchin drew a roomful of senators for his own speech, upstaging the president's news conference and defending the filibuster. He said majority rule would only "add fuel to the fire" and it was "dysfunction that is tearing this nation apart."

"For those who say bipartisanship is impossible, we have proven them wrong," Manchin said, citing the recent infrastructure bill he helped pass into law. "We can do it again. ... We can make it easier to vote."

Several members of the Congressional Black Caucus walked across the Capitol building for the proceedings. "We want this Senate to act today in a favorable way. But if it don't, we ain't giving up," said Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the highest-ranking Black member of Congress.

Manchin did open the door to a more tailored package of voting law changes, including to the Electoral Count Act, which was tested during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol. He said senators from both parties are working on that and it could draw Republican support.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said a bipartisan coalition should work on legislation to ensure voter access, particularly in far-flung areas like her state, and to shore up Americans' faith in democracy.

"We don't need, we do not need a repeat of 2020 when by all accounts our last president, having lost the election, sought to change the results," Murkowski said.

She said the Senate debate had declined to a troubling state: "You're either a racist or a hypocrite. Really, really? Is that where we are?"

Once reluctant himself to change Senate rules, Biden has stepped up his pressure on senators to do just that. But the push from the White House, including Biden's blistering speech last week in Atlanta comparing opponents to segregationists, is seen as too late.

At one point Democratic senators huddled in the cloakroom, in deep discussion with Manchin. Sinema sat in her chair throughout the debate, largely glued to her phone.

___

Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri and Brian Slodysko contributed to this report.

Glenn Youngkin's 17-year-old son tried to vote on Election Day, election officials confirmed to CNN.

The Republican defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the governor's race.

CNN reports that Youngkin's son tried to cast a ballot on two occasions, but was turned away.

"The young man presented identification but was ineligible to be registered due to his age and was not permitted to vote," Scott O. Konopasek, the Fairfax County General Registrar, told CNN in a statement.

Konopasek added that Youngkin's son was given a voter registration form and encouraged to vote when he became eligible.

The 17-year-old is not facing any charges because Konopasek said the teenager did not make false statements or disrupt voting.

Youngkin's campaign contends that Youngkin's son "misunderstood Virginia election law" and went on to school when he was informed he could not vote.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Senate Bill 1 in Texas was signed into law by Governor Abbott on Tuesday. It was authored by Texas Republican State Senator Bryan Hughes.

“Everyone needs to know their vote is gonna count and be counted accurately," Sen. Hughes said. "Our goal is to make it easy to vote, and hard to cheat.”

According to Sen. Hughes, the law expands and standardizes in-person voting, requires an online portal to correct ballot mistakes and cracks down on people accused of misleading voters.

“Many of them in minority communities, many of them with limited English proficiency who have a hard time, sometimes with the voting process, they're the ones being taken advantage of being coerced, having their votes stolen," Sen. Hughes said. "But we're going to stand up for them.”

Republicans call it the voting integrity bill. Those opposed deem it a voting restriction bill, like Sophia Lin Lakin, the deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project.

“You have more and more states emboldened to ultimately enact the voter suppression bills that are being introduced across legislatures across the country," Lakin said. "We have more than 400 anti-voter bills that have been introduced just this past cycle, and it's a full-scale assault on voting rights in response to record levels of turnout that we saw in the 2020 Presidential Election.”

Lakin says SB 1 in Texas restricts voters by taking away drive-through voting and mail-in ballots from populations that disproportionately used those methods this past election.

“States are going after Black and brown voters by targeting the kinds of ways and the tools that Black and brown voters are using in order to make their voices heard," Lakin said. "So, you see a tax on mail voting, for example, in Texas and in many other places as well.”

In order to vote by mail in Texas, Sen. Hughes says you need to be 65 or over, have a disability, or be out of the country to vote by mail.

"We like voting in person,” Sen. Hughes said.

Sen. Hughes says voting in person limits the potential for fraud. However, Alex Keyssar, Stirling Professor of History and Social Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, says there is extremely little voting fraud in the United States.

“These laws do not seem designed to really protect any compelling state interest in preventing fraud. They seem designed to make it harder for certain people to vote,“ Keyssar said. "We have significant populations that are known to vote Democratic. I mean, the African-American population votes overwhelmingly Democratic, poor people vote overwhelmingly Democratic. So if you can keep those people from voting, that's going to benefit the Republican Party.”

