Sen. Tim Kaine:
Well, Judy, as you point out, this was a vote to debate the bill, not to pass it, to debate it. And we made a very unusual offer to Republicans in the Senate, which is, if you vote to let us debate this bill, we will give you unlimited amendments. You can offer as many amendments as you want, and then you can still vote against it at the end if you didn’t like it.
But every Republican lined up to basically block debate on the bill; 50 Democrats support this bill. I worked very, very hard with seven colleagues to put it together. It would protect people’s access to the ballot. It would eliminate dark money by requiring campaign contributions to be fully disclosed. It would end partisan gerrymandering on congressional seats.
And it would also protect election officials, so that their duties couldn’t be stripped away from them by — like state legislatures or others if they don’t like how they’re going to call an election.
This is really important, and it doesn’t end here. Democrats are just absolutely, with a sense of urgency, riveted upon the need to get this done. And so we’re now going to have to assess how we can, in this Senate, restore the Senate to a place that will protect voting rights, which has been the case in the past and needs to be the case now.