© AP/Gerri HernándezSenator Raphael Warnock • Stacey Abrams
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin this week proposed several additions to the controversial For the People Act, a bill that, if passed, would allow Congress to exert significant control over most U.S. elections. Among the measures Manchin has suggested are voter ID rules, which would require identification at the polls but would allow voters to use a variety of documents to prove their identity.
Prominent Democratic activist Stacey Abrams this week came out in support of the measures, a sharp reversal from earlier hardline opposition to voting ID laws. Abrams suggested that widespread Democratic opposition to voting ID laws has been "one of the fallacies of Republican talking points that have been deeply disturbing. No one has ever objected to having to prove who you are to vote. It's been part of our nation's history since the inception of voting."
In April of this year, Abrams claimed she was opposed to Georgia's recently passed election reform bill due in part to the fact that it "requires that a voter has a photo identification or some other form of identification that they are willing to surrender in order to participate in an absentee ballot process."
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, meanwhile, has also voiced support for Machin's proposal, falsely claiming that he has "never been opposed to voter ID" and that he "[doesn't] know anybody who is."
Comment: See also:
Georgia Senator Warnock under investigation for voter registration misconduct