He says what you do see in our voting history, are rules that made it more difficult for certain populations to vote.

“You know, New York State, for example, passed an English language literacy requirement to vote in the early 1920s," Keyssar said. "And a lot of states passed laws, for example, that you had to bring your citizenship papers. They did not pass laws that say you can't vote because you're Black, because that would have been clearly unconstitutional, so they passed laws that made it difficult to vote if you were Black.”

Keyssar says the federal government tends to step in when it becomes clear that when left to their own devices, states will be discriminatory.

“My hope is that there will be a federal response here that we will see some federal action and in and as a result, we'll have many of the tools that we've had before and restored to their full robustness and that will bring a much more, much more close to closer to a democracy in which every person who is eligible to vote is able to vote without discrimination, without unnecessary obstacles, without being targeted,” Lakin said.

For Texas Republicans, the law which goes into effect next election cycle is a big success. Sen. Hughes says he wants to protect everyone’s vote.

“When more people show up, we all win,” Sen. Hughes said.

Police in Ankeny, Iowa, reported that a pipe bomb was found near a voting location on Tuesday, which forced voters to go to other nearby voting locations.

The Ankeny Police said that the pipe bomb was “rendered safe” by a technician and that no other devices were found at the Lakeside Center

Polk County Auditor Jamie Fitzgerald said that there is no way of knowing how long the device had been at the voting center, and it may not have been related to the election. The device was found by a “couple of alert people walking their dog” that told Fitzgerald’s staff about the device.

“Our office was in constant contact today with the Iowa Secretary of State staff during the evacuation,” Fitzgerald wrote. “Polk County Election Office staff were on the scene ensuring voters that were coming to the Lakeside Center to vote were given other voting locations that they could attend.”

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate said on Wednesday that “there is no indication of an ongoing threat to Iowa polling places.”

The only item on the ballot in Ankeny was for an initiative on directing the use of school funds from the State of Iowa. A total of 1,470 ballots were cast in Tuesday’s special election at 14 precincts. It’s unclear how many voters were affected by relocating the ballot box.

The partisan showdown over redistricting has hardly begun, but already both sides agree on one thing: It largely comes down to the South.

The states from North Carolina to Texas are set to be premier battlegrounds for the once-a-decade fight over redrawing political boundaries. That's thanks to a population boom, mostly one-party rule and a new legal landscape that removes federal oversight and delays civil rights challenges.

It's a collision of factors likely to tilt the scales in the GOP’s favor with dramatic impact: Experts note the new maps in the South alone could knock Democrats out of power in the U.S. House next year — and perhaps well beyond.

“The South is really going to stand out,” said Ryan Weichelt, a geography professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire who tracks redistricting.

Of the 10 new congressional seats expected this year, six are likely to be in Southern states, with one new one expected in North Carolina, two in Florida and three in Texas.

Republicans control the legislatures in those states, leaving them with near total say over what those new districts will look like — a sharp contrast to other parts of the country where state governments are either divided or where nonpartisan commissions are tasked with redrawing congressional and state legislative lines.

Finally, this will be the first time in more than 50 years the Justice Department will not automatically review new legislative maps in nine mostly Southern states to ensure they do not discriminate.

"It is a very different landscape from the one that it’s been for 50-plus years,” said Deuel Ross, senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Republicans are under added pressure to bolster their political standing in the region as its population has grown, largely due to an influx of Democratic-leaning newcomers. That’s weakened the GOP’s grip, highlighted most dramatically in Georgia, where Democrats just won a presidential race and two Senate races.

Related video: Georgia Senate votes to curb absentee ballots

The party is already eyeing targets. In Georgia, they can choose whether to target Democratic Reps. Lucy McBath or Carolyn Boudreaux or both by adding more conservative voters from far north of Atlanta to the two lawmakers' districts.

In Florida, they could try to swamp Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy's district with new GOP voters as they carve out a new seat in the Orlando area, one of the two the state is expected to add.

And in Texas, which is expected to gain a whopping three congressional seats, the most of any state, the GOP may try to carve out more seats in the center of their state's boom — Democratic-leaning Houston — that could still elect Republicans.

Currently, a gain of five seats would hand control of the House to the GOP. That number may rise or fall before November 2020 depending on the outcome of special elections for several vacant seats.

To be sure, there will be limits — both legal and practical — on how much power Republicans can win with a new map. While they control the process, the demographic trends in Southern states are working against them. Many of the new residents are college-educated, racially diverse and young — all groups Republicans have struggled to win over.

That means the party can only draw so many “safe” districts. And, because these states are seeing explosive growth, efforts to perfectly divvy up major cities like Houston and Atlanta may collapse over time as tens of thousands of new residents continue to move in.

“You’ve got all these countervailing things," said Steve Schale, a Florida-based Democratic strategist. "Democrats doing better in suburban areas, states getting more diverse, coupled with Republicans being in control of all the levers of government.”

Control in the South has a history of leading to rigging the democratic process — from voting rules to district maps — to disempower Black voters. In Georgia, the state's GOP-controlled legislature is responding to Democrats' recent surge and former President Donald Trump's false claim of voter fraud with a raft of proposals that would make it harder to vote — including one to end Sunday early voting, popular among Black churchgoers.

Such restrictions wouldn't have been possible eight years ago, when the Justice Department was required to approve any changes ahead of time in states with a history of voting rights violations. But, in 2013, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court struck down federal requirements that Georgia and eight other states “preclear” voting and redistricting changes. It ruled the federal formula based on the states' previous violations was outdated.

Several states — including Texas and North and South Carolina — quickly responded with new voter identification laws. Some civil rights advocates fear the party will take advantage of the lack of oversight in redistricting as well.

“If they’re using what was obviously a lie about voter fraud in 2020 to pass new restrictions on voting in Georgia and Texas, then I think the same will apply when the Census data comes out” to kick off the redistricting process, Ross said.

Redistricting on the basis of race remains illegal under the Voting Rights Act. But proving a violation can take years in court, allowing multiple elections to go forward with maps that may later be found illegal. For example, in North Carolina — the Republican legislature alone has redistricting power, without input from the state's Democratic governor — the legislature drew maps in 2010 that were eventually found to be racially gerrymandered. But those maps remained in place for two House elections before being redrawn to cost the GOP two seats.

“It means a state can engage in midnight gerrymandering and essentially evade court review, run elections with those gerrymandered maps and get away with it until the next election," said Kathay Feng, Common Cause's redistricting director.

Jason Torchinsky, general counsel of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, said there's significant limits on what Republican legislatures could accomplish even if they went down the road of racial gerrymandering — which, he noted, could still result in damaging lawsuits and injunctions against maps from federal judges.

“This notion that, somehow, the lack of preclearance is going to leave minorities unprotected is false,” Torchinsky said.

Some Republicans note the party should be careful not to let its power over the rules and the boundaries replace persuasion. It must still try to win over new arrivals in the South with ideas.

“We need to remind these new residents that they're moving to these states, ideally, based on policies Republicans have put in place,” said Hooff Cooksey, a Virginia-based GOP strategist.

Virginia looms as a warning to the GOP — a once solidly Republican state that became a solidly Democratic one as the growing, educated population in the Washington, D.C., suburbs turned against the party. A federal court redrew the state's maps in 2016 because it found the legislature — split between both parties — and a Republican governor had improperly used racial criteria in redistricting.

Democrats won the statehouse in 2019 and Virginia now uses a nonpartisan commission to draw its legislative maps.

WASHINGTON —

As congressional Democrats gear up for another bruising legislative push to expand voting rights, much of their attention has quietly focused on a small yet crucial voting bloc with the power to scuttle their plans: the nine Supreme Court justices.

Democrats face dim prospects for passing voting legislation through a narrowly divided Congress, where an issue that once drew compromise has become an increasingly partisan flashpoint. But as they look to reinstate key parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a landmark civil rights-era law diminished over the past decade by Supreme Court rulings, they have accepted the reality that any bill they pass probably will wind up in litigation — and ultimately back before the high court.

The task of building a more durable Voting Rights Act got harder when the high court's conservative majority on July 1 issued its second major ruling in eight years narrowing the law's once robust power.

“What it feels like is a shifting of the goal posts,” said Damon Hewitt, the president and executive director of the left-leaning Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Sparring in Congress for months has focused on a different Democratic bill overhauling elections, known as the For the People Act, which Republican senators blocked from debate on the chamber's floor last month.

Separately, however, Democrats have held a marathon series of low-key “field hearings” to prepare for votes on a second measure, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which could come to the House floor for a vote in September. The bill would allow courts and the Department of Justice to once again police changes to voting rules in places with a history of electoral discrimination against minorities, a practice the Supreme Court put on hold in 2013.

Democrats hope the hearings they have conducted with little fanfare will help build a legislative record that could withstand a court challenge. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Friday that the process will document what he called "the disgraceful tactics that Republican-led state legislatures are using across the country to keep people from voting.”

That's criticism that Republicans reject, arguing that the courts and Democratic administrations have selectively enforced the law in the past.

“It’s not a coincidence that a decade of court cases were only focused on Republican states,” said Rep. Rodney Davis, an Illinois Republican who sits on a committee that conducted the field hearings.

Pressure has built for months on congressional Democrats to counteract a concerted state-level Republican push to enact new voting restrictions, inspired by President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen 2020 election. But there is a new sense of urgency among many in the party’s activist base following the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, which upheld two restrictive Arizona laws and will limit the ability to challenge voting restrictions in court.

“We cannot wait until October or November," said Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus.

While the specifics of the legislation have not yet been released, it would develop a new formula for determining which states and local governments would be subject to a review process known as “preclearance.” The court blocked the practice in 2013, reasoning that the formula used to determine which places are subjected to it was outdated and unfairly punitive. But the court also ruled that Congress could develop a new formula.

Though laws and rules already in place wouldn't be subject to a retooled Voting Rights Act, future ones would.

“We want to get our work done, but it has to be data-focused and defensible within the courts,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar, a California Democrat who serves on a committee that has held many of the hearings.

Yet serious questions remain about whether the Supreme Court, which has a new and expanded conservative majority, would still be receptive to a new preclearance formula.

There's also been a major shift in the Republican Party.

The Voting Rights Act enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress for decades. It was reauthorized five times with commanding majorities, the most recent in 2006. But the bipartisan support eroded dramatically after the court's first ruling, in 2013, in the case of Shelby County, Alabama, v. Holder.

“If you look at the sea change in the politics, it all stems from Shelby and the political opportunity that it offers,” Hewitt said.

Republicans say vast strides have been made in ballot access since the civil rights era, which is when the law's preclearance formula was first established. The initial law targeted states and localities with low minority turnout and a history of using hurdles such as literacy tests and poll taxes to disenfranchise minority voters.

Such barriers are no longer used, and Republicans point to a swell of minority turnout in the last election as proof that many conservative-leaning states, particularly in the South, should not be subjected to preclearance.

They also point blame at Democrats, who in 2019 rejected a bipartisan bill to reestablish preclearance. Many Democrats instead favored their own measure, which would have eschewed the use of minority voter turnout data, a pillar of the original Voting Rights Act, while leaning heavily on looser standards, such as using the number of legal settlements and consent decrees issued in voting rights cases, to pull places into preclearance.

That would, Republicans argue, play into the hands of Democrats, who have built a sophisticated and well-funded legal effort to challenge voting rules in conservative-leaning states.

“It shunned objective data,” said Jason Snead, executive director of the conservative Honest Elections Project. “They want to target Georgia and Texas and Florida. But when you actually look at turnout data, it's Massachusetts that has half the Black turnout rate that Georgia does. That's why you get these games being played.”

Regardless, Democrats have a difficult climb to enacting their new bill under current Senate filibuster rules, which require 60 votes to advance legislation in a chamber that is split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has made clear his opposition. He said last month that Democrats were aiming to achieve through the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act what they couldn't through their other elections bill, the For the People Act.

“It’s against the law to discriminate in voting on the basis of race already,” he said. “It is unnecessary.”

Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 election marked the highest voter turnout in U.S. history. More than 158 million ballots were cast, representing an estimated 66% of eligible voters, according to Pew Research Center.

And even with the logistical challenges presented by expanding mail-in voting, the Department of Justice in December said it found no evidence of widespread fraud, and then-President Donald Trump’s cybersecurity director called the 2020 election the “most secure in American history.”

While expanded voting access did not compromise the security of the 2020 election, Republican-run statehouses are creating more impediments for voters in upcoming elections, possibly reacting to unfounded claims of fraud.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice — a nonpartisan law and policy institute — state lawmakers have introduced 253 bills that would restrict voting access in 43 states, as of last month.

The bills, backed largely by Republicans, would take actions ranging from purging names from voter registration rolls to restricting absentee balloting — generally making it more difficult for Americans to cast a ballot.

Of those 253 bills, 50 of them (about 20%) come from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania — all of which went for Biden in 2020 after going for Trump In 2016.

But as the New York Times reports, Republicans’ push to institute stricter voting laws goes across the board and is likely fueled by Trump’s refusal to concede the election. Even in states like Iowa, where expanded access ran smoothly and still resulted in Republican wins, the GOP is curtailing voting rights.

Last month, Republicans voted along party lines to tighten absentee voting and impose other restrictions. In passing the vote State Sen. Jim Carlin, a Republican echoed lies from President Donald Trump about a “stolen” election.

“Most of us in my caucus and the Republican caucus believe the election was stolen,” Carlin said, according to the New York Times.

Trump, still widely popular among Republicans, began a campaign against expanded voting access in the months leading up to the 2020 election. Despite evidence that points to mail-in voting being a secure and bipartisan option to expand access, Trump claimed — often without evidence — that absentee ballots would lead to fraud.

After his loss to Biden, Trump continued to spread misinformation. He filed dozens of lawsuits challenging the results of the 2020 election, nearly all of which were thrown out of court. None had a significant impact on any state’s elections results.

Trump’s claims came to a head on Jan. 6, when thousands of his supporters rioted at the U.S. Capitol in an effort to halt the certification of Biden’s electoral college win. They were gathered in D.C. for a "stop the steal" rally, named after a rallying cry of Trump's supporters.

Five people died as a direct result of the riots, including a Capitol police officer.

While Trump was acquitted of inciting a riot, some prominent Republicans — including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — continued to blame Trump for sparking the riot, citing his numerous false claims about the election.

Trump’s rhetoric continues to have an impact on Republicans’ faith in elections. In January, 72% of Republican respondents to a Vox poll said they question the results of the election.

Democratic lawmakers in the House have already passed a sweeping voting rights bill that would counteract the GOP efforts at state levels. However, the bill will likely face a tough road to passage in the Senate, where it would need the support of at least 10 Republicans to pass.

CNN —

Georgia state Rep. Park Cannon was arrested and removed from the Georgia Capitol on Thursday after passage of the state's sweeping elections bill restricting voting access.

After knocking on the office door during Republican Gov. Brian Kemp's signing of SB 202 — an election overhaul bill — Cannon is seen being led away by several officers with her hands cuffed behind her back.

In a video posted to social media, a Georgia Capitol police officer speaks with the Democrat outside the door to Kemp's office.

In the video, others in the Capitol with Cannon can be heard asking officers, "Why are you arresting her?"

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Attorney Gerald Griggs told CNN he is representing Cannon. Griggs said he was at the Fulton County jail working to bond Cannon out after she was booked on felony obstruction charges. CNN has reached out to the state Capitol police but has not independently confirmed the charges.

"We are getting her out of jail currently. We are gathering information on the case as well. There are multiple videos and we are in contact with the DA," Griggs told CNN.

CNN has reached out to Kemp's office for comment.

Democrats on Friday seized on new voting restrictions in Georgia to focus attention on the fight to overhaul federal election laws, setting up a slow-building standoff that carries echoes of the civil rights battles of a half-century ago.

In fiery speeches, pointed statements and tweets, party leaders decried the law signed Thursday by the state's Republican governor as specifically aimed at suppressing Black and Latino votes and a threat to democracy. President Joe Biden released an extended statement, calling the law an attack on "good conscience" that denies the right to vote for "countless" Americans.

"This is Jim Crow in the 21st Century," Biden said, referring to laws of the last century that enforced heavy-handed racial segregation in the South.

"It must end. We have a moral and Constitutional obligation to act," he said. He told reporters the Georgia law is an "atrocity" and the Justice Department is looking into it.

Georgia's Republican governor, Brian Kemp, lashed back, accusing Biden of attempting to "destroy the sanctity and security of the ballot box" by supporting what the governor sees as federal intrusion into state responsibilities.

Behind the chorus of outrage, Democrats are also wrestling with the limits on their power in Washington, as long as Senate filibuster rules allow Republicans to block major legislation, including H.R. 1, a sweeping elections bill now pending in the Senate.

Biden and his party are seeking to build and sustain momentum in the realm of public opinion — hoping to nationalize what has so far been a Republican-led state-by-state movement to curb access to the ballot — while they begin a slow, plodding legislative process. Allies meanwhile plan to fight the Georgia law, and others, in court.

"What's happening in Georgia right now, underscores the importance and the urgency," said Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., in an interview Friday.

"This is about what is fundamental to our identity as an American people — one person, one vote."

The emerging brawl over the politics and policy of voting access is swelling like nothing seen in recent years, harkening back to what many Americans may assume are well-settled rules ensuring equal access to the ballot.

But as Republican-controlled state legislatures from Georgia to Iowa to Arizona are taking dramatic action to limit early voting and force new voter ID requirements, the debate in Washington threatens to exacerbate the nation's cavernous political divides in the early days of the Biden presidency, just as the Democratic president vows to unite the country.

It is expected to be a months-long slog in the narrowly divided Congress, specifically the Senate, where Democrats are, for now, unwilling to muscle their slim majority to change filibuster rules, despite the party's urgent calls for action.

Instead, the Democrats are prepared to legislate the old-fashioned way, unspooling arguments in lengthy Senate debates, spilling out of the committee hearing rooms and onto the Senate floor, and forcing opponents to go on the record as standing in the way — much as South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond was positioned when he filibustered the Civil Rights Act of the last century.

"They're literally squeezing the arteries of the lifeblood of America," Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., the son of civil rights activists, said in an interview. "They are choking what makes us distinct and unique on the planet Earth."

Booker would not, however, openly call for the end of the filibuster, a parliamentary tool requiring at least 60 votes to advance Senate legislation in some cases.

On Friday, the president revived his call on Congress to enact H.R. 1, an elections overhaul that would confront the Republican restrictions. He called as well for the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore some aspects of a landmark law struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013.

But Biden, like a shrinking number of other powerful Democrats, remains unwilling to embrace the so-called "nuclear option" — ending the filibuster — for fear it would further divide the country.

Meantime, the political fight was intensifying in Georgia, where years of voter registration drives in Black communities and steady population changes helped Biden win the once solidly red state.

Just as Kemp and several white state lawmakers celebrated the signing of the state's new voting law on Thursday, state police officers handcuffed and forcibly removed state Rep. Park Cannon, a Black woman, after she knocked on the door of the governor's private office.

Cannon was charged with obstruction of law enforcement and disruption of the General Assembly, both felonies. She was released from jail late Thursday. Donald Trump, the former president who promoted false claims of election fraud, congratulated the Georgia governor and state leaders on the new law.

As Congress hunkers down for the fight, a groundswell of outside efforts is spending millions to try to influence the debate and apply political pressure on voters, corporations and lawmakers in both parties.

A $30 million advertising campaign is coming from the liberal group End Citizens United, working with former Attorney General Eric Holder's anti-gerrymandering group, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, trying to persuade Democratic and Republican senators considered to be swing votes.

Other efforts are also underway, including from former first lady Michelle Obama, via the nonpartisan celebrity "When We All Vote" organization.

Civil rights leader Al Sharpton said Friday that he's working with religious leaders in West Virginia and Arizona to press the home-state Democratic senators. He's well aware that this fight may go on for a while.

"I'm prepared to go on this fight for however long it takes," he said. "Look at how long it took us to get the right to vote."

Sharpton also suggested that Black voters have been energized by the debate, which could lead to a surge in participation in next year's midterm elections despite the new voting requirements enacted by Republicans.

"By them being so blatant, I think that they play into our national strategy," Sharpton said. "We just need the Democrats in the Senate to stand up."

The Georgia law requires a photo ID in order to vote absentee by mail, cuts the time people have to request an absentee ballot and limits where ballot drop boxes can be placed and when they can be accessed. The bill was a watered-down version of some of the proposals considered by the GOP-led General Assembly.

H.R. 1 is vast, and its Senate counterpart would confront the new Georgia law by expanding voting by mail and early voting, both popular during the pandemic. It would more broadly open ballot access by creating automatic voter registration nationwide, allowing former felons to vote and limiting the way states can remove registered voters from the rolls. It also addresses campaign financing and ethics laws.

Still, Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison warned his party would take Republicans to court "and fight about it there." A lawsuit filed late Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Atlanta by three groups — New Georgia Project, Black Voters Matter Fund and Rise — challenged key provisions of the new Georgia law and said they violated the Voting Rights Act.

But Harrison also acknowledged that the filibuster was an "an obstacle" for the national Democrats' efforts to overturn the Republican-backed changes.

"I am delivering the message to everybody, particularly on my side of the aisle, that folks right now are very, very upset about where things are going," Harrison told The AP.

The chairman continued, "I'm going to do everything in my power, with every breath in my body, with every drop of blood that flows through my veins, to make sure that we fight back from this."

"We're not going back to Jim Crow 2.0," he said. "So we've got to do whatever we need to do to make sure that doesn't happen."

___

Peoples reported from New York. Mascaro reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Bill Barrow, Josh Boak and Aamer Madhani contributed.

Video above: President Biden blasts new Georgia voting law

The ranks of big corporations now criticizing GOP efforts to restrict voting access spread Thursday to Texas as measures that would reduce options to cast ballots and limit polling hours advanced in the state Capitol.

American Airlines, which is based in Fort Worth, came out against restrictive voting measures that have a favorable path to reaching Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's desk in the coming weeks.

Public opposition from the airline came after a package of sweeping elections changes cleared the GOP-controlled Senate and, notably, a day after some of Georgia’s most prominent corporate leaders came out publicly against a new election law after civil rights activists criticized their silence.

“To make American’s stance clear: We are strongly opposed to this bill and others like it,” the airline said in a statement.

Unlike in Georgia, the corporate criticism in Texas to the election bills comes before they have been signed into law. Corporate interests carry big clout in the Texas Capitol, but Abbott and other Republicans have given no indication of wavering in their pursuit of passing the measures before the session ends in May.

The passage of Senate Bill 7 was along party lines in a vote after midnight early Thursday.

American Airlines' reaction to the bill advancing was slammed by Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the powerful Senate leader. “Texans are fed up with corporations that don’t share our values trying to dictate public policy,” Patrick said in a statement.

House Republicans on Thursday also began efforts to move a similar bill, known as House Bill 6, to the floor with nearly 200 people signed up to testify at a hearing.

Billionaire Michael Dell, whose tech company is headquartered in suburban Austin, tweeted his opposition to the bill as that hearing unfolded.

Critics of the Texas legislation say the efforts particularly target expanded access put into place during last year's election in Harris County, which is home to more than 2 million voters, controlled by Democrats and a key Texas battleground that includes Houston.

One measure would eliminate drive-thru voting, which more than 127,000 people around Houston used during early voting last year. More than half of those voters were Black, Latino or Asian, said Democratic state Sen. Carol Alvarado.

“Hearing all of that, who are you really targeting when you're trying to get rid of drive-thru voting?" she said.

Republicans rejected accusations that the bill was designed to suppress turnout.

“None of what we've discussed is voter suppression. And none of what we've discussed is Jim Crow,” Republican state Sen. Paul Bettencourt said.

The voting packages in Texas mirror a nationwide campaign by Republicans after former President Donald Trump made false claims about election fraud.

Voting rights groups say the measures would disproportionately impact racial and ethnic minority voters. In Texas, which already has some of the strictest voting laws in the U.S., the proposed legislation grants more power to partisan poll watchers and eliminates the option to cast a ballot via drive-thru. The bill also includes a provision requiring a doctor’s note for people with disabilities who want to vote by mail, although Republicans signaled during the debate that language could change.

Trump won Texas but by fewer than 6 points. It was the closest victory by any GOP presidential nominee in Texas since 1996, underscoring Republicans' loosening iron grip on the state.

After the Georgia bill was signed into law, some of the state's companies were roundly criticized, including by more than 70 Black corporate leaders who took out an advertisement in The New York Times urging corporate America to stand up forcefully on matters of racial justice.

After days of criticism and the boycott threat on social media, Delta CEO Ed Bastian took a stronger tone, calling the Georgia law unacceptable. “The entire rationale for this bill was based on a lie: that there was widespread voter fraud in Georgia in the 2020 elections. This is simply not true,” Bastian wrote, referring to Trump’s claims that he lost because of fraud.

WASHINGTON —

Bracing for political trouble, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned Democratic colleagues that June will "test our resolve" as senators return Monday to consider infrastructure, voting rights and other stalled-out priorities at a crucial moment in Congress.

Six months into the party's hold on Washington, with Joe Biden in the White House and Democrats controlling the House and Senate, there is a gloomy uncertainty over their ability to make gains on campaign promises.

As Democrats strain to deliver on Biden's agenda, the limits of bipartisanship in the 50-50 Senate are increasingly clear: Talks over an infrastructure package are teetering, though Biden is set to confer again Monday with the lead GOP negotiator, and an ambitious elections overhaul bill is essentially dead now that Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced his opposition Sunday.

"We need to move the ball," said Yvette Simpson, CEO of Democracy for America, a liberal advocacy organization.

"We told everyone to come out against all odds in the pandemic and vote," she said about the 2020 election. The promise was that with Democrats in power, "we're going to have all these great things happen, their lives are going to be better. And what they're finding is that it looks like Washington as usual."

The summer work period is traditionally among the busiest for Congress, but Democrats are growing wary because time is running out for Biden to negotiate a sweeping infrastructure package and other priorities are piling up undone. The days ahead are often seen as a last chance at legislating before the August recess and the start of campaigns for next year's elections.

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Schumer, in setting the agenda, is challenging senators to prepare to make tough choices. But he is also facing a test of his own ability to lead the big-tent party through a volatile period of shifting priorities and tactics in the aftermath of the Trump era and the Capitol insurrection.

While Democratic senators have been generating goodwill by considering bipartisan bills in the evenly split Senate, they face mounting pressure from voters who put them in office to fight harder for legislation that Republicans are determined to block with the filibuster. Democrats in the evenly split Senate hold the majority because Vice President Kamala Harris can be the tie breaker,

Key among that legislation is S.1, the elections and voting overhaul bill, which now appears headed for defeat. But Schumer also said votes may be coming on gun control legislation and the Equality Act, a House-passed bill to ensure civil rights for the LGBTQ community.

Fed up by the delays, some senators are ready to change the rules to eliminate the filibuster, which they blame for the inaction. The long-running Senate filibuster rules require 60 votes to advance most legislation, meaning as many as 10 Republicans would need to cross party lines to help Democrats achieve their priorities. Some senators propose reducing the voting threshold to 51.

But Manchin, in announcing his opposition to the voting rights bill Sunday as the "wrong piece of legislation to bring our country together," also restated his refusal to end the filibuster — for now, denying his party a crucial vote needed to make the rules change that could help advance its agenda.

Without support from Manchin or others, including Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., who also wants to keep the filibuster, Schumer is all but warning that Democratic senators will be forced to confront the limits of their fragile majority. That could exacerbate party divisions and expose Democrats to criticism from Republicans eager to show that Biden's party cannot govern.

"The June work period will be extremely challenging," Schumer warned. "I want to be clear that the next few weeks will be hard and will test our resolve as a Congress and a conference."

Schumer has been laying the groundwork for this moment since he became majority leader in January, trying to build the case that bipartisanship can work in some cases — with passage of an Asian hate crimes bill or a water public work package — but also has its limits, according to two Democratic aides granted anonymity to discuss the private strategy.

Their weekly closed-door policy caucus lunches have been intense, particularly during the two special sessions they have held to privately debate the path forward on the voting rights bill, one of the aides said.

Senators rise from their seats one by one to ask pointed questions or state their views on the elections overhaul, which many Democrats view as crucial to protecting democracy, especially as states led by Republicans impose restrictive new voting laws.

Manchin's opposition delivers a serious blow to the election bill, which has taken on urgency for Democrats as former President Donald Trump encourages the changes in the states, not dissimilar from the way he egged on his supporters to "fight like hell" for his presidency before they stormed the Capitol on the Jan. 6.

Rather than force reluctant senators to fall in line, Schumer is trying to lead Democrats to their own conclusion — either bipartisan deals with Republicans are possible or they have no other choice but to undertake a go-it-alone strategy on infrastructure or other priorities, the aides said.

One aide suggested Schumer is no arm-twisting leader in the style of Lyndon Johnson, who before he became president was famous for his hardball cajoling as majority leader.

In the letter to colleagues released the day Republicans deployed the filibuster to block the creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the insurrection, Schumer took stock of the gains so far. But he said: "We have also seen the limits of bipartisanship